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Tavish Hansen

@tavrsh

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Maybe life is like the wide open west! 🤠
Teaching on rocks & mountains with
@ncmountainguides & @basecamp_ouray

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Its blue-bear-y season! I counted SIXTEEN very happy blueberry stuffed blackbears on a little visit to Lexi at her office 🧸 taken in North Cascades National Park by @tavrsh

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a month ago

This summer has gotten me infatuated with playing in rivers, and lots of shenanagins at the Clearwater Kayak Festival over the last weekend with @jonloke really solidified it. Four days of fun times paddling, swimming, jumping, falling, and bouncing through lots of fast flowing waters with a whole bunch of stoked river rats. Pictured here are some rad descents of several badass kayakers, and Jon's commentary of my happily unbadass packraft flops, swims, and clobberings. Unfortunately for me I don't care enough about looking cool and so I will probably always be "that one guy" duckying around in the packraft 🦆🫳
#firstpackraftdescent taken in Clearwater, British Columbia by @tavrsh

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2 months ago

Let’s rock! It’s climbing season in the Cascades. 🤘🏼

Guide Tavish @tavrsh and guest Jean knocked out the SW Rib of SEWS this week on a beautiful day at the pass.

Our July is booking out fast, but we still have availability.

Give us a shout! ⬇️
info@ncmountainguides.com | www.ncmountainguides.com by @tavrsh

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4 months ago

This was an incredible sequence of moves on wild little crystal pockets at the center of an old unsent Jon Nelson project at Index that I stumbled upon and snagged the FA of. 'Spirals' - a major variation to the classic I Am In Top a Shader. Thanks @thekaravan for the great photos and video and Hayden for the help getting it scrubbed up and bolted in a quick afternoon! The crux boulder problem below this section might be pretty hard but also feels difficult to grade, so for now I'm calling it good old Index 5.11b and we'll see what people think ;) taken in Index, Washington by @tavrsh

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5 months ago

I was just reminded of these beautiful film photos by the talented @cierracoppock from a gorgeous fall day with an all time Creeksgiving crew several years ago. The memories of sharing such a beautiful, intricate dance with a psyched and supportive group of friends make me so happy.
The route is @mattsegal 's 'Like a Prayer' (5.13- R) at Battle of the Bulge, an overlooked classic of the heady and technical style of hard Creek routes that I love the process of finding the perfect balance of engagement and flow on. by @tavrsh

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5 months ago

Instagram is finally letting me post 20 pictures at once, so here's a big old roundup of the last year with an extra long write up for all 20 pics:

Another year, another long post that feels similar to a lot of previous ones. But chasing inspiration, both new and old, is something I keep coming back to. The memories made doing things that first inspired me many years prior, so often shared with incredible friends old and new, are some of the best that I hold on to. And I don't think I will ever run out of mountains and routes to climb on I first drew inspiration from long before finally getting to experience them. A little late to count as a new years post, but these were some of my favorite and most memorable adventures from the last year, all of which were rooted in inspiration stemming from many years prior.

Patagonia - Aguja de l'S (1&2)- I spent a couple weeks of January seeing the awe inspiring mountains of Patagonia for the first time. Some fantastic partners aligned for a weather window, and Rob, Meg and I went on a fun adventure checking out free climbing potential on an aid route that ended up being soaking wet. We didn't free it, or climb the upper half of the intended line, but we got to the top of the mountain in gorgeous conditions and had a whole lot of fun blowing bubbles and dancing to music while basking in the scale and beauty of the range surrounding us.

Artist's Tears (3)- an old, somewhat forgotten but beautiful aid route outside of Moab that I randomly stumbled upon pictures of sometime in highschool. It had sat in the back of my mind since, and this spring on a short trip from Ouray I went on an enjoyable aid solo mission to satiate decade old curiosity and inspiration and brush the dust off my lead rope solo techniques.

Smith (4)- In the spring I got to fully introduce Lexi to one place that has probably had a greater part in shaping who I have become than anywhere else, and the most fun way to do that I could think of was taking a tour of some of the classic multipitches. We started with Moscow, then walked around to climb the West Face of the Monkey (and played hacky sack on top), (continued in comments) taken in Life by @tavrsh

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9 months ago

A year ago today, the lives of the most beautiful, sweet, incredible human I have ever met and I began to collide in an enormous way that I have never experienced before. I knew it deep down right away, but now a year later I know more than ever that she is here to stay ❤️ taken in The West by @tavrsh

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10 months ago

I have been meaning to write to you for some time, but I have Zine 23 fresh on my mind and some spare time, so here it goes.

I don’t even know where to begin with this. My name is Tavish, and I’m a twenty-three-year-old climber from Seattle. I managed to end up in a climbing gym when I was five, and by middle school, it was pretty clear to me that I didn’t fit the mold of competitive sports or other “normal” extracurriculars and that climbing and being outdoors were where I felt at home.

Most people find climbing later than I did, and they like to curse my relative strength because of it, but I often wonder where I might have ended up and how bad things might be for me if I hadn’t found climbing when I was young.

It sounds like maybe I might have been similar to you, my genetics certainly have not predisposed me to great mental health, and in the difficult times, it has always been the escape and purpose and camaraderie and beauty of dancing up rocks and mountains and connecting with the natural world that has kept me going.

Though deep down, I think that, no matter what, I would have found it eventually. My ADHD-wracked brain wasn’t destined to last long in college or settle for a “normal” job, but I have worked in climbing gyms, built climbing walls, worked as a climbing guide, spent plenty of time living out of a car and climbing, generally not making very much money and questioning life often and hard. The constant has always been and always will be climbing.

Your stories and the stories that you help other people tell are just so real and so relatable. To me, and I’m sure anyone else that can pay attention to good, real storytelling, they sit so far above today’s endless stream of bullshit clickbait media that does little more than give us brief flashes of dopamine and cause us endless distraction from caring for ourselves and those around us. Every story you write and every story you include in the zine is packed with so much emotion and real meaning…
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Words by @tavrsh from his Letter to The Zine published in Volume 24

📷 @m.tangeman

Have your own letter? Send it to us at luke@climbingzine.com

🔗LINK IN BIO to score Vol 21-24 for $60 taken in Indian Creek by @tavrsh

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a year ago

Summer in the North Cascades is such a special place to be. But the fun doesn’t have to end as the season winds down!

September is a great time of year to enjoy cooler temps, no bugs, and stunning fall colors en route to your summit. Join us on a classic at Washington Pass or get in some laps at Index.

Book now before it’s too late!
info@ncmountainguides.com
www.ncmountainguides.com

Photos from guest Karis on a recent climb on Eldorado Peak led by NCMG guide @tavrsh by @tavrsh

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a year ago

Some rad pictures from a rare day where long time inspiration plays out perfectly!

Not long after the trip to Squamish almost 10 years ago that was my 2nd time ever trad climbing, flailing on 5.7s and all, I had ambitions of climbing the University Wall, an 8 pitch C2/5.12- that was an early bigwall route up the Stawamus Chief. Early on it sounded like a great intro to bigwall aid climbing, and then eventually freeing it sounded like an inspiring goal. Then it started to feel in the realm of being a cool route to give a proper onsight attempt on, but only while 5 whole years went by without a single trip up to Squamish. Even upon returning earlier this summer, lining up a psyched partner for the task in my busy summer guiding season kept it feeling like a far off dream.

A few weeks ago while hanging out at Index, an always psyched great friend that I had never actually roped up on a multipitch with and I realized we both had very real interest in going up the U wall, so we put a few days for Squamish on our calendars that came up real quick.

He was happy to let me lead the first two 12- pitches that are the hardest climbing on the route, and I had no idea what to expect being tired out in the middle of a nonstop alpine guiding season. But years of trusting small granite feet and strong guide season legs paid off. I managed to fight my way tooth and nail through the burly steep cracks and overhung flaring chimneys of the first two pitches without falling! Then off Jon and I went, swapping leads through a whole lot more incredible, burly 5.10 and 5.11 to the top of the route, feeling as comfortable climbing fast with eachother as anyone we had climbed with for years. The closest I came to falling the entire day was on a steep 5.10d off finger crack that I nearly slipped out of...

On top of an already amazingly fun day of trying hard, a friend of a friend that I had never met happened to be up there at the same time as us to try the infamous Shadow pitch on a fixed line, and started snapping pictures as I started up the second pitch. Not every day someone happens to be in the perfect place to capture the action on such an incredible day of climbing! taken in Squamish,BC by @tavrsh

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a year ago

Its hard to take bad ones up there, but these photos are just too good not to share. A couple days back getting to share playing around on one of my favorite awe inspiring mountains with some wonderful, super stoked people reminds me just how lucky I am to get to do what I do! taken in Mt. Baker by @tavrsh

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a year ago

Wow. I got the best gift ever from my grandpa for my 25th birthday. A passionate career pilot that has always been an inspiration to me in following my passion and chasing dreams of working in the mountains, he asked a friend of his to take him, me, and the love of my life Lexi on a two hour floatplane ride through the North Cascades that will be burned in my memory for the rest of my life.

Flying out from the lake I grew up spending time with my grandparents at and going straight to seeing the deeply powerful beauty and awe inspiring magnificence and scale of these mountains from the air was the best possible reminder of just how lucky I have been to grow up playing in them and that I continue to get to call them my home. And this summer I now have a long awaited place with North Cascades Mountain Guides getting to make a living by sharing the mountains that I love so much with others.

Feeling really grateful to be here ❤ taken in North Cascades by @tavrsh

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a year ago