I woke up in my VW van parked behind the Boulder Rock Club and started making coffee, map in hand, plotting the drive to Eldorado Canyon. I鈥檇 arrived a week earlier from my home in Seattle to spend the summer guiding for the Boulder Rock School. It was my first day, and I was nervous 鈥� not about the climbing (though I鈥檇 be leading clients up routes I鈥檇 never climbed before), but about the drive.聽
It was July 2001 (when paper maps were still a thing), and I didn鈥檛 know Broadway from Baseline. And though I鈥檇 been guiding in Washington since the mid-1990s, I feared being 鈥渇ound out鈥� as an outsider in Colorado. Nothing scared me more than getting lost en route to one of the country鈥檚 most famous climbing areas with a van full of clients paying good money for local knowledge.聽聽
To my immense relief, all went well that day. So well, in fact, that by the time another week had passed, I鈥檇 ditched the map and had logged dozens of routes in Eldo (mostly 鈥渙nsight鈥� guiding), Boulder Canyon, the Flatirons and on Longs Peak. I couldn鈥檛 believe the volume and variety of climbing so close to town. I would guide in the morning, climb with friends in the afternoon and repeat. I鈥檇 never climbed so much in my life.聽
Admittedly, I used to roll my eyes whenever I heard Boulder being called the 鈥淐enter of the Universe鈥� for American climbing. It couldn鈥檛 be that good. But by the end of that summer, my skepticism had turned to pride: I owned 14 guidebooks covering thousands of climbs, all within 90 minutes of Boulder. I felt like I was just getting started.
So I did that classic Boulder thing: I never left.
I stayed because being a climber in Boulder feels limitless; it means as many different things as there are climbers. We鈥檙e scramblers and ice hogs, first ascensionists and gym rats, alpinists and Olympians. We鈥檙e young and old, fast and slow, inexperienced and elite. We鈥檙e of every color, gender, shape and size, and yet somehow we鈥檝e all chosen climbing as our medium to face fears, challenge our beliefs and build meaningful friendships.聽
Above all, being a climber in Boulder means taking part in a wild and wonderful community invigorated by our unique vertical playground. Here, there鈥檚 a synergy at work 鈥� a motivating power that strengthens relationships well beyond the 鈥淥ff belay!鈥� on top of a climb.聽
Photo by Jon Glassberg, Louder Than Eleven
