The daily grind of life is hard, but everything in the mountains feels simple. If that resonates with you, then you know why pilgrimages to the peaks matter. And that’s what this blog is about, how mountains, often through climbing and mountaineering (though not exclusively,) enriches and even enlightens our lives.

I spent 15 years in Washington, DC as a Congressional aide and lobbyist trying to make a difference while balancing family life and battling a daily two-hour commute. I stopped climbing and got outside less. One day, during a much-needed getaway to Vermont in 2010, this blog was born.

What started as a blog only about celebrating human achievement in the mountains has grown to be my platform for reader response about climbing events, its history, and mountaineering literature, and other books that share insight about the world and ourselves.

I found that the antidote for the daily grind is a combination of seeking wild places, written word, and winding journeys, both literally and abstractly. After reading mountaineering literature for 25 years, I have have only scratched the surface. There is a lot to explore and discover, despite the world being mapped and wired.

I have peak bagged, climbed ice, pulled plastic, showed up to work meetings with chalk on my pants, and skipped finals review to go backpacking. I have contributed writing to Alpinist Magazine, the American Alpine Club, and several other printed and digital publications. The Banff Centre invited me to serve as a pre-reader for its Mountain Literature Competition, which I did for five years. And, I am a husband, a father of two, a nonprofit leader in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, a former Washington, DC advocate. I am Andrew Szalay and I am The Suburban Mountaineer.

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Read some of my most popular posts and feel free to contact me about reviewing climbing literature or with questions or ideas at andrew.szalay@yahoo.com. And please don’t forget to follow me on the usual… Twitter, Facebook, and WordPress.