At the summit of North Carolina’s Ridges Mountain lie hundreds of bulbous black boulders whose splitter cracks and vexing friction problems have long tested climbers during winter months when temperatures drop at the mountainous crags around Boone and Asheville.

But the Asheboro Boulders, created from granitic rock formations more than 586 million years old, have also drawn the interest of many who wouldn’t know a splitter from a slab. In the early 2000s, a mineral company appraised the land and mulled plans for a quarry that would have destroyed the boulders and the plant and animal life that thrives among them. The land was privately owned, and though the Carolina Climbers Coalition (CCC) negotiated an annual lease with the owner to preserve climbing access, the area’s future was constantly in doubt.

“There was always a question mark,” Mike Reardon, executive director of the CCC, told Climbing. “We knew the landowner had intentions of selling.”

In December, the land was finally sold—but not to a housing developer or mineral magnate.

Instead, the Asheboro Boulders are now being run by the North Carolina Zoo, in the first known case of a U.S. zoo managing climbing on its lands. The partnership is the culmination of years of relationship-building and good stewardship by local climbers, Reardon said. It also represents for climbing groups in the southeast.

“Climbers get excited about an area, they fall in love with it, and then they figure out the right ways to conserve it in perpetuity,” Reardon said.

Why would a  zoo want a climbing area?

The NC Zoo agreed to add boulderers to the species it oversees in order to expand the now 423-acre Ridges Mountain Nature Preserve, which was established in 2000. The addition of the Asheboro Boulders puts the entire Ridges Mountain under the aegis of the zoo and increases the to 2,805 acres.

Zoo staff say the land is home to several animal species—including bobcats and spotted salamanders—that are uncommon to the area. The huge granitic boulders and basic soil also support plants like fragrant sumac and southern shagbark hickory.

Allowing climbing in such an ecologically important space was “a little cutting edge,” Daniel Dunn, Access Fund’s Southeast regional manager, told Climbing. “It was not guaranteed that recreation would be prioritized.”

Before the zoo took over, the Asheboro Boulders were owned for years by Ben Crotts, a former Western Electric worker who died in 2022. The CCC leased the land from Crotts but was never able to come up with a deal good enough to buy it.

Still, Crotts brushed off offers from developers and worked to maintain access for climbers. Once, after neighbors shut down a street used to access the Asheboro Boulders, Crotts bought an adjacent parcel to guarantee road access.

When Crotts passed away, the land was scooped up by a private conservation buyer, who handed it to The Conservation Fund, which eventually transferred it to the state of North Carolina with help from the state’s Land and Water Fund and donors.

Access Fund also played a pivotal role, negotiating with the NC Zoo to ensure that climbing on its lands would be recognized.

The NC Zoo’s actual exhibits are about a 10-minute drive from the boulders, so climbers needn’t worry about power-screaming in earshot of an intolerant elephant. But because the zoo is now administering the Asheboro Boulders—and running a reservation system for bouldering—Dunn said he hopes more climbers will be encouraged to get involved with its conservation work and research.

“I really see recreation as a big motivator and something that connects people to the land,” he said. “It helps create conservation advocates.”

Asheboro bouldering goes back decades

The new ownership adds a fascinating wrinkle to the Asheboro Boulders’s history. Climbers started developing the boulders in the 1980s as a wintertime spot for Boone residents, Dunn said. The area is well into the Piedmont region of North Carolina, where the climate is milder, and near major cities like Raleigh and Charlotte.

Once the area grew in popularity, the CCC started working with Crotts to secure access, though terms of the arrangement were loose at first. Yet climbers steadily established a range of problems to test themselves on cracks and delicate, textured faces.

epitomizes the Asheboro style, ascending a vertical finger crack that bends left and rewards careful smearing. The boulderfield also features Font-style mantles on slopers over flat landings in problems like Darth Vader (V2). Another classic, (V5), offers climbers jaded with slab a few powerful compression moves up an overhanging column of black and gray rock.

“It’s a really quality boulderfield that I think stacks up in the state,” Dunn said.

There’s no guidebook for the Asheboro Boulders, and Reardon, of the CCC, said that lends the area a kind of “open-nature” feel and also encourages people to befriend more experienced climbers who know the problems. Reardon said the Asheboro Boulders—columnal rocks “stacked like chocolate drops” atop a subtle mountain—are like “nowhere else that I know.”

“Some of them are just strange, globular rock stacks that just seem completely out of place for the landscape,” he said. “And there’s a lot of cracks. So that’s always a bonus.”

For more information about how to access the Asheboro Boulders (you need a reservation) check out .

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Founded in 2019, Kaya bills itself, with a healthy measure of new-kid-on-the-block confidence, as “the climber’s app”—the definitive platform for climbing devotees of all stripes to log routes, developing training plans, and connect with fellow practitioners of the sport. It’s a new business, still focused on growing its user base, but has nearly $4 million in seed funding in the bank and imminent plans to launch a premium version of its (currently 100 percent free) model.

It also has a brand-new CEO.

Kim Ang, part of the original founding team at Kaya, took over as the startup’s chief executive this month. șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű Business Journal got on the phone with Ang this week to chat about the company, her transition to CEO, and why the climbing community needs a tool like this now more than ever. An edited transcript of our conversation is below.

How did you come to climbing originally?

I like to call myself the most regular climber on our entire team. At Kaya, we’re 12 extremely dedicated climbers and we have a wide variety of folks represented: level-five route setters, climbing coaches, and even a former USA Climbing National Team member. There are some pretty elite climbers here. For me, I came into it much more like your average, casual enthusiast. I experimented with it a little bit in college, but only really fell in love with it when I started climbing at the Mission Cliffs gym in San Francisco. Around 2016, it just started to blow my mind, the whole lifestyle and community around climbing. I fell more and more in love with it over time.

What did your career look like before Kaya?

The last big chapter in my career was at a company called IDEO, a global design and innovation firm. I started there in a business development role, but over four years came closer and closer to the design side of things—in particular, what IDEO calls “venture design,” which basically involves bringing products, brands, and services to market. After doing that many times over, as lots of folks do in consulting, I started to to ask myself, when am I going to do this [venture design] for something I’m really passionate about? That really began my hunt for a next chapter. When I started exploring jobs, I took a climbing trip with a close friend of mine who was the original CEO and founder of Kaya, Austin Lee. We were out in Red Rock in Nevada. I remember driving around, getting to the crag, talking about our climbing projects, and I started to think, maybe this is the next thing. After that, I started working at Kaya part time, on a consulting basis.

How did your path eventually lead to CEO?

After we raised our original seed round of $1.2 million, we dove right into building the product and launching the beta, which included about 35 climbing gyms at the time. After that, through 2020 and all its COVID challenges, we experienced a lot of growth. We went from 35 to 230 partner gyms. We’ve become the exclusive digital competition partner for USA Climbing, we’ve run hundreds of events through USA Climbing and our gym partners, and we’ve raised our second seed round of $2.5 million. Along with that transition—as kind of a new chapter for the company—we’re making this executive leadership transition as well.

How do Kaya’s gym partnerships work?

Out mission at Kaya is always in service of the climber’s experience and progression in connection to the sport. Gyms are an invaluable partner to us in that regard. We give our entire platform to gyms for free. Through the app, they can make use of our route-setting management software, run challenges to engage their climbers, and use the platform to push beta circuits and instruction. We offer that to them for free in exchange for simply engaging climbers in the sport. It’s a very symbiotic relationship, and for that reason, we’re unlike all the other climbing apps out there.

To that end, we welcome anyone who wants to partner with us, whether they’re gyms, local climbing organizations, or other types of climbing groups. We just had a very successful pilot competition with the Southeastern Climbers Coalition and we’re about to launch several more partnerships with local climbing organizations, as well as some national initiatives with USA Climbing and the Access Fund.

If both gyms and users can access the platform for free, how do you plan to generate revenue once the community is large enough?

Our next big project is going to be the launch of Kaya Premium, which will come out in late July. It’s going to be a whole suite of analytics-driven features to help you enhance your performance and your understanding of yourself as a climber. It will also offer you tools to discover the right type of climbs for you, personally, indoors or outdoors.

At the same time, there will always be a community resource available for free. Right now, if you go onto the app and search for any climb, you can basically find all the beta in the world pulled into one place. If there’s beta on Instagram, on YouTube, on Vimeo, it’s all pulled into Kaya. All of that will remain free, and then the premium model will focus on helping climbers improve individually.

So there’s a lot coming in terms of the product. But that’s just one piece of it. In terms of my personal mission for the company, we’re also very focused on building inclusivity in the sport of climbing. Something that has been really important to me and the whole executive team is to carry a torch for what the future of climbing looks like, feels like, and who it involves.

What kind of strategies and initiatives are you using to build diversity in the sport?

When the Black Lives Matter movement had its resurgence last year, we got together as a team and wrote The Climbers Pledge, which is a series of commitments and actions that individual climbers can take to make themselves real allies in the push to diversify the climbing industry. That pledge was launched alongside a fundraiser for The Brown Ascenders. We raised almost $40,000 for them, and we had most of the big names in climbing sign the pledge. Since then, we’ve continued to speak out as things have arisen. We’ve been vocal.

On top of that, diversity has been a core part of how we built the Kaya Collective, a group of athletes, ambassadors, and coaches who represent us. We’re featuring climbers who might look different from the folks traditionally featured when it comes to climbing media. That’s a big part of why I’m excited to step up and lead. I don’t know of many other Asian female leaders in our industry. They might be out there, but I haven’t gotten the chance yet to connect with them. I really hope that if we can tell more stories about people of color—and about women of color leading in the industry—we can begin to change the narrative.

What I know is that when I joined this team and started working in the climbing industry, I was shocked at how few other people of color I got to work with on a daily basis. I come from a relatively innovative and diverse industry background. When I started working with Kaya—even though I had the most well-intentioned, allied co-workers—it didn’t change the fact that on a day-to-day basis, pitching hundreds of gyms and brand partners, I felt, in some ways, pretty alone. So this diversity and inclusion work, finding people in the industry who are committed to changing the future of the sport, it’s been a personal lifeline for me, too. Getting to roll up my sleeves and do this work has been instrumental for my own journey.

This year, the Olympics will include climbing competitions for the first time. Do you have anything planned to coincide with that development?

We have some stuff cooking up. I can’t disclose it quite yet, but we’re certainly aware of the opportunities around this year’s Olympics. One thing I’ll tease on that front is that we’ll be launching the first-ever adult recreational competition in partnership with USA Climbing and the Access Fund. It will involve indoor and outdoor competitions, launching right around the time of the Olympics. So be on the lookout for that.

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How do I apply for a paycheck protection loan? What if I have to furlough employees? How do I pivot my manufacturing to make PPEs? What if I have to close my business? These are the types of questions the Outdoor Industry Association fielded when its 1,300 member businesses began calculating the economic impacts of the months-long coronavirus quarantine. OIA immediately changed course and established a COVID-19 resource hub, and redirected everyone on staff to work on coronavirus response.

It would have been a challenging pivot in the best of times, but the pandemic came at a crux moment for OIA. The crisis threatens the 31-year-old organization’s funding model—which was already under pressure—and OIA’s new executive director, Lise Aangeenbrug, took office just a week before stay-at-home orders started shuttering outdoor businesses around the country.

“There’s no roadmap for this,” Aangeenbrug said. “Our singular goal right now is to help our members survive.”

But by prioritizing its members, OIA is putting off a question of its own, one that it must answer from within: How will OIA survive this? Is OIA itself healthy and strong enough to be the beacon of leadership that the industry needs right now, and in the future?

OIA’s Complex Relationship with Outdoor Retailer

Even before the crisis, OIA faced a potentially unreliable long-term funding model, with most of its eggs in the basket of Outdoor Retailer. OIA’s $8.9 million annual revenue comes, in large part, from Outdoor Retailer royalties (58 percent). The remaining revenue comes from Outdoor Foundation donations (18 percent), membership dues (16 percent), and other sponsorships (8 percent).

In many ways, it’s a smart model because OIA doesn’t have to constantly ask its members for more money, says Phyllis Grove, OIA board member and VP of marketing and ecommerce at Hydro Flask. (Annual membership fees range from $250 to $30,000 depending on the size and type of the organization.)

However, it also puts OIA at risk. Even with healthy reserves, Aangeenbrug says, OIA needs the national trade show, otherwise it would be in trouble. Now OIA is in that troubling situation. In response to the pandemic, Outdoor Retailer canceled the 2020 Summer Market. A few weeks later, VF Corporation chipped in 15 percent ($55,000) of its Summer Market refund to OIA, recognizing that the cancellation creates “a critical funding gap in OIA’s traditional revenue stream,” Smartwool (part of VF) Brand President Jen McLaren said in a news release. A few other brands—Patagonia, W.L. Gore, Hydro Flask, and NEMO among them—followed suit. And on June 1, OIA made the tough ask to the broader industry. Nora Stowell, board chair, in a letter urged members to make a donation that replaces the royalty fee brands would have paid through exhibiting costs. “The health of OIA is tied to the health of the industry,” she wrote.

“When they canceled this year’s show, I thought, ‘I don’t know how OIA is going to survive,’” said Carolyn Brodsky, co-founder of Sterling Rope Company. She has been among those in the industry to question Outdoor Retailer’s relevance and cost structure, as well as protest OIA’s dependency on the trade show, but she believes the association has an important leadership role to play.

Peter Sachs is of a similar mindset. As the general manager of LOWA and a member of OIA, he relies on the trade show for business. But, “To me, [OIA] sold their soul when they agreed to endorse Outdoor Retailer exclusively,” Sachs said. “I wish they had owned it and then gotten an organization like Emerald Expositions to run it for them. OIA’s future is controlled by a corporation that’s not in the outdoor, ski, or bike industry. They’re in the trade show industry.”

Wrestling with Revenue

Revenue diversification has been on OIA’s slate for the entire 11 years Travis Campbell, VF president of emerging brands and Americas platforms, has served on the board. Because the partnership with Emerald Expositions, Outdoor Retailer’s owner, remains strong, he says, nothing signaled to the board that they needed to make a sudden, drastic change. Change has always been incremental. For example, new programs like the Skip Yowell Future Leadership Academy and the Futurist Project brought in $100,000 in (combined) sponsorship funds.

In January, OIA gathered a task force to discuss funding alternatives—part of its ongoing efforts to tackle the problem. By March, when it became clear that its members were focused on trying to meet their own basic financial needs, OIA decided to table the discussion about its own funding model. “It’s hard to talk to people about money when they’re hurting,” Aangeenbrug said.

Another new, revenue-producing program, the Outdoor Industry Business Certificate, was due to launch in early 2020. OIA now expects it to go live later in 2020, with university partners like Utah State University and Western Colorado University. Still, the annual revenue it would generate is small potatoes compared to the more than $5 million from Outdoor Retailer.

“It’s time to have a more transparent conversation with our members about funding,” Hydro Flask’s Grove said. “It’s very clear that with the cancellation of the summer show, we have to accelerate the way that we request more money from members.”

Shifting to a direct dues model—a much higher cost for members—is the only real solution for relieving OIA entirely of its dependency on Outdoor Retailer, says Campbell. But to do that, he said OIA has to be clear on its value proposition: “You have to deliver a lot of value if you’re going to ask for more money and that’s the part we continue to wrestle with.”

Shelley Dunbar, co-owner of Neptune Mountaineering and former co-owner of Sea to Summit, says she would much rather pay a higher OIA membership rate and see OIA put on its own smaller show than pay gobs of money to the for-profit trade show that’s often unattainable for the smaller brands who make the industry competitive. “It’s the single biggest expense in our marketing budget,” she said.

As Campbell sees it, though, it’s not an either/or conversation. He believes that while trade shows overall are struggling, OIA’s cut from Outdoor Retailer will never drop to zero because he has faith in OR. “Who knows, they may not even be called trade shows in the future,” Campbell said. “But OR will figure out an economic model that works for them that supports this industry.”

Time to Shine

During crisis, a trade association has the opportunity to be an invaluable resource. OIA was quick to establish a COVID-19 hub, which Grove found invaluable.

Dunbar, however, wishes OIA used this time to refocus on the trade membership. Yes, fighting for public lands is important, she says, but there are other groups that can and should take the lead, like The Conservation Alliance and The Access Fund. Retailers are a subset of the industry that has been underserved, Brodsky and Dunbar say. “It would be beneficial for me if OIA enabled retail members to share information like best practices, best software, and point of sale systems, or if they brought back the Retail Benchmarking Report,” Dunbar said.

There’s also work to do on the diversity front, both internally and externally. OIA knows it has a responsibility to better integrate more BIPOC voices and make JEDI progress across all programs. And to help members do the same, OIA says it will host facilitated sessions this summer with people from diverse backgrounds educating industry leaders.

Once the pandemic crisis settles down, Aangeenbrug says she looks forward to getting back to moving the outdoor industry forward. She cites the Climate Action Corps, a program launched in January to help companies reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, as one such initiative. And of course, OIA’s future funding model will be top of mind as the industry moves into an uncertain trade show future.

Whatever the fix, Brodsky wants to see OIA lead and innovate: “This is a time when retailers and organizations and members need their association the most.”

This story originally ran in the Summer 2020 issue of The Voice.

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Life and business have changed dramatically for everyone in the last few months. Like reps, retailers, and others on the for-profit side of the outdoor industry, those working in the nonprofit sector have faced new challenges almost daily since the pandemic began. This week, șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű Business Journal spoke with three outdoor nonprofit leaders—Emily Newman, executive director of Camber Outdoors; Chris Winter, executive director of Access Fund; and Sam Kilgore, communications manager for Protect Our Winters—to discuss the state of the industry from their perspective.

First of all, how is morale at your organization right now? Is everyone holding up?

“Our team is in really good spirits right now. This whole experience has really sharpened our focus on just how important it is to spend time outside and how much we miss climbing. The whole team feels so passionate about our mission. When we can’t do the thing we love, it makes our work feel really important.” —Chris Winter

“My team is feeling really responsive to the emphasis everyone is placing on helping each other right now. The whole world is focused on trying to help where possible, and that has created a lot of hope, at least for us. That feeling of wanting to be supportive, to do your part, has helped us get through this.” —Emily Newman

“In mid-March, when the reality of the pandemic really started to set in, we had about a week where everyone was down and nervous. That was overwhelming, but one of the things POW excels at is pivoting when we need to make changes. We were able to turn uncertainty into focus, and that has definitely been inspiring. We’re in a really good place because our community has told us they want to continue to be active, and our staff has responded to that with focus and determination.” —Sam Kilgore

Money is tight for everyone right now. Have you had to make any difficult staff decisions—layoffs or furloughs—to get through this?

“We lucked out in that we haven’t had to lay anyone off or furlough our staff. We had an increased budget for this year anyway because of the election, so luckily we were operating at a higher level before this all started. We did have to scale back some of our plans to fit the budget, but we’ve also saved money on things like hotels for our staff at some of our in-person events that were cancelled. I wouldn’t say we’re in great shape, budget-wise—we obviously took a hit—but we made sure to hold onto staff. Our big goal is to show everyone that even during the pandemic, we can still crush our goals. We just have to be more creative about we do it.” —Sam Kilgore

“Thankfully, our industry partners and the climbing community have stuck with us through this. We haven’t had to lay anybody off. Even our trail teams have been able to keep working in isolation in the field. We have three conservation teams that live on the road 10 months out of the year, doing trail work all over the country. When the pandemic hit, all three teams were able to continue working in very remote locations where they have no contact with volunteers or the public.” —Chris Winter

“We are definitely making choices around budget priorities and being extremely thoughtful about how we prioritize given our immediate and long-term needs. What I can say is that we’re being very cautious about how we use funds to best deliver on our mission.” —Emily Newman

What are the biggest challenges you’ve faced as an organization since the pandemic began?

“On the programming side, one of the biggest challenges has been to help the outdoor community understand what it means to recreate outside safely during the pandemic. Climbing, specifically, is unique because there’s a lot of shared contact. Everyone is touching the same pieces of rock. There’s been a lot of speculation about how long the virus lives on rock, but very few medical experts have spoken directly to climbers. We’re working to change that. Last week we ran an infographic about how to climb responsibly that got a lot of traction. We just announced a free webinar next Thursday that will feature the director of the Infectious and Tropical Disease Clinic at the University of Washington, Paul Pottinger, who also happens to be a climber who’s summited Everest.” —Chris Winter

“It’s a big year for us because we’re working on the election. We had planned to do 150 in-person events across six battleground states leading up to November. That obviously fell apart. That was a central part of our strategy and so we needed to rethink it quickly, but the change allowed us to innovate. We started a webinar series called Outdoor State of Mind featuring athletes like Jeremy Jones and Tommy Caldwell that has gotten people really excited. To gain access to these events, you have to make a pledge to vote. Since the series launched on Earth Day, we’ve already pledged more than 4,200 people.” —Sam Kilgore

“For us, the biggest thing has been to make sure our mission work is still front and center. We have had to sharpen our focus on the immediate resources we can offer that still further our mission. After this all began, we quickly put out learning tools focused on HR leadership and systems equity. These are important because there’s so much uncertainty in workplaces. We’re trying to ask: What are the ways to reimagine workplaces so that they uphold DEI principles and also function in this new world?” —Emily Newman

How will the coronavirus affect the financial picture for nonprofits in the near future?

“One thing nonprofits need to remember is that the next 12 to 24 months will bring a lot of uncertainty and delayed effects. Brick-and-mortar stores have seen revenue drop off right away. Because we as nonprofits rely on charitable giving, there will be delays in the monetary interruptions. To deal with this, we’re running a lot of projections on what the future could look like financially. We’re touching base with our corporate partners and trying to keep pace with the changes, but it’s a complex picture. One thing we know at Access Fund is that we’re established enough to make it through this. 2021 will be our 30th anniversary. We’ve been around long enough that people know the value we add. They’re focused on supporting us.” —Chris Winter

“It varies from one nonprofit to another. Some have very large foundation funders and multi-year grants, others receive dollars from individuals and smaller sources. But no matter where a nonprofit’s money comes from, I think it’s important for people to understand that there are going to be so many needs that arise in the next 12 months that we just can’t anticipate. We’re seeing a lot of large funders being flexible and generous with their giving, but because of the uncertainty, the more support anyone can give, the better. This is the time to support nonprofits if you have the ability to do so.” —Emily Newman

Have you seen any unique opportunities come out of all this?

“It’s important to remember that, even though the pandemic is obviously a huge deal, climate change is still looming and we still have a very short timeline to address it. We can’t put that on hold just because of this health crisis. One thing that’s been really interesting to see is how quickly the world can change. In a matter of weeks, we totally altered the way the world works to suit our health and wellbeing. People often say we can’t change the way we use fossil fuels because our systems are so ingrained, but the pandemic has proven that wrong. It’s possible to make massive shifts quickly. A crash of the economy, while unfortunate, presents an opportunity to rebuild in a way that’s beneficial to what we’re doing.” —Sam Kilgore

“In the context of a global pandemic and massive economic shifts, the issue of human relationships is suddenly front and center, which is encouraging to see. Everyone is thinking about how we connect with and relate to others. I’m hopeful that, because of that, we’ll see even more collaborations that come out of this focused on DEI. At Camber, we just hosted a webinar focused on return-to-work strategies that support DEI. As we go forward, I think a lot of industry leaders will be forced to reimagine what their workplaces look like. There’s great potential to come out of this with a deeper focus on relationships and value-driven leadership.” —Emily Newman

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Malcolm Daly, a veteran of 45 years in the outdoor industry, suffered a stroke yesterday after returning home from a trail ride on his e-bike. Malcom’s wife, Karen, reported on Facebook that the stroke was the result of a clot in a large artery in the left side of his brain. Malcolm was helicoptered to Boise ICU, where doctors successfully removed the clot.

We spoke to Karen to get an update on Malcom’s condition. The couple had just moved to Hailey, Idaho, two weeks ago. “We were so excited and happy to be off the Front Range and be able to Nordic ski and hike and mountain bike out the door,” Karen said by phone.

“When he arrived at the hospital he was paralyzed on the right side,” she said. “But the best news is that when they removed the clot, his dexterity and mobility was completely and immediately restored. He’s shaky, but he should regain full mobility.”

Malcolm’s biggest challenge will be the neurological damage, she told us. “They are still testing and assessing, but the language center in his brain is damaged. We don’t know the full extent yet, but he will have a long road back when it comes to language. It will be hard, because Malcolm is such a talker, such an extrovert. But he loves a good challenge.”

Malcolm is a proven survivor. In 1999, he suffered a terrible fall while climbing in Alaska. Stuck on a ledge alone for 48 hours in below freezing temps while his climbing partner went for help, his determination to survive got him through, albiet with two frostbitten feet. One of his legs was later amputated.

Malcolm Daly is an outdoor industry treasure. He started working in the outdoor industry in 1975, as a sales associate in a climbing shop while attending Colorado State University where he earned a degree in outdoor recreation. He has held just about every role imaginable since then: sales representative, shop manager, wildland firefighter, climbing guide, waiter, cook, marketing director, and product line manager for Lowe Alpine. In 1991 he founded Great Trango Holdings to manufacture innovative climbing gear and women’s activewear.

Malcolm is known and loved for many things, but two seem particularly relevant right now: his winning personality and his penchant for giving back. He was a founding board member of the Access Fund, an organization dedicated to keeping climbing areas open, and served on its board for 13 years. In 2007, Malcolm helped found Paradox Sports to help make climbing accessible to people with disabilities. Malcolm was also a founding board member of the non-profits, No Barriers and the Action Committee for Eldorado.

As a straight shooter with an untouchable wealth of knowledge and insight into all things outdoors, Malcolm has been an invaluable contributor and regular source for us here at șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű Business Journal. Most recently he regaled us with stories via video for our He lit up the screen and dropped bombs of knowledge throughout the courses.

Malcolm’s son, Mason, a rep for Patagonia, has set up a GoFundMe page to help the family. “My dad has always been the first person to step up and help people, rally fundraising, and build community. He’s done so many good things for so many people. Now his community has a chance to rally behind him.”

Be strong Malcolm!

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