As a young boy growing up in Sioux Center, Iowa, Steve Sieberson ’70 was drawn to anything that interrupted the routine.
Mountain climbing—or at least dreaming of it—certainly fit the bill. When the highest point in your home state is 1,670 feet, mountains seem quite foreign, Sieberson said. “Growing up, the mountains were different and exotic,” he added. “As I boy I knew there were many exotic places in the world, and I wanted to see them all.”
Following a trip to the Colorado Rockies when he was 10 years old, Sieberson became a regular in the Sioux Center Public Library, reading everything he could find on mountains and mountain climbing. “I was very addicted to National Geographic and the world atlas. I read anything in the Dewey decimal system that started with the number 900 [denoting history and geography].”
Coming east to Calvin in the 1960s was the opposite direction of the highlands Sieberson yearned for, but it was the perfect transition for him, he said. “It was worth it to defer my dream to get the education I really wanted. It was perfect for me to be taught by intelligent and sophisticated professors who had seen the world but still had a foot in the culture of my growing up.”
After earning his law degree from the University of Iowa in 1975, Sieberson began pursuing his dream. He moved to Seattle, where he practiced international law for 25 years and took up mountaineering.
After honing his skills on the peaks in Washington state, Sieberson was able to take on international climbing challenges, mostly due to his travels while practicing business law. “I always had mountains on my mind. For instance, the first thing that popped into my mind when I found out I was traveling to Japan was Mount Fuji.”
In a new book, The Naked Mountaineer: Misadventures of an Alpine Traveler (University of Nebraska Press, 2014), Sieberson describes his quests from the Matterhorn to Mount Fuji to Mount Vesuvius and beyond. Twelve escapades are included in the book—most include climbing.
Because of his love of adventure literature, and specifically mountain literature, as a child, Sieberson always wanted to make a personal contribution to the genre, he said. “Humans desire a little adventure in their lives even if they are only going to read about it,” he said.
Sieberson’s book, though, is not about the technical aspect of climbing; it is intentionally about traveling exploits. “It focuses on the people I meet, the food and the culture I encounter and the hassles of travel,” he said. “Many people who will never climb a mountain will relate to it.
“It’s very non-heroic. It’s about all the many way ways I mess things up; that’s what makes it real,” he said.
Amid all of his ventures, Sieberson has also learned a few things: “The world is a beautiful place; it’s an amazing place, but when you’re traveling be prepared for everything to go wrong. It’s the unexpected, the daily surprises that people like to talk about. That’s when they really light up.”
As for future adventures, Sieberson still has some that he would like to pursue. He’d like to do some trekking in the Himalayas (though climbing Mt. Everest has never been on his serious list). Mt. Kilimanjaro is on the list as is Denali.
As for why at age 67 Sieberson is still seeking further mountainous expeditions, he writes: “…the best I can figure is that I climb mountains because I am mysteriously drawn to them. I can’t stop thinking about them, so I keep going back. Stand on a summit, and you’re on the top of the world. And there’s always a bright side when things go wrong: The best stories come from the unexpected.”
