Biography

I've had unbelievable fortune in access to public lands and wild spaces (most of whom are on sacred ancestral Indigenous lands) out my back door all my life, and I spent my formative years growing into an adventure sports athlete. I pursued a love of snowboarding, surfing, and mountain biking and chased progression and competition. Interestingly, climbing in any committed capacity came to me just four years ago after various injuries phased out other sports a bit. It was initially entertained purely out of a need to distract myself after coming out as queer and working through divorce. A pal invited me to our local gym and I was hooked immediately. I walked out that day with a membership, shoes and chalk bag, and my life was set on a new course that altered everything from my personal identity to my career. I've processed trauma and grief through this sport, gained an extraordinarily vibrant community which became my family, and have begun to develop a career as a youth climbing coach and rock guide with the intention of creating programming and infrastructure that allows underrepresented humans the opportunity to find their sense of belonging in nature the way I was able to growing up. Climbing even offered an emotional and social framework through which I've been able to understand and live into my identity as a transgender/non-binary human. My current self now dreams of--and is laboring toward--a future where trans people are included and celebrated in sport, where kids are taught the value of their natural world and are led by adult example in how to protect and preserve it, and where justice and equity exist in tandem to see an outdoor community that truly flourishes because of the beautiful diversity of all the humans that call it home.

ATHLETE MENTORSHIP INITATIVE