ROB PIZEM

“If I see something beautiful, I want to figure it out and climb it, whatever it takes,” says Rob “The Piz” Pizem, 33, about aesthetic routes. Pizem, originally from Kirtland, Ohio, began climbing 15 years ago on a toprope outside Cleveland and, as the saying goes, was immediately hooked. Now a high school science teacher in Denver, Colorado, Pizem spends much of his time climbing (he’s sponsored by Arc’teryx, SCARPA, C.A.M.P. USA, and Sterling Ropes), working with students, hiking, caving, traveling, golfi ng, and supporting his wife, Jane. Pizem won an ING Unsung Hero Award in 2005 for starting an outdoor club to bring city kids to the mountains. Although he has those outdoor-club outings dialed, his own excursions don’t always go so smoothly. For example, Pizem’s recent trip to Arizona, chronicled in his feature, “Filling My Vortex” (p.58): “I got spooked by a cow in the middle of the night while going to the bathroom,” he explains. He was also almost struck by lightning on that trip, which he took with his close friend, the photographer Andrew Burr. So what’s with the mystical “vortex” theme in the Piz’s article? “I think that stuff’s a bunch of BS,” he says, “so it was time to prove it to myself. I am a scientist after all!”

Check his blog at pizem.blogspot.com.