Jimmy Haring
I grew up in Columbus, Ohio, where there wasn’t much of an outdoor scene in the 1990’s. I did a bit of gym climbing in college, but more importantly I spent three summers in northern Wisconsin working at a camp, where I fell in love with being outdoors in any capacity, including canoeing, kayaking, backpacking, mountain biking, and sailing. It wasn’t until I moved home to Ohio after college that a friend invited me to climb in the Red River Gorge. I was immediately hooked on the thrill of sport climbing.
In my mid-twenties I became a father and started a long academic journey that eventually led to a PhD in religious studies. Climbing took a back seat for some time. But I returned to climbing as my kids started to get older, taking them with me several times to camp at Miguel’s so they could get the feel for outdoor climbing (which meant a lot very slow hiking, stopping to splash in the water and look at turtles, and perhaps one or two climbing attempts over the course of a day). I also returned to my own inclination for outdoor adventures in my thirties. I solo winter camped and snowshoed in Glacier National Park, completed a solo loop at 10,000 feet in the Pekos Wilderness Area of New Mexico, bagged a few 14ers in Colorado and summited Mount Kenya (yes, in Kenya!), mountain biked 215 miles over two mountain ranges along the San Juan hut system from Durango to Moab, and climbed in Red Rocks in Nevada.
In 2022, I moved to Chicago and started to hear about Devil’s Lake. I wanted to develop a more solid technical base for trad climbing, so I took the AMGA Single Pitch Instructor (SPI) course in 2025 and completed the SPI exam in 2026. Guiding is a wonderful combination of things I love, including being outdoors, learning new skills, meeting and working with great people, and teaching. In addition to guiding, I teach as a university-level instructor, create online content in philosophy, and work as a consultant in the renewable energy industry. I enjoy playing the piano, reading, biking around Chicago, and hanging out with my kids.
