The Mountains Are Calling

A story of a Dutch climbing enthusiast and her alpinist adventures in the mountains of the French, Swiss and Austrian Alps.

In the early dawn hours, Marije Linders gets ready to set off into the Swiss Pennine Alps and summit Pointe de Vouasson. /Photo by Marije

“It’s just the adventure,” Marije Linders recounted as she pondered her growing love for alpine climbing and why it has brought so much light into her life. “Being out there with yourself, off path, doing something other people can’t do,” as Linders said, are unique feelings that arise when thousands of meters up a mountain, somewhere in the Alps.

Having grown up in Gouda, Netherlands, Linders, 24, first discovered her love for climbing through indoor bouldering, and slowly over the years made her progression to alpine climbing. With time, training and experience, Linders began rock climbing outside more, learning how to sport climb and becoming president of her university’s climbing and alpine club.

Though it was when Linders snagged the last spot on a guided alpine course with some friends, getting her first taste of the breathtaking Swiss Pennine Alps, that her world changed. With alpine climbing, Linders was able to test her physical and mental endurance on glaciers and steep ridges, and disconnect from life below while deeply connecting with the expansive landscape and nature all around. From that moment on, Linders was hooked.

What is Alpine Climbing?

In essence, alpine climbing is a multi-disciplinary sport, occurring on mountains above treeline, as Climbing Magazine put it. With a mix of terrain, climbers are required to have a diverse skill set.

This ranges from:

• Rock and ice climbing
• Hiking long distances
• Walking on glaciers

In addition, one must have a solid knowledge of:

• Rope safety
• Navigation
• The ability to assess whether to turn around if a situation is too dangerous

As Climbing Magazine said, “Alpine climbing will bring you wild adventure, access to pristine landscapes, and routes so long and so beautiful that they’ll make you cry. The trick to enjoying it all safely, though, is easing into it the right way.”

Over the course of three years, Linders completed two alpine courses and spent a summer in between getting experience in the Alps. Learning how to navigate and walk over glaciers, combine it with rock climbing and multi-pitching and even save someone if they were to fall in a crevasse, Linders gained basic knowledge required to safely and efficiently alpine climb.

Soon, she was working her way up more difficult mountains like Le Moine and La Nonne in Chamonix, and traveling to climb routes in Austria and the French Alps. With each summit, Linders has broken barriers she once never deemed possible for herself, and her passion for the mountains has only grown bigger and bigger.

Her First Big Expedition

Situated in the Swiss Pennine Alps, Linders got a taste of a larger alpine expedition the summer in between her first and second course. Having hiked to the base of Pointe de Vouasson and bivouacked for the night, the next morning Linders and a group of seven other ambitious and trained climbers got an alpine start, waking up hours before dawn to begin their ascent to the summit.

As Linders reflects on her first bivouac experience, the vast open space and towering mountains surrounding her tent was an unbeatable feeling. “I remember going pee in the night and it was so beautiful just because of all the stars and the view,” she said.

However, the nighttime chill left Linders and her two other friends shivering, huddled together in their two-person tent. “It was cold but it was better because we were with three,” Linders said. “We just laid against each other to keep ourselves warm.”

The next morning consisted of scrambling up rocks, crawling in soft snow and zig-zagging up the glacier, as Linders and her team made it to the summit. Taking in the expansive view and reveling in their hard work, they ended the day with a pint of beer at a hut, which are typically situated half-way up mountains in the Alps.

Adding Meaning To Life

With the endless possibilities and countless aspects of climbing, the versatile sport brings meaning to our lives in an array of ways. Everyone gets something different out of climbing, whether it’s the rush you get from bouldering hard projects or the sense of community when you look down and see a group of friends spotting you from below.

Maybe it’s climbing 30+ pitches on Yosemite’s El Capitan, engrossed in the beautiful scenery all around, and the sense of exhilaration from being so high up, or the meditative nature of footwork, where the mind dials into the moves and the body gets into the flow. Or maybe it’s just the hard work and discipline required to train and get strong.

For Linders, climbing has added much meaning into her life in an endless amount of ways. Having left friends and family in her home in the Netherlands to come to Cal Poly and finish her master thesis, it was through San Luis Obispo’s climbing community that Linders met new people. And in between her studies, it was her love for climbing that brought her to new places around California, like Bishop or Joshua Tree National Park.

However, upon reflection, Linders’ true passion has always been the mountains. And through alpine climbing, she has unlocked the key to accessing more remote and faraway areas, which are impossible to reach with traditional rock climbing.

Linders and climbing partner Marten climb Arete Des Cosmiques in Mont Blanc, France. /Photo By Marije Linders

With alpine climbing comes idyllic– but cold– nights bivouacking at basecamp in the middle of the mountains, with nothing but empty, expansive surroundings and a sky littered with stars. It brings about a sense of community, with a group of good climbing buddies working as a team to push for the summit. And above all else, alpine climbing allows one to disconnect from the hectic, busy world, and tune into the wonders of the natural world.

Alpine climbing is long, hard and physically demanding. But for Linders, it’s all worth it.

Interviewing Marije Linders, we unpack her alpine climbing adventures in the Alps and explore how climbing has brought meaning into her life.