Rock Climbing as a Transformational Activity for People in Recovery, a Reflection on my time with Peak Recovery PNW

The June cohort celebrating on top of French’s Dome

I am so proud of the work we did with Peak Recovery PNW and am deeply hopeful that everyone involved in this project can look back on it fondly. While it’s unfortunate what happened with the program not being able to continue as it had previously been, I believe that the lasting lessons of Peak will live on. I for one, am extremely grateful for the time I spent working with Ali, Brent, and everyone at the Alano Club as well as our partners at the Mazamas. We did something no one had really done before, and all of my future guiding work will build upon those lessons.

In 2022, I was offered a job as the Lead Climbing Instructor for a new nonprofit and jumped at the opportunity. Brent and Ali put a tremendous amount of trust in me to build out my own climbing program for Peak. Over the following months, I spent a lot of time reflecting on what I wanted my program to look like and how could I build a space that was welcoming enough and safe enough so that people could come together to learn new skills while building recovery capital. Recovery capital is an industry term referring to the internal and external resources necessary to achieve and maintain recovery. Basically, it’s all about finding ways to live a fulfilling life that doesn’t involve substance.

A student reaching the top of French’s Dome

Thinking about my own experiences with recovery and reflecting on how climbing has been historically taught in guided and volunteer-run courses, I knew that the rock climbing program I would design would need to look and feel different from the established “learn to climb” classes. I did not want to overload my students with too many knots and skills to practice, I wanted them to build confidence in themselves over time. The primary goal of Peak Recovery was to build recovery capital, so I structured my classes and outings around building community and creating connection points between participants. To me, it felt better to teach fewer skills better, than to teach lots of skills without adequate time for those skills to crystallize. For these reasons, I chose to create a list of core skills for the class and make sure students had many opportunities over several weeks to practice them.

Many people, myself included at times, have a perception that climbers are all thin and fit beautiful people with lots of muscles. That perception of what a climber looks like can be harmful and deter people away from the sport. The truth is, anyone can climb. It was important to me to keep this class as approachable as possible for all skill and ability levels. I chose crags with short approaches and did my best to make sure the routes were accessible and fun to all ability levels. People have different learning styles and I wanted to make sure that students could build their skills in a controlled way. At the end of the day, most beginning climbers are probably going to stick to climbing at the gym or simple outdoor cragging for the first few months after they learn to climb. I chose to design a course that would set them up to confidently pass a gym belay test and top rope in single pitch terrain.

The core skills taught in the Introduction to Rock Climbing course

In addition to educating my students, I was responsible for sourcing, vetting, and training volunteers. I have had experience doing this when I worked for the Mazamas, but it is harder to recruit volunteers when you are a new organization. I took time to connect with each volunteer, determine what kind of experience they had and what they were hoping to gain by volunteering. Recruiting volunteers is a challenge for many reasons, and their wellbeing was a concern of mine. It’s no fun to volunteer somewhere and get all the bad jobs or not feel appreciated. Making volunteers feel appreciated was an important step in building recovery community and building a sustainable program. I was so proud that 5 of the 6 graduates of my June Intro to Rock Climbing course returned to volunteer in the September course. That’s a small sample size, but also a really promising one!

Each course had 4 climbing skills lectures at the Mazamas Mountaineering Center and 4 outdoor climbing days. We visited different crags and students were exposed to a wide variety of climbing.

As a guide, I needed to determine the best practices for how safety decisions were made, what equipment was used and how it was maintained, and manage group safety at sites that had up to 26 people. I researched and wrote up documents for best safety practices, inspected gear and maintained rope use logs, and made decisions about which volunteers and assistants to promote in terms of skills they could teach. For each classroom lecture and outdoor climb day, I made two sets of documents, a student set and an assistant set. My goal was to be as clear as possible about who was doing what and when it was happening. For our outdoor climb days, students focused on learning the core skills of the course, if they wanted additional challenges or learning opportunities, I created a menu of skills they could work on. Things like learn to read a climbing guidebook, coil a rope, or tie a bowline knot.

Some of my instruction materials

My intention with volunteer management was never to create a culture where people felt they had to commit to more than they were comfortable with. I wanted returning program grads to always feel it was okay to join one of our climb days and help out or be present at the level that felt right for them. We all have a lot going on in our lives, and I didn’t want any of my program grads to associate climbing with obligation. I let them know I would never hold it against them if they didn’t show up in a volunteer capacity. Managing assistant volunteers was a bit more challenging, because you simply need a certain number of people to mange climbing sites. If no one who shows up can lead belay for example, then we would need to go to sites with top access and change plans.

In November, Peak presented at the Mazamas Holman Auditorium and I was honored to share a bit of my story and hear from program grads and volunteers how much this program has helped them out. I don’t often talk about my recovery journey, it’s a private matter and I prefer to talk about climbing instead. Being in a room surrounded by dozens of supportive people was really special and seeing how many of my students came out to support the program was really special.

Speaking at the Peak Recovery presentation in November 2023

I am deeply sad that my time at Peak Recovery PNW is over, but I am so proud that the work we did contributed to people making better choices for themselves. Through climbing, we can attain heights previously thought impossible. These heights can be physical when we do big climbs, but they also be personal- the accomplishment of feeling relaxed in a group of people, laughing while belaying a friend, or coming to terms with a fear of heights. Our personal wins don’t have to be big fancy gestures. One of the biggest wins I experienced as an instructor was when a student took a nap in the Peak van, this person felt safe enough around us to take a much-needed judgement-free nap!!!

Moving forward, I hope to work with recovery groups in the future. I think people have this idea of what a climber is and think they can’t possibly be a climber because they don’t fit a certain mold. But the truth is, everyone can try this sport out if they want, and it really does not matter how good you are at it, what matters is that you are having fun.

The group getting ready for a full day of climbing at Horsethief Butte

Thank you so much to the dozens of people, sponsors, and organizations that came together to make Peak Recovery possible.