In addition to Susan's business writing, since 1991 she has written numerous magazines profiles, movie and book reviews, and perspective pieces on topics related to the outdoors, sports, and fitness. Her writing seems to resonate with many readers–it's been used in a case study for a college class, picked for short lists of top mountaineering literature, and to Susan's great delight, appeared on climbing shop t-shirts.
Recent articles include:
Profile of the New York Times business columnist, Harry Hurt III
Profile of the New York Times food columnist, Marian Burros
Profile of Valerie Ramsey, co-author of the memoir, Gracefully (McGraw Hill)
Article on the Himalayan Cataract Project
Excerpts from some of Susan's other articles:
From " Manhattan on the Rocks" (Climbing Magazine)
Article about bouldering at Rat Rock in Central Park
"When climbers think of the great destinations of our sport, midtown Manhattan doesn't exactly spring to mind. However, many out-of-towners are surprised to learn that worthwhile bouldering is within walking distance of such popular tourist sites as F.A.O. Schwarz, Radio City Music Hall, and Lincoln Center...
Last, if you wondered about the origin's of Rat Rock's name, stick around till dusk."
From "Return of the Yeti" (Outside Magazine)
Article about Shakespearean actor Brian Blessed's attempt to climb Everest
"You may know Brian Blessed for his stentorian portrayal of Caesar Augustus in Masterpiece Theatre's 'I, Claudius,' but in the Himalayas, where the 57-year-old British actor returns this month for a repeat performance on Mount Everest, he's earned the nickname, 'Big Yeti. At six feet and 210 pounds, Blessed admits that he's 'more like a wrestler than a climber,' a fact he first impressed on the locals in 1990. Accompanied by a BBC film crew, he used period gear for an expedition that paid homage to George Mallory, the British climber who disappeared near the summit in 19224...?
From "A Story in Every Obituary" (Climbing Magazine)
Article about a 35 year old lawyer who died climbing in Yosemite
"Behind every obituary, a story's left untold...
The question remains: why bother struggling to climb, especially if your life is fairly fulfilling without it, you'll never be an outstanding climber, and you really understand that you or someone you love could die climbing.
The answer for me was there the first time I climbed. After the terror came astonishment– at a fantastically beautiful world I hadn't known existed –and wonder. Everything in this new world was on a grander scale than the workaday urban world: the settings, the emotions and insights it inspired, and the issues it revealed, like the most basic ones of life and death.
After climbing I felt rejuvenated and stronger, better able to see past the jumble of daily stresses and demands to what is really important in life...
There must be safer, saner ways to restore the spirit than by climbing, but I haven't found any yet."
From "Kitty with Nine Lives"
Profile of the top American Himalayan female climber, Kitty Calhoun
(Rock and Ice Magazine)
"You could tell that Kitty Calhoun Grissom was actually scared.
Her eyes were big with uneasiness, her hands fiddled nervously. Oh sure, she was used to nerve-wracking situations. In 1985, she and Colin Grisson summitted the Cassin Ridge on Denali, after being stormbound for five days without food. In 1986, attempting Thelay Sagar, she and Andy Selters spent eight stormbound days at 6400 meters in a broken portaledge, four of them without food. Almost swept off the edge of 8172-meter Dhaulagiri in 1987, she became the first American woman to ascend the world's sixth highest mountain. In 1990, summitting 8470-meter Makalu in lightweight expedition style via its highly technical West Pillar, Calhoun became the first woman to stand atop the world's fifth highest peak.
But this was different. This was a slideshow presentation...
Calhoun has been a hardcore alpinist for more than a decade, during which she's spent up to tem months a year traveling outside the US, sleeping 80% of the time in tents, bivis, or cars. Fellow alpinist, John Culberson, comments, 'We used to call Kitty's car, 'Camp Subaru.' She built a platform in the back, put her sleeping bag on top and the gear underneath. Kitty was never really into cleaning.
Even her mother admits cheerfully, 'That car wouldn't have passed a sanitation rating. No vermin, but it had an aroma. You could smell it coming.'
'Her neoprene socks were particularly notorious,' Culberson remembers. 'When she asked me to join her on Dhaulagiri, I said, 'On one condition. You've got to throw away those neoprene socks.' She just laughed. She eventually sold the car–
to another climber. When I got into it two years later, I still smelled that Kitty-neoprene-sock smell. It didn't seem to affect Colin [Grissom, her husband], but then he was a college wrestler and that's a really smelly sport..."