House earned a Bachelor of Science in ecology from The Evergreen State College in 1995. He has been a fully Union Internationale des Associations de Guides de Montagnes-certified guide since 1999, and is the seventh American Mountain Guides Association guide to complete the certification. He now guides for and is based in southwest Colorado, in Ridgway, Colorado. He works as an ambassador for the technical outdoor clothing company, Patagonia, where he works with both marketing and product design, development, and testing. He has been a Patagonia ambassador since 1999. In 2015 he co-founded with his former coach Scott Johnston. On March 25, 2010, while lead climbing on Mount Temple, Steve fell approximately 25 meters. He broke six ribs in multiple places, collapsed his right lung, fractured his pelvis in two places, and fractured several vertebrae in his spine. Barely a year later and after months of rehabilitation, House set off for the Himalaya to climb Makalu, the fifth-highest mountain in the world. His book Beyond the Mountain was the 2009 winner of the Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature. In 2015 he and Scott Johnston published Training for the New Alpinism and The New Alpinism Training Log.
Alpine climbing
He is vocal in his support of "alpine style" climbs, which involve travelling quickly with little gear, and leaving no gear on the mountain. When, in 2004, the Russian team won the 14th Piolet d'Or for their ascent of the north face of Jannu, he criticized the team for using months to climb the face while setting up fixed ropes, and for leaving 77 ropes and multiple camps behind on the mountain.
2003 The Talkeetna Standard, Eye Tooth, Alaska Range, Alaska, USA; FA V 5.9 WI5 1000m with Jeff Hollenbaugh
2003 Roberts-Rowell-Ward Route, Mt. Dickey, Alaska Range, Alaska, USA; second ascent VI 5.9 A2 1675m with Jeff Hollenbaugh
2004 Southwest Face, K7, Charakusa Valley, Karakorum, Pakistan , solo. For this ascent he won the People's Award for the 14th Piolet d'Or.
2005 Central Pillar of the Rupal Face,, September 1–8, on Nanga Parbat in northern Pakistan with Vince Anderson. Completed in a little over a week, the climb won him and Anderson the Piolet d'Or. Steve House's account was published in , in which he describes the ascent as the culmination of "years of a physical and psychological journey."
