On May 21, 2000, from the central summit of Shishapangma in Tibet, twin brothers Mike and Steve Marolt became the first Americans to climb and ski from an 8,000-meter peak.
The Aspenites were joined by their longtime adventure partner, Jim Gile, who skied lower portions of the slope and climbed up and down from the central summit. A team of mountaineers from Kazakhstan planned their own climbing bid in tandem. And a small film crew documented the multi-week effort, with some footage recorded by Mike Marolt.
It was a momentous achievement, completed without supplemental oxygen or porter support, by a small group of experienced, but still recreational, athletes: The Marolts are accountants by trade; Gile is a computer programmer. And while the endeavor was covered extensively by major news outlets, no member of the Aspen-bred crew had recounted their own journey in a comprehensive volume — until now.
“I thought, ‘nobody's ever told this story. … I'm going to write the book,’” Mike Marolt said in an interview with Aspen Public Radio.
Marolt’s recently-published “Shishapangma, Skiing the Highline” is both a detailed trip report and a reflection on trust, camaraderie and spirituality in the mountains. The trio has achieved numerous other “firsts” in the mountains since their Shishapangma summit, and the Marolts have been inducted to the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame. But Mike believes that a feeling of momentous accomplishment isn’t really the reason these adventurers have stayed active into their late 50s and early 60s.
“What keeps somebody just truly passionate about climbing and skiing has very little to do with the objective or the goal or standing on top,” Marolt said.
“It's the incremental growth that you experience, moment to moment, that allows you to be satisfied.”
Marolt describes that growth as a “natural progression” — which is also the title of his 2020 memoir. His own life was shaped by a childhood in Aspen, encouraged by his Olympic ski-racing father, and adventures took place among the Elk Mountains before branching out to Alaska, South America and Asia.
“Becoming an expert, gaining experience to be comfortable at every level, and then maybe pushing it just a little bit — that incremental difference is what has allowed Steve, Jim and I to spend the last almost 40 years (skiing and climbing) and still have the passion to want to do it today,” Marolt said.
Marolt recognizes that mountaineering is a high-risk pursuit — two established adventurers, Alex Lowe and Aspen’s David Bridges, died in an avalanche on Shishapangma in 1999, and the Marolts and Gile witnessed the death of another climber due to illness at advanced base camp — and some people questioned the group’s sanity as they prepared for their own trip. He attributes his own group’s success to good fortune and a close bond between partners, in addition to risk management strategies and training.
“We knew that we weren't crazy. … We had ambition to ski from as high as we could, and if that was the summit, great, but it was not a hell-bent attitude that determined our success,” Marolt said.
“Everything came together and we got lucky.”
