Robert C. Birkby is an American adventure guide, author, photographer, speaker and trail designer. Birkby grew up in

Sidney, Iowa Sidney is a city in Fremont County, Iowa, United States. The population was 1,070 at the time of the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Fremont County and is one of the smallest county seats in the state. History Sidney was laid out in 1851 ...

. As a Boy Scout, Birkby was on staff at summer camp, made a trek at

Philmont Scout Ranch Philmont Scout Ranch is a ranch located in Colfax County, New Mexico, near the village of Cimarron; it covers of wilderness in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains on the east side of the Cimarron Range of the Rocky Mountains. Donated by oil baro ...

and earned

Eagle Scout Eagle Scout is the highest achievement or rank attainable in the Scouts BSA program of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA). Since its inception in 1911, only four percent of Scouts have earned this rank after a lengthy review process. The Eagle S ...

. In 2010, Birkby also received the

Boy Scouts of America The Boy Scouts of America (BSA, colloquially the Boy Scouts) is one of the largest scouting organizations and one of the largest youth organizations in the United States, with about 1.2 million youth participants. The BSA was founded ...

's highest award for conservation: the William T. Hornaday Gold Award. While attending college, he spent his summer breaks working at Philmont in positions such as a trail crew foreman and director of conservation. After college, Birkby was an English instructor at Missouri State University. He thru-hiked the

Appalachian Trail The Appalachian Trail (also called the A.T.), is a hiking trail in the Eastern United States, extending almost between Springer Mountain in Georgia and Mount Katahdin in Maine, and passing through 14 states.Gailey, Chris (2006)"Appalachian ...

. Moving to

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

, he became an author, writing magazine articles for ''

Boys' Life ''Scout Life'' (formerly ''Boys' Life'') is the monthly magazine of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA). Its target readers are boys and girls between the ages of 6 and 18. The magazine‘s headquarters are in Irving, Texas. ''Scout Life'' is pu ...

'' and merit badge pamphlets on subjects such as backpacking. He worked for the

Student Conservation Association The Student Conservation Association (SCA) is a non-profit group in the United States whose mission is to build the next generation of conservation leaders and inspire lifelong stewardship of the environment and communities by engaging young peo ...

, directing trail building across the US. Birkby met Scott Fischer in 1982, and was convinced to climb

Mount Olympus Mount Olympus (; el, Όλυμπος, Ólympos, also , ) is the highest mountain in Greece. It is part of the Olympus massif near the Thermaic Gulf of the Aegean Sea, located in the Olympus Range on the border between Thessaly and Macedonia, be ...

. He then worked for Fischer's adventure travel company Mountain Madness as a writer and guide, co-leading adventure trips to the Cascade Range, Alaska, Mount Kilimanjaro, Mount Elbrus and Nepal. After Fischer's death in the 1996 Everest disaster, Birkby wrote the biography ''Mountain Madness''. Birkby wrote the 10th, 11th and 12th editions of the '' Boy Scout Handbook'' and the 4th edition of the ''Fieldbook''. Starting in 2008, Birkby aided in the construction of the Great Baikal Trail, an environmental trail system along Lake Baikal in

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive region, geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a ...

Works

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Birkby, Robert Living people American mountain climbers People from Sidney, Iowa American male non-fiction writers 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American male writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers Writers from Iowa Year of birth missing (living people)