Majka Burhardt is a professional climber, speaker, and writer. I had a chance to see her lecture and speak to her when she visited UVM on February 6th.
Majka graduated college with an Anthropology degree. While working as a professional climber and mountain guide, she was given a book deal to study coffee in Ethiopia. During her research, she noticed the sandstone cliffs in the area. She assembled a team of four women to complete first ascents of the routes. A publisher asked her to write a book about her experience, hoping that it could spark climbing tourism in Ethiopia. However, upon climbing the cliffs there, she realized that the sandstone was too weak, and very dangerous, for rock climbing. She chronicled her experiences in Vertical Ethiopia: Climbing Toward Possibility in the Horn of Africa, published in 2007. In 2010, she published her second book, Coffee Story: Ethiopia. Her past projects in Africa allowed her to combine her interest in anthropology with her love of climbing.
The following video is four years old, but this TED Talk is similar to the first half of her speech at UVM.
Majka is currently working on a project called The Lost Mountain. Next month, she will be leading biologists on a climbing trip to Mt. Namuli in Mozambique to study cliffside ecology. The team will be searching for new species of animals and working towards a conservation plan for the area. Her experience in rock climbing will allow scientists to access research sites that have never been explored before. She will be using outdoor recreation to directly do conservation work.
This video is a trailer for the documentary that will come out of The Lost Mountain Project.
Majka coined the term, “additive adventure,” which she defines as “when adventure goes beyond exploration to cultural and environmental connections that create a larger conversation of singular and collective human meaning” (Majka Burhardt). During her lecture at UVM, she explained additive adventure as recreation with an element that makes us uncomfortable and pushes us to learn something. She experienced this when she went climbing in Ethiopia and spoke to the native people there. She advocates additive adventure to allow us to get something mental and spiritual out of our recreation.
Here is the transcript of our interview.
Did outdoor recreation make you more conscious about conservation?
Living– thriving and being challenged– in the outdoors, absolutely fuels consciousness about conservation. I’ve been pursuing outdoor activities with abandon since I was five. I would not have called myself a conservationist until recently, and today I use the word as a question. I think the opportunity for outdoor recreationalists is to make conservation about collaboration. For too long the preservation in conservation has stopped the conversation from being ultimately exclusive. Integrated conservation is a more interesting conversation. It will ultimately be what makes conservation accessible as a mindset and ethos for all of us.
How has working with scientists changed your ideas about the places where you climb?
I’ve been lucky to have a sharp leaning curve around science in the past five years. It’s absolutely changed my view of the places I climb– and also made me appreciate climbing for climbing’s sake. Having both in my life at this moment (ie the climbing for scientific discovery for the Lost Mountain, and climbing for climbing in my daily life) has provided great balance. The additional benefit is that they bleed together as it’s inevitable when you learn more that you take that knowledge with you as you see the world.
What steps did you take to bridge the gap between science and recreation?
I looked at the work I was doing on my projects and identified the gaps- the places where I knew there was more information that I didn’t know, and that in some cases was afraid to know. After my work in Namibia on the Brandberg (establishing a new climbing line) I knew the place I needed to pay attention to most was cliffside ecology.
Are there any other ways that science and recreation could come together? For example, do you think that kayaking guides could aid river ecologists with their work?
There possibilities for collaboration amongst science and recreation are immense. I believe it’s important to see the large opportunities as well as the small. My current project has already been a three year collaboration which will likely continue for several more, but there are also ways to integrate science into every day recreation.
When thinking about “additive adventure,” how does learning about land use history and conservation of a place come into play?
I’m intrigued by the mythology of land and mountains. It’s at the very heart of Additive Adventure. This mythology is conscious and unconscious and revolves around land use history (and land non-use, for that matter). For me it’s also been fascinating to not only look at the history of the place I am studying, like Ethiopia, for example, but to place Ethiopia in context on an adventure history scale. It’s these comparisons which often can give valuable insight, and context, to how adventure is expressed in a certain place. This is important for numerous reasons, and the challenge is to line up that expression with the adventure you’re trying to have — ie climbing– and see how they fit, where they challenge each other, where they scare you, and where they can create leaning and sharing.
Source: “Majka Burhardt Bio.” Majka Burhardt. Web. 17 Apr. 2014.
By Christine Sandbach