A Climber We Lost: Adam George

You can read the full tribute to Climbers We Lost in 2024 here.

American alpinist and guide Adam George died on April 2, in a helicopter crash while guiding heliski clients near Verbier, Switzerland. George was a widely respected climber and IFMGA guide, a devoted husband, and a loving father. At the time of his death, he lived in Switzerland with his 12-year-old daughter, Olivia, and wife, Caroline, with whom he ran a guiding service, Into the Mountains.

Raised in New Hampshire, George was a keen hockey player in his youth, and began climbing at age 15. He was quickly addicted to the vertical world. By 18, he’d made his first ascent of El Capitan. He attended Vermont’s Middlebury College, studying abroad in New Zealand where he further honed his craft in the country’s Southern Alps. Upon graduation with a BA in Geography, George dove into a life increasingly dedicated to climbing and guiding.

George met his future wife, professional climber Caroline George (née Ware), when she was in Colorado for the Ouray Ice Fest in January 2006. After finishing the Telluride route Ames Ice Hose (WI5 M6 R), Caroline dropped her tools down the climb. George, climbing below, saw the ice axes come spinning past him. She rappelled down. “Knowing Adam, he was probably fuming inside,” Caroline recalled. “But he was like, ‘Oh, a cute Swiss girl!’” The pair struck up a conversation. “One of his favorite musicians was Robert Earl Keen,” Caroline said. “He always loved this song (“Dreadful Selfish Crime”) that goes, I had me a French girlfriend, I loved the way she talked. I was Swiss, but he told me it had a similar effect.”

After running into each other again in Canada a few months later, they began dating. “Out of the three months of that following summer, we maybe saw each other for a month and a half,” Caroline recalled. It was a short time, but it was enough. George knew what he’d found. He proposed to Caroline that summer, on the summit of Colorado’s Lizard Head, and they were married almost immediately. “I’d never really thought about marriage, but when I met him, it was instant. I just wanted to be his wife.”

In the couple’s early years, George was working as a carpenter in Telluride, but when he saw the freedom a full-time guiding career could offer him and Caroline, he flung himself into the IFMGA pipeline. “I think Adam might be the person who went through the IFMGA certification process the fastest,” his wife said.

As a guide and professional climber, Adam George roped up around the world over the last two decades, from the Alaska Range to Patagonia, New Zealand and Australia, the Alps, the Himalaya, and throughout North America, climbing as hard as 5.13, M10, and WI6. Perhaps his favorite adventure, his wife said, was the West Face of Cerro Torre, climbed with Peter Doucette in 2014. On-wall accomplishments notwithstanding, she said her husband was most proud, in recent years, of becoming a member of the storied Guides de Verbier, in his new Swiss home.

George didn’t climb for route ticks or fame, nor did he take it lightly; he was keenly aware of the sport’s risks, and was bullet-point dialed when it came to systems and safety. Caroline described her late husband as the embodiment of “true grit,” someone who “excelled at everything he did,” a die-hard perfectionist who always pushed those around him to be the best version of themselves. “He was definitely a hard person,” she admitted. “He had high expectations of himself and others,” but because of that, he never had an accident. Nothing ever happened to him, or anyone else under his watch.”

George wasn’t just dialed and technical on the wall, he kept a tight ship on everything from his finances to his family life (this is perhaps why he had a fondness for Jack Reacher novels). His wife called him, “the thriftiest person on the face of the Earth,” and said he was a peerless handyman, who built their house in Switzerland in nine months, almost entirely by himself. George was also the proud new owner of an electric vehicle, and was increasingly powering his family’s life via solar panels he’d installed on their roof. “He wanted to be the most sustainable person he could be,” Caroline said.

She added that, even after nearly twenty years of marriage, her husband continuously impressed her with these deeply engrained morals and values. “He was a ‘Do your best, be your best,’ person,” she said. “For Adam, it was all about being tough, being as minimalist as possible.” He never wanted to be in the spotlight, posting on social media, advocating in the streets, or emblazoning his face on ad campaigns. “He just lived his values, but never needed to be a part of something to broadcast them. There was nothing fake about him.”

Friend Mark Synnott echoed this sentiment. “My best memory of Adam was being lucky enough to get teamed up with him on our [AMGA] Alpine exam,” he wrote after George’s death. “It was almost comical how over-prepared, over-stoked and over-qualified he was. At a certain point, I think everyone there realized he was easily as skilled as the examiners. … He was in a completely different league. And yet, he somehow managed to fly mostly under the radar, never seeking the limelight or recognition—instead, just quietly going about the business of being one of the best mountain guides and outdoor athletes of his generation.”

A stupefyingly large crew of other friends, family, clients, and former climbing partners gathered on Facebook to share memories with George, presented in a scroll so endless this author never reached the bottom. “He was the best person to be with when things got difficult,” wrote Brian Donovan, “because he was so damn funny, so confident, and so determined … Adam taught me how to face fear and pain with humility and humor.”

In the wake of his loss, Caroline said she could take solace in the fact that George, at least, had lived his dreams. “He had all these goals, and he’d achieved them,” she said. “Adam died in a place where he was really content with where he was in life, what he had accomplished. I just can’t imagine life without him. I can’t believe my daughter doesn’t have her dad.”

In addition to his wife and daughter, Adam George is survived by a brother in Vermont and parents in Florida. Loved ones have organized a GoFundMe to support his family in his absence.

You can read the full tribute to Climbers We Lost in 2024 here.

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