Zach Orenczak

When not ducking the law with impromptu tours of Camp Four on a commandeered golf cart or “accidentally” ending up in the middle of the Baja 1000 Zach Orenczak spends his time searching out unclimbed rock with a wild and uncanny cast of characters. Fueled by road fever and a lust for the mischievous Orenczak has co-authored numerous guides (from Devils Tower, The Needles, and Vedauwoo) all in a careening, swashbuckling style you might expect from a mad sailor lashed to his mast in the middle of a thunderstorm. Currently he is jeering around Upstate New York, under the guise of writing a new guidebook to the Gunks, which hits shelves this year. This new guide, like his others, will aim to depart from the traditional irksome style of the past and usher in a new dynamic and colorful topographic format.