Majka Burhardt

Majka Burhardt is an adventurer who has declared an end to conventional ideas of safety.

For the past two decades, Burhardt has journeyed from the Roof of Africa to the waters of the Arctic, and her stories of taking chances, embracing risk, and living with uncertainty and change inspire and empower audiences to think differently about their own life choices and risk profiles.

A respected writer and filmmaker, Burhardt is the author of two books; Vertical Ethiopia and Coffee Story: Ethiopia. Vertical Ethiopia was short-listed for the Banff Book Award.  She was the Executive Producer of the film Waypoint Namibia, earning a nomination for an EPIC Emerging Artist Award. Burhardt’s writing regularly appears in publications including Alpinist, AFAR, The Explorer’s Journal, and Climbing Magazine, where she has been a columnist since 2004. Her work has been featured on news programs, radio shows, magazines and newspapers and in film festivals throughout the world.

Burhardt specializes in making the remote accessible. She champions “Additive Adventure”—when adventure goes beyond exploration to cultural and environmental connections that create a larger conversation of singular and collective human meaning.    The result is a series of stories that emphasize comfort in the uncomfortable and safety in relativity.

Burhardt has an MFA in Creative Writing from the Warren Wilson Program for Writers, and she received her BA in Anthropology from Princeton University. She is an AMGA Certified Rock Guide and serves on the organization’s Board of Directors.

Majka's Blog Entries:

Three Ways to do Something About Famine in Africa

The Best Worst Idea

• 4. The Lost Mountain: Conservation, Science, and Adventure

  Majka Burhardt's newest project involves a lost granite mountain in Mozambique, a 2,00-foot vertical face with a jackpot of new species, and an innovative look at integrated conservation. The Lost Mountain is a behind-the-scenes look at how to connect passion with outcome, the opportunities and challenges inherent in creating conversation between diverse stakeholders in a local and global issue, and how to merge seemingly divergent objectives into a unified project that tells a compelling story. Majka's background as a professional climber and her utter belief in the value of pursuing the biggest and scariest choices to create guideposts for what matters in life combine in her dynamic stories with stunning imagery and video clips. The Lost Mountain film will be released in 2013; hear the story of how it unfolds today.

• 5. Waypoint Namibia

  Can climbing give you access to understanding outside of the vertical? What if you have to go to Namibia to find out? In May 2009, Majka Burhardt led a small team of explorers into a landscape of translucent scorpions, laser sharp granite cracks, 1.7 meter-long cobra tracks, and the Himba people - one of the last great Southern African pastoral tribes - all in the name of first ascents and cultural connection. Namibia is Africa's newest independent country and was the first country in the world to mandate conservation in its constitution. As one of the least populated countries in the world, and one of the most progressive in Africa, Namibia combines peace, stability, and accessibility with rugged wildness and remoteness. In the past decade, Namibia has also developed a globally renowned system for resource management that pairs the conservation of natural lands with the economic stability of rural communities. How does adventure complement, and conflict with, environmental understanding? Majka Burhardt shares her story of connection with a country in Africa that impacts policy and economics from Mongolia to the United States.

• 1. Leadership When It Matters

  What climbing in the wild can teach us about teams, collaboration, and true grit.

  You can't lead teams through poisonous-snake-infested grasslands, up crumbling sandstone spires, and into confrontations with local tribes without the willingness to have tough conversations -- many of them. Majka examines what it means to dig into these conversations as a leader, and as a team, and how to emerge on the other side with clearer objectives and returns. Her interactive talk will have listeners exploring issues of diversity, identity, and collaboration -- and taking away new strategies to integrate known and unknown stakeholders into cohesive teams that achieve apparently impossible goals.

• 2. Why The Risks You Think You're Taking Are Not the Ones You Need

  Toward a new model of risk assessment and living on the edge.

  One free cup of coffee, one photo, one word - each of these were all it took to launch Majka on her most recent elaborate expeditions. Majka advocates taking the biggest risk first, because choice doesn't confine you, it sets you free. Her fresh take on interpreting gut decisions allows audiences to engage in their own risk assessments and learn to embrace change and mobility with new clarity and realism. Majka's understanding of the nuances of change combine with masterful storytelling to energize, inspire, and entertain audiences about new ways to manage their professional and personal relationships with risk and danger in the 21st century.

• 3. Additive Adventure

  Adventure that begins where most explorations end.

  What's Additive Adventure? It's Majka's term for when adventure extends beyond exploration to create cultural and environmental connection. From the roots of coffee, to rock climbing expeditions in the Horn of Africa, to an unflinching look at cultural use and misuse in Namibia, Additive Adventure takes a global look at the individual's role in larger issues and communities. Can the grandest adventure create the smallest conversation with the largest impact? Can being a global citizen begin with a question? Can your passion lead you to your greatest impact? Majka takes on these tough questions when she takes us on a journey to go local by going to origin, by going to Additive Adventure.

• Majka Burhardt represents the finest traditions of exploration.

  The Explorers Club

• Majka Burhardt spoke to a rapt audience about what she had learned as a writer, a climber, and a human being in Ethiopia. Burhardt’s extraordinary personal honesty drew the audience into her story and provided a context for much of the information she presented. Her connection with this place is profound.

  Cleveland Council on World Affairs

• As a public lands organizer working for the Colorado Environmental Coalition in western Colorado I was immediately intrigued by Burhardt’s interest in the interface between our culture’s adventure seeking and environmental/conservation sensibilities. This issue, this need to move beyond an anthropocentric view of our surrounding landscapes, is one that consistently arises in the field of non-profit conservation work. For me specifically, the question becomes how can CEC encourage the burgeoning population of outdoor enthusiasts to come to understand, appreciate, and work to protect nature on nature’s own terms. Burhardt’s answer; tapping into the universal ‘love of landscape’ that permeates and connects the kayaker to the rancher, the hiker to the farmer, and the 33 year old Burhardt to a new Himba mother in Northern Namibia. Waypoint Namibia is not to be missed.

  Colorado Environmental Coalition

• Majka's presentation was one of the best that I've seen. It was a perfect blend of history, culture, and climbing adventures.

  Boulder Bookstore

• Majka delivers on her promise to explore new ways of understanding.

  Hampshire College

• Thank you so much for a great presentation at Pacific Science Center. I actually have told people that Majka could single handedly boost Ethiopia's tourism by 10% given due to her passion for Ethiopia.

  Seattle IMAX Theatre

• There is a short list of exceptional presenters, and Majka is on that list. Her presentation was one of the best I have seen.

  Recreational Equipment Incorporated (REI)

• We were ecstatic about bringing Majka Burhardt. She incorporates an eclectic mix of photography, immersion in foreign culture, geography, human rights, and adventure into a presentation which illuminates just how original this experience was.

  Bowdoin College

• Majka Burhardt is an excellent storyteller who delivers with candor, energy and humor.

  World Affairs Council of Houston

• Majka gives a rousing presentation and helps her audience look deeper to see the beauty of adventure in the world.

  Bradford Washburn American Mountaineering Museum

• I would highly recommend Majka's presentation to anyone and everyone. In less than 45 minutes one can learn so much, one can get inspired and have fun while doing so. Now, what more can you ask for?

  World Affairs Council of Oregon

• Majka Burhardt's speech was incredible. Her message had instant impact and, judging from the conversations following the event, is clearly going to have lasting impact. Majka's speaking style is the definition of dynamic and she is exceptionally inspirational, entertaining, and elucidating. Add to that her approachability and honesty and you have a rare storyteller who can inspire action. The Commonwealth Club sees the best speakers in its doors and Majka is clearly part of this group.

  The Commonwealth Club of California

• I want to thank you so much for your most amazing presentation. It was magical and inspiring - I was mesmerized, as was everyone else in the audience. I have had an overwhelmingly positive response from everyone I've spoken with.
  
  You are a true storyteller. You weave a beautiful web of words and images in your pitch with perfect delivery. Wow.

  Utah Council for Citizen Diplomacy

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  April 2011

  Coffee Story: Ethiopia

  It’s the twenty-first century and Ethiopia, in the global consciousness, is shedding its history of drought, famine, and war. It’s doing so by embracing the heritage and potential of its defining crop, coffee, a plant first accounted for in legend more than three thousand years ago and that now ranks among the world’s ten most-valued commodities. Coffee Story: Ethiopia is the recounting of that process: a visual and narrative tale of opportunity, resources, education, and tradition.

  
  
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  February 2008

  Vertical Ethiopia: Climbing Toward Possibility in the Horn of Africa

  Vertical Ethiopia documents a climbing expedition to unexplored sandstone spires in northern Ethiopia. In March 2007, four women traveled to Ethiopia to discover if climbing might be the next frontier for this continuously evolving country. Told through a series of vignettes that reveal what it means to climb, to travel, and to explore, Vertical Ethiopia looks closely at the intersections between adventure and culture, history and opportunity.