safety is paramount. If safety isn’t the primary concern, consequence from accidents, mishaps, judgement errors, exposure, or overuse ensues. The cost of this consequence can involve trauma, financial expense, down time, loss of privilege, physical injury, or death. These costs are often borne by those who support and assist us. To be safe is to manage risk in order to promote sustainability, longevity, and enjoyment. To manage risk allows us to maximize our efforts and maintain learning and progress. 

Safety also includes creating safe spaces and opportunities for the marginalized and vulnerable. In a safe environment we are able to freely express who we are, who we want to be, and to make strides towards these ideals.

mentorship is how we pass along knowledge with care and compassion. It comes from experience. It often comes from loss. As mentors, we carry trauma from personal loss and tragedy. This may be our own or from partners; or the greater community’s. The trauma we carry is a lesson on how to do things better, safer, smarter, with less impact, less energy. We mentor because we care about those who we mentor. We care about the impact that we leave in this life. We honor those who we’ve lost and we use this loss to try to help others. As mentors we are always learning. We attempt to avoid the pitfalls of dogma and doctrine. Humility is our mentor. 

More often than not, mentorship helps the student work with what they have, to consider their resources, to recognize their gifts, and to be satisfied with what’s available. As mentors, we know that life really isn’t fair. We all come from different backgrounds which shape our access to opportunity, wealth, genetic predisposition, etc. Good mentoring is working with what we have and not wishing we had it all.

We strive for performance in all of our programs. Performance isn’t only about competing, athleticism, or continual progression of difficulty. Performance celebrates human achievement. When we perform we learn what we are capable of and what our weakness are. We learn to face fear and failure. We learn to move with discomfort. As we age, performance capacity may change, but this should’t mean we abandon it. 

We must always be concerned that pursuing performance will come with risk of injury or accident. There’s an opportunity cost for the time and energy spent. If performance compromises our mission, motto, or core values, then we take a step back. 

Performance requires energy, and there is only so much energy to go around. Learning to walk away is just as important as learning how to try again.

As we grow and mature, our awareness expands. We build on it from experience. It shapes our perspective, in turn showing us what our impact is, and how this might take away from other’s experience. Our personal impact may impact the experience of others whom we might not comprehend. This includes honoring the past as well as future versions of users. We’re reminded that we must share. If we take more than we need, there will be less for others. More importantly, we learn to take less. 

Awareness keeps us vigilant. It reminds us to build systems that minimize accidents. It forces us to communicate and check in with our partners, friends, and family.

climbing is an incredible teacher for developing empathy. Through partnerships, travel, time in nature, and personal development, we gain understanding of how things outside of ourselves function. We learn to listen and appreciate that the needs of others might not be the same as ours. Instead of projecting our expectations on others, we build value in theirs. 

Joy is the celebration of emotions. It’s the embrace of the human experience through all of its highs and all of its lows. It’s the celebration of the wonder of being alive. When all of our values line up, our compass points to joy.

As climbers and world travelers, we can’t ignore our impact. Climbing in nature can generate long-lasting, or even, irreversible impact to the rock, approach area, and natural habitat for native species of flora and fauna. It’s our responsibility to examine and mitigate our presence and determine a balance. We have to acknowledge that other users will also have impact. Outside of our relatively small climbing community, other users include all of the other user interests in nature, as well as the animals that inhabit our climbing use sites. We must minimize our impact and learn to disperse lest we risk overuse and the consequences from such. We take strides to leave the smallest trace possible. We seek climbing areas that have less use or might be less popular (but still world class). We work with local climbing advocacy groups to seek clarity on local ethics and etiquette. 

We support the communities that host our visits. This includes funding or donating to the development and maintenance of their climbing crags. Beyond the local climbing communities, we strive to support local business and homeowners who have welcomed climbers. When available, we assist with volunteer efforts.

We encourage athletes and their families to buy their equipment from companies whose values align with ours. 

Each year, we donate hundreds of dollars to local route developers and access organizations to the areas we visit. These funds are used for new routes or replacement anchors or other hardware. If possible, we lend a hand with trail building, trash collection, or whatever else we can do to help out.

We donate a minimum of 1% of annual sales and program revenue to non-profits dedicated to furthering environmental causes and protection. We've chosen The Nature Conservancy as our main beneficiary. With their CARBON FOOTPRINT CALCULATOR, it's easy to find the carbon effect we generate through travel, and to take steps to reduce it, or to make contributions which will offset it.

We seek out business and organizations that share our values. Building coalition through shared interests promotes sustainability. We recognize that there is strength in numbers. The future of climbing must come through involvement and participation. Maintaining partnerships fosters the growth of humanity and helps us escape the limits and pitfalls of tribalism. 

Taking care of our athletes and clients includes keeping their health and well-being a priority. We maintain high standards with protecting our participants from danger while helping them learn to navigate the risks involved specifically with climbing, traveling, group dynamics, and self-care. Learning to set boundaries is critical in our growth as climbers. This parallels our journey to adulthood. Combining travel and climbing can lead to higher levels of stress. We recognize that stress is an important stimulator for growth, but it can also be traumatic. Self-care is an important component of existing in an increasingly complex world, especially while pursuing performance in a high stress activity like rock climbing. 

As mentors we carry the responsibility to keep learning. We owe it to our students. We learn from observation, innovation, mistakes, tragedy, creativity, opportunity, and listening. We’ve often learned the hard way - the way that causes trauma. We take the role of mentor largely because we don’t want others to have to learn this way. We carry the burden of our loss as a reminder to help others avoid mistakes. Learning involves understanding hypotheticals that may be beyond our comprehension but aren’t beyond our control. 

We respect the work of professional scientists, researchers, physicians, engineers, and others who dedicate to their work to helping, rather than harming. We won’t give in to the sensationalism of conspiracy theories. 

We celebrate our differences. We all have unique situations and come from individual histories. 

How we speak about ourselves, others, environment, situation, performance, etc. profoundly influences our experience and that of others. The words we use have power. If we’re not careful, we can normalize destructive behavior simply by speaking it. We discourage use of violent and destructive terms such as “crush,” “kill,” “slay,” “destroy,” when referring to climbing performance. We will not tolerate misogyny, hate speech, xenophobia, homophobia, transphobia, or any language that seeks to dehumanize individuals, communities, or cultures. 

Language is a common ground for understanding each other and our attempt to understand differences. We rely on accepted definitions of words in order to minimize confusion or chaos.

We won’t engage in or debate conspiracy theories. We trust the work of professional scientists and journalists who seek to learn and share the truth.

We encourage learning through observation. While it’s important to ask questions to seek clarity, we feel that observation develops creativity, spontaneity, resourcefulness, and greater comprehension - rather than just being told what to do. As climbers, so much of our learning comes from observing and understanding the skill of experienced climbers. 

Listening, watching, and using our senses to understand, provides context for deeper meaning and retention. Ultimately, this tends to mean less screen time and more hands-on time in the real world.

To be aware is to be present; within our selves and our surroundings.

This applies to both where we are when we climb and the context of the greater world when we engage with each other and our environment.

We are aware of ourselves, our partners, our environment, our strengths, and our weaknesses.

To be aware is to know when to lead and when ask for help. To be aware is to know we do not have all the answers.

Our actions are a result of our awareness.