It’s midnight in Puerto Williams, Chile, at the southernmost yacht club in the world, when climber, wingsuit BASE jumper, pilot, and sea captain John Verbeck rings my cell from 7,000 miles away. Tucked in his sailboat at the Micalvi Yacht Club, built around an old beached German ship, he calls to catch up and talk about his upcoming work and climbing goals.

“We’ve got a threefold kind of thing,” he says from his 14-meter prototype boat built by a father and son in Brazil called Iona. “Individuals come aboard and allow whatever they love to do to emerge, whether it’s science, art, climbing, whatever it might be.”

Though it’s January, it’s astral summer in Chile, and John plans to stay in the area for the rest of the season, where the daylight stretches from 4 am to 11 pm. It’s so warm that it’s “shorts and no shirt weather,” he says in his gravely voice.

With the waters lapping against the hull, the clatter of masts and rigging rattling in the wind, and bright stars gleaming overhead, John tells me about his recent month-long trip to Antarctica. He shared the potential of first ascent climbing and opening BASE exits there and in Puerto Williams, and the latest leg in his near-four year journey around the world.

In Antarctica, he says, “We did quite a bit of skiing, some climbing, kayaking, and whatnot, but the main goal was to suss out possibilities for future projects.” He did some short multi-pitch lines of the glacial ice climbing, but those were a test to gauge the ability of his partner, who was less experienced. “I wanted to climb more, but you have to move at the team’s pace,” he says.

Last season in the Chilean Canals, one of the many aboard, he worked with scientist Taylor Bratton, founder of the Sea Collective nonprofit. “They’re going around and doing mega transect,” he says. This includes doing a “survey of the local fishing communities, the state that they’re in, and figuring out how to better preserve and protect our marine areas with the fisheries and the fishermen in mind to continue their way of life,” he says.

With cameraman and director Chris Jordan, he’s helping with a feature-length movie that takes “people into a meditation on beauty,” John says. “Chris is using both motion and still photography, as well as narration, to use this landscape, the Chilean landscape, which is so wild, to share with people this sense of beauty that’s both within them and around them.”

Air, Land & Sea

The Iona is equipped with everything: dry suits, diving suits, skis, ice gear, rock gear, a paraglider, camera gear, wing suits, and BASE gear.

John’s BASE jumped in Africa, Europe, South America, North America, and Asia. “It’s taking me on a quest all over the world.” The only continents he hasn’t jumped in are Antarctica and Australia. “But jumping in Antarctica is a plan.”

Before moving on board, John partnered with top BASE athlete Scotty Bob in the U.S. and Gabriel Lott in Brazil. With them, he scrambled or climbed to reach a summit, then wingsuit BASE jumped back to the ground. He’s opened exits (first BASE descents) from Alaska to South America, including multi-pitch climbs and jumps in El Potrero Chico.

To date, John’s done roughly 1,000 BASE jumps.

First Ascent in Patagonia, First Descent in Alaska, & Flying off Castleton Tower in Winter

John’s work has included remodeling homes, consulting on waste energy systems, film and media projects, skydive instructing, guiding, camera operating, and working as a professional athlete. “In Antarctica,” he says, “I was wearing the captain’s and guide hat.”

His accomplishments on rock include establishing the 250m 5.11c C2 Witches Brew on Gran Gendarme Del Pollone in Patagonia off the Marconi Ice Shelf with Crystal Davis-Robbins in 2011. The crux pitch “connects to an overhanging thirty-meter offwidth with loose flakes dangling off of it,” Davis-Robbins wrote on Pataclimb. And in 2017, with Pryce Brown, the duo pulled off “the first climbable wingsuit exit in Alaska’s history,” wrote Brown in his YouTube video description. 

“We had scouted the zone from the air in the weeks prior, and it looked promising, but countless unknowns stood in our way… I pulled in John Verbeck, a rock climbing badass and fellow BASE jumper, to lead the climb [and] the trip paid off in a bigger way than we ever could have dreamed,” wrote Brown.

After making a winter ascent of the North Chimney on Utah’s Castleton Tower and BASE jumping off the summit in 2017, John’s partner Matt Blank said, “John Verbeck is one of the best people to suffer with. And it’s a good thing that he is since he seems to seek out suffering, even when nonsuffering options are available.”

Childhood

At age 18, John worked as a climbing instructor for High Sierra Camp, where he had an ah-ha moment. “I realized that I love teaching. And so today, I take people out at every opportunity to expose them to something new, whether it’s their first big wall or outdoor rock climb. I like to show them different perspectives on flying in the mountains.”

Family trips to Yosemite spurred his love of climbing. As a child, he would look at climbers on El Cap and wish he could be there, too. His first time climbing El Cap was in the summer of 2002 when he was 18. He’s gone on to do “well over 30 to 40 laps up the formation,” he says. “I got hyper-focused on El Cap and wanted to climb everything.”

One of these laps includes the 1,800-foot Zodiac, a route that takes most parties a week. He led his friend Brian Mosbaugh up it for his first wall, and they took only one rope, meaning they had no way to retreat. “I just ended up leading it nonstop, he says. “I short-fixed the whole way (pulling up extra slack at the anchor and self-belaying) and, you know, did a 12-hour lap.”

John lasted one year in college before bailing and heading to Europe for three years, where he climbed there and in northern Africa. From there, he moved to Virginia and earned his degree in physics and psychology while frequenting the Appalachian Mountains. In total, he spent a decade based out of Virginia. His romping grounds included the New River Gorge, Seneca Rock, Linville Gorge, Red River Gorge, the Tennessee Wall, and northern Georgia.

Now age 40, John’s been climbing for 34 years.

Making it Work

Through multimedia, John’s work promotes environmental awareness as he blends sports, science, and art into a holistic approach to storytelling. He does this through the Vertical Wings Project, an initiative that unites scientists, artists, and athletes on a journey across the Americas and beyond. His organization aims to “ignite a profound sense of wonder and connection through inclusive storytelling, leveraging the wisdom of nature and culture.”

In the summer of 2022, John married yoga therapist and outdoor educator Paula Wild after spending a year and a half on their boat and six months living in a Sprinter van around Yosemite.

The Chilean Canals

Back on the boat, John tells me he’s in the Beagle Channel, overlooking the Dientes de Navarino mountain range, which he says has some of the worst rock he’s climbed. The prize here is big wall climbing with potential wingsuit BASE exits in the Chilean Canals near Tierra Del Fuego, known as The End of the World.

He says climbing here is time and cost-prohibitive for most people because the area is so remote. But, since his vessel doubles as a basecamp, all he needs to do is sail over, hop on a dingy, and commit to the wall. He’s putting together a team of Chilean climbers. “We’ve got many different ideas in mind; we’ll see which ones pan out.”

The weather dictates the agenda in Tierra Del Fuego, so it’s all about timing and having the right conditions.

He adds, “The Chilean Canals are unbelievable. The goal is to climb these 1,000-meter big walls and fly off them within 24 hours. It’s the culmination of life experience that’s allowed me to do that,” he says.

“To flow in the mountains, whether flying or climbing.”

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