#127 | Sol Wertkin - A First Ascentionist Of The Cascades

Becoming Human

Episode 127 of the Becoming Human Podcast features Sol Wertkin, a rock climber and nurse. Sol Balances his recreation and job with raising his two little girls. Sol tells of his epic First Ascent of King Kong on Mt. Stuart in the Cascades where he, Jens Holsten, and Blake Herrington battled an angry mountain, with wet weather and an unplanned bivy. Sol and I talk about his experience recreating as a rock climber and snowboarder/skier where he has spent years refining his abilities in the pursuit of adventure.

In Sol’s youth, he had met a powerful leader, teacher, and father named Charlie Parker. Charlie was Sol’s Judo teacher and Sol had seen the unique challenges and hardships that came from being a black man in the community that he grew up in. In this article, Charlie is praised for his incredible efforts as a coach in many sports in his community. Through charlie’s place, Charlie and others in his organization have worked to facilitate community transformation by providing opportunities for personal development and community engagement through recreation.

I enjoy the presence of a person who is in love with some form of recreation; it’s a fiery spark whose rays radiate with a captivating intensity. Encapsulated in recreation is the opportunity to form some of the deepest bonds with other people and experientially learn meta-lessons. There’s a ton of interpersonal and introspective knowledge that I and several of my guests have learned through recreating. Recreation is to do something for the pleasure of it, beyond meeting your basic needs.

After decades of adventure, Sol’s is several years into fatherhood and it was a blast to listen to his life experiences. If you want to check out more about Sol, head over to his blog /solclimbs.blogspot.com , Instagram @solwertkin

Sol is a director of the Leavenworth Mountain Association which maintains cleanliness, climbing access and improves trails you can find them on Instagram as @leavenworthmountainassociation