Being pretty active and enjoying such things as climbing and mountaineering, I was pretty stoked when I heard about the new Bradford Washburn American Mountaineering Museum in Golden. It also happens to be the only mountaineering museum in America.

The museum, I am told, was converted from a school. The outside had prayer flags lined from the roof to the concrete. Upon entering the museum, the first thing that caught my attention was the crevasse staring at me. We leaned forward to look down into it:  pretty realistic.

 The museum itself isn’t that big, but they had  interesting exhibits and will be changing them monthly. 

Hearing Everest

When I stopped to listen, the background sounds above the Everest scale model changed from the base camp noises to the rushing winds at the peak to the city sounds of Nepal.

I really liked the interactive phones where you could push a button and see and hear a short interview of various mountaineers who’ve climbed Everest.

I played a while on the “i-phone” interactive screen that showed various peaks in Colorado and interesting facts about them.

After looking at some of the artifacts and mannequins climbing the wall, Chris Case (who does a little of everything at the museum), told us about a man who had kept his dad’s things for 70 years and donated them to the museum. Another contributor will be giving 30,000 rare books to the library over a few years.

I also had the chance to learn a bit about Bradford Washburn, who was an excellent photographer. His photos and maps decorating the walls made me want to replace my Ansel Adams posters!

Famous Equipment

The most valuable artifact at the museum and one of the most famous pieces of equipment in mountaineering history is the Schoening Ice Axe, which was used by Peter Schoening in 1953 to save five of his friends while climbing K2 in the Himalayas. There was a large photo of “The Children of the Belay,” the generations that have been born since then that would not be alive if it weren’t for the ice axe.

Our tour through museum was about two hours and left me ready to join The Colorado Mountain Club and The American Alpine Club . I also wanted to decorate my house with Washburn photos!

“Where are we going to hike next?” my husband and I mulled over. We’ll definitely come back to see what’s new.

Photos Courtesy Of: Dan Ham 

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