Dave is a longtime and prolific new-router, with over 200 first ascents up to 5.13, spread over 30 years, in the City of Rocks alone. Though an “early adopter” of the sport-climbing ethic in the mid 1980s, he is a true all-arounder, with many trad ascents to his credit in the City, the Elephant’s Perch in the Sawtooths, and farther afield.
In addition to his love for new routing, Dave volunteers a great deal of his time to maintain and replace aging hardware at the areas he loves. If you have climbed in Southern Idaho it is almost guaranteed that you have climbed one of Dave's routes, or clipped hardware he has replaced.
In addition to authoring eight editions of the climber’s guide to City of Rocks, Dave published Castle Rocks State Park’s first climbing guide, as well as Idaho Underground, an eclectic guide to southern Idaho crags and boulders.
Though still putting up new routes, Dave is now more of a mentor on the Idaho climbing scene.
“It is interesting going from being one of the young tigers to being one of the old dudes,” he said in a recent interview with Idaho Outdoors, “and it’s a challenge psychologically to accept that you are getting older and still find a love in it. I think the lesson learned is looking at why you are doing it. Are you doing it for outer recognition, or are you doing it for something personal? Happily I feel like I still love doing it.”