“The Best Way to Explain Climbing to Your Family? Scare the Bejeezus Out of ’em. . .” Climbing Magazine Column. January 2008.

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“No one in my family is a climber. In Minnesota we Burhardts stick to sports that suit our locale: in summer, we find new ways to exploit the 10,000 lakes, and in winter, we ski. So when I began climbing, my various antics were lumped into what my father calls ‘gallivanting around in the mountains.’ After a decade of visits home during which I was forced to explain that the gobies on my limbs meant I’d been climbing (and not on the receiving end of domestic abuse), I decided to remedy the situation. The best way to understand climbing is, after all, to climb . . .”