Illusion Dweller

The Climbing Life of Stimson Bullitt

Stimson Bullitt came to climbing late in life, but with a passion that put him
on rock well into his 80s
A memoir that teaches all of us something about aging with both power and
grace.

Stimson Bullitt was born into a privileged and influential Seattle family, a
position he did not always find comfortable. He showed his black-sheep
tendencies when, after graduating from Yale University, he rode the rails to
come back West, where he worked in Central Washington orchards and on a
highway crew at Chinook Pass. Later he became a skilled lawyer, a champion of
civil and environmental causes, and president of King Broadcasting, the
communications empire built by his mother, Dorothy Stimson Bullitt.

While he was always drawn to the mountains, it wasn’t until Bullitt reached
his 50s and 60s that he sought challenges on North America’s formidable peaks,
including Denali and Mount Rainier. Not until he was 70 did he take up rock
climbing, but it became a match and foil for his passions and, at times, his
inner demons.

Illusion Dweller, named after a particularly hard-earned and difficult climb
(5.10b) at Joshua tree, is Bullitt’s climbing memoir, published posthumously
and based on his own detailed manuscript. He climbed until just before his
death at age 89. His achievements serve as inspiration to climbers of any age
— and to anyone striving to retain or acquire a spirit of adventure later in
life.