Austin Mallet, a native of the Texas flatlands who came to love the mountains, died tragically on May 9, 2024, in an avalanche on Lone Peak, outside of Salt Lake City. The avalanche, which local forecasters noted would have been exceptionally difficult to predict under prevailing conditions, took the lives of Austin and one of his two skiing partners that day. The team of three was attempting a long, backcountry ski traverse in the Wasatch Range when the avalanche swept them down the mountain. 

Austin grew up in The Woodlands—the “flatlands of Texas” to use his words. He attended the Academy of Science and Technology at College Park High School, where he also competed as a state-ranked tennis player and road cyclist. Austin would later graduate from Texas A&M University with a B.S. in Petroleum Engineering and start his career with Shell Global. He maintained a successful career with Shell and Conoco Philips throughout his adult life. But it wasn’t on the oil rig that Austin found his vocation; it was in the mountains. In his twenties, he took up residence in Bozeman, Montana and quickly became enchanted by alpine climbing and ski-alpinism.

Within the span of only a few years, Austin became an accomplished ice, mixed and alpine climber, with ascents of hard, technical climbs in Montana, the Canadian Rockies, the French Alps and the Alaska Range. Hyalite Canyon, a world-renowned ice and mixed climbing venue just outside Bozeman, became his backyard playground. By the end of this past winter season, there was hardly a difficult ice or mixed route in the canyon Austin hadn’t climbed—and on many of the hardest, he had run laps. 

Austin was also an accomplished ski-alpinist, and was as comfortable and capable descending steep, technical faces and couloirs on skis as he was ascending steep ice climbs. Often he combined these disciplines to tackle complex objectives on big mountains. In 2021, he climbed and skied from the summits of Grand Teton, Middle Teton and South Teton in a single, long day—a feat known as the “Teton Trifecta.” In the rugged and remote Beartooth Mountains of Montana, he linked up the massive ice climb “Cali Ice” with a ski descent of the steep and committing Chamonix Couloir. Last season, he summited Denali, North America’s highest peak, three times, skiing the Messner Couloir from the summit and climbing the Cassin Ridge—combining, on his first expedition to the mountain, a difficult ski mountaineering objective with a difficult alpine objective, all at high altitude. Austin was poised to return to Denali this month to tackle another hard route on the mountain’s South face. 

The fall hunting season was the only time Austin might be in the mountains without climbing or skiing as his primary objective. Each fall, he harvested an elk, sometimes by bow. Once the freezer was stocked, it was back to climbing.  

The mountains were Austin’s home and gave him purpose; they also brought him joy. They presented the sorts of challenges he was uniquely suited to meet. He especially loved any mountain objective requiring a combination of technical skill, logistical acumen, and aerobic prowess—all of which he possessed in spades. While he was largely self-taught, he also jumped at any opportunity for more formal training, having taken multiple avalanche safety and wilderness first responder courses. He had even skillfully assisted professional first-responders in multiple mountain rescues. 

It helped that his brain seemed to be wired for alpinism. A meticulous planner and strategist, he was tireless in his efforts to optimize gear and tactics. On an expedition, no detail was too small to escape his inevitable pre-trip Excel spreadsheet. His pre-trip planning was often followed by detailed post-trip analysis, which he would sometimes document on a blog he maintained under the name “Mountain Chronicles”. His blog has been, and surely will continue to be, a source of both information and inspiration for ambitious climbers and backcountry skiers. 

As if he had some premonition that his time on this Earth might be short, Austin never wasted a moment in idleness. His climbing partners would attest that even the clichéd imperative “seize the day” sets a much lower bar than the mantra he lived by—so often he was up before the sun rose and climbing until long after it had set. It was this, almost limitless, energy that allowed him to accomplish more in just 32 years than most could imagine in a lifetime. 

His talents as a climber and ski-alpinist, and in so many other domains, were matched only by his kindness and generosity as a human being. His Bozeman home was always open, and usually full of climbers. His freezer of elk meat seemed to feed an ever-expanding family of hungry, active friends. He was a generous mentor to younger climbers in the Bozeman community, and a friend to skiers and climbers across the country. His friends and climbing partners remember him as a source of boundless inspiration; a partner who could help you recognize your own strengths, push your limits, and reach your full potential in the mountains. Last year he met the love of his life, Emily, herself an experienced climber and skier, and the two became almost inseparable adventure partners. The pair recently returned from successful expeditions to the French Alps and the Ruth Gorge in the Alaska Range. 

Austin is deeply loved, and deeply missed. Austin is pre-deceased by his father Mark Mallet. He is survived by his mother, Linda Mallet of The Woodlands; his love, Emily McKay; his uncle, Mark Shenberg; his aunt, Terri Shenberg; many other relatives and friends and his family of dear climbing companions.