Majka Burhardt went climbing for the first time while attending a sleepaway camp for kids in Minnesota. Since then, she's built a career ascending ice and rock all over the world. As climbing brought her to frozen pitches and high peaks, it also led Burhardt to Legado, an international nonprofit she founded with inspiration from a mountain in Mozambique.

After deciding to add "mom" to her resume, Burhardt was still trying to figure out how to balance parenting with a career in climbing and nonprofit leadership when she found out she was pregnant with twins.

In her new book, More: Life at the Edge of Adventure and Motherhood, Burhardt shares messages she wrote and recorded for her children while she was pregnant and in the early years of their lives. Throughout the memoir, Burhardt reflects on motherhood, marriage and her own childhood—and what it means to try to do it all.

We discuss her new book, whether she thinks her kids will be climbers, and how becoming a mother changed how she evaluates risk and reward in ways you might not expect.

This episode is brought to you by The North Face.

Alpinist Magazine: Website | Instagram | Facebook

Host: Abbey Collins

Guest Majka Burhardt's new book More: Life at the Edge of Adventure and Motherhood will be released on March 7, 2023.

Producer + Engineer: Mike Horn