Scholastica graduate Sevve Stember speaks about rock climbing adventure in Chile

Release Date: 10/02/09
Rock climber Sevve Stember, a St. Scholastica alumnus who recently generated headlines for establishing new climbing routes in South America, will speak at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 6, in the Science Auditorium on The College of St. Scholastica campus. The public is welcome and there is no charge for the event.

The presentation will focus on Stember's recent grant-funded expedition to previously untouched climbing territory in Chilean Patagonia at the southern tip of South America.

Stember, with his team of five other American climbers including Chris Harkness of Duluth and Tyler Overby of Hermantown, established new climbing routes on vertical 500-meter cliffs of the Valle Cochamo. He will discuss how his outdoor training at St. Scholastica helped launch him into new territory in the rock-climbing world.

Stember's rock climbing achievements have been featured in the national climbing magazines Climbing, American Alpine Journal and Rock and Ice.

A native of Bemidji, Stember began his rock-climbing career on the cliffs of Lake Superior's North Shore.

"One of my first climbs outdoors is burned into my memory as one of those moments that changes your life forever," noted Stember in a report he wrote after his trip. "As I climbed Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies at Shovel Point above the Great Lake Superior, I didn't know it, but a whole new world had opened up to me: the vertical one. From that day onward, I would surround myself with climbing."

He studied natural science and education at St. Scholastica and currently is a math and science teacher in Phoenix, as well as a park ranger for Yosemite National Park.

The College of St. Scholastica is regularly recognized as one of the finest colleges in the Midwest. The 2010 "America's Best Colleges" survey by U.S. News & World Report magazine ranks St. Scholastica in the top tier of Midwestern universities. The Princeton Review recommends it as one of the "Best in the Midwest," and The Washington Post has rated it one of the nation's 100 "hidden gems" among U.S. colleges and universities.