Athlete Information

• Name: Peter ("Pete") Takeda
• Age: 34
• Marital Status: Single
• Born: Boise, Idaho
• Occupation: Writer, Photographer and Mountain Climber
• Competes: Men's Rock and Ice Climbing and for Personal Achievement
• Home: Boulder, Colorado

Accomplishments

• 1999 - Competed at ESPN Winter X-Games
  This March,1999 Pete will represent the American Alpine Club at the British Mountaineering Council annual meet in Scotland.Then he's on an expedition to Alaska in April and India in August.
• 1998 - No #1 at Arctic World Ice Festival, Men's Rock and Ice Climbing event, Oureay, Colorado Numerous rock and ice climbing expeditions including Colorado; Yosemite, California; Canada's Banff/Jasper Corridor and India.

Goals

"To do the best I can and have fun." Pete is a professional photographer and author. He is a regular contributing columnist to Climbing Magazine and is frequently featured on the major adventure and sports magazine covers and catalogs and videos. Pete is contracted to write two books for 1999, one for Climbing and one for Sharpend Publications. He is planning another book about his experiences growing up in America as an Asian American.

Comments

"I'm a climber and since I was a kid, the sport sort of chose me." "I grew up in Boise, Idaho in a traditional Asian American household and there were only two Asian Americans in my high school, myself and my brother. I rejected certain things and created a different reality and the more I did that, the more I have come back to my identity and heritage as a Japanese. I've never been to Japan, but I can and do relate to how Japanese I really am." "I think people should understand who they are, rather than fighting their identity. We live in a society with no roots, and the strongest bonds we have is our incredible strength and value within our own families."