More: Life on the Edge of Adventure and Motherhood

​By Majka Burhardt
Published by Pegasus Books

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I read a lot of climbing literature but I’ll telling you, I’ve never read one like this.
 
Majka Burhardt is a professional climber and mountain guide. She has written much in her climbing career and has advocated for climbers. Majka and her husband, Peter, are globe-trotting, adventure nutters. In her memoir she learns that she’s pregnant -- with twins. That life she knew -- they knew -- well, it just changed. 
 
This book is Majka’s journal through this transition with all of its roller coaster in real time events and mind numbing realisations. 
 
As a pro climber (used to being photographed, writing for esteemed journals, and doing some hella good climbing), Majka finds herself working out how to breast feed while at conferences and feeling her heart staked while watching her husband go on expeditions and trips with pals while she’s holding the babies. 

It’s an honest read and Majka has not held back in her diary entries throughout this time. One of them captured a key theme through this journey:​

I wanted to be a powerful pregnant athlete goddess. Instead, I stopped doing push-ups, decided ice climbing felt too uncomfortable with this belly not to mention that its doubly swollen state made it an exaggerated target for dislodged chunks of ice and am trying really hard not to be mad at your dad because he has more freedom than me. It's all so typical. I feel typical. I hate feeling typical.”

Burhardt on Cathedral Ledge's Black Crack during a four hour climbing romp while the twins were toddlers. In this picture, she unknowingly has a broken ankle, having fractured off a rare bone in the back of her heel after twisting her ankle in hard crusted snow en route to climb one month prior. (Photo Credit: Brent Doscher, IG: @BrentDoscher)

Majka juggles family mayhem pre climbing with 1.5 year old twins (Photo Credit: Bernd Zeugswetter, IG: @BerndZeugswetter )

The diary gives a raw look at an athlete and new mother and the difficulties it brings trying to stay connected to both of these banks. It delves deep into the stretching-thin that occurs when juggling a passion (climbing), a career (her non-profit and climbing), a marriage, and twins. It takes the reader through the ping-pong of the joy and love of being a parent one moment, and barely holding on the next. Majka also explores her own parent's past - if, whether, how their divorce and her mother's violent rape, impacts her own reactions to marriage and children.

Can she do it? Does the bridge collapse? You’ll have to read it. 

Books are made to stimulate and educate the mind. Personal journals are some of the most heartfelt and raw reading you can find. It’s like watching a documentary but with little editing and no fluffy music in the background. I felt a little uncomfortable that Majka let me into this challenging and intimate time of her and her family’s-life. On reflection, I’m glad she did. 

​Women have sacrificed careers and self, rearing families since time began. In today’s Western population, with women now in positions of authority and prestige, it's a hard act to follow when you are juggling so many balls. 
 
The read also gave this guy much to think about when reporting on female climbers. The biggest learning, as a man, is to stop and listen to the woman. To understand that she is badass not because of the climbing alone, but because she still gets out and kicks ass as a mother, a wife, a career woman, a climber, and as a person. 

This edition of Common Climber is focusing on the theme of "strength," and including this book in this issue fits. More shows us strength in ways that deserve to be recognized (beyond sending difficult and dangerous climbs): raw honestly; holding things together; breaking down; getting help; fighting for your passion; and, yes, the mental game of climbing cutting-edge routes when you now have the responsibility of children. 
 
This is a staple read for climbing-women entering into motherhood, if only to provide knowledge that you are not alone. For partners and husbands of women climbers, as well as mothers, this is a way to not get surprised by the change of pace and the new horizons presented to you and your family. 
 
Majka, thanks for your honestly and telling of your entry into motherhood and what you have found on this intersection of your climbing life. You’ve summited great peaks and I’m sure you will bring great adventures - and, of course, lots of love - to your kids. Climb on, Mom! ​

Majka Burhardt , author of the book "More: Life on the Edge of Adventure and Motherhood." (Photo Credit: Megan Bailey, IG: @meganbaileyphotography)