(Community Stories theme music)
I was always taught that
outdoor recreation, hiking, kayaking, climbing,
was white folks business.
(emotional music)
Well, I started my mountain
guiding career, and I saw that mountain guiding was very
country club like.
(emotional music)
I was the only woman
and the only person of color on a team of eight.
(snow crunching)
I was the only black person there, I was the only trans person there,
so it's like check all the boxes.
In many ways, our experiences are similar
under the umbrella of BIPOC quote unquote, but they're not the same,
and many of us hold various marginalized identities that further
complicate our relationship to climbing.
Biggest thing
that unites us, unfortunately, is exclusion.
The other thing that unites us, though,
is the joy in climbing.
(music fades, birds chirping)
(speaking in Spanish) I lived with Colombians for a while.
(speaking in Spanish) Then I went to Sweden for an exchange program.
Yeah. Let's. Yeah, come in. Helmets. Ready?
Water.
One of the
questions that I would like to have you ponder today
is who is your most inspirational figure
from your people?
Just kind of draw from that.
Are you ready to clip yet?
- Yeah ah, not yet. - Not yet.
- I'll say when I'm ready. - Okay.
Good.
Nice, good job.
There you go, yeah, yeah.
(carabiner clipiing onto a support anchor)
Feed them once.
Any more,
or you can feed them again, then you have too much.
I always found a way to be outside.
I like the physical challenge.
I truly believe that fear and stress in this sport
helps with your coping mechanisms, with anxiety,
and I find a lot of clarity with climbing.
So when I first started climbing, I didn't necessarily feel welcome.
Found it hard to
find the friends and groups
that fit me as a person.
I live in California, so I
drove up for this event and
I, I fell in love.
All my guards are down,
it made me want to climb more,
be a better climber.
Climbers of Color changed the way that I view photography.
I think early on I felt like I was creating images and they weren't
the images that I wanted and I didn't have the skills to do it in climbing.
And it really wasn't the subjects that I cared about.
So when I took my first class,
at Climbers of Color it was actually the Ascending for Photography course.
And I remember learning all these skills
and being like, "Wow, I have wanted these skills for so long."
"This is amazing."
"And not only that, but this group that I'm learning from this is super cool too."
From that day, I really feel like I went from being a photographer
to a storyteller.
For myself and other immigrant families,
outdoor recreation wasn't a thing.
And what going outside meant to me was eating dinner
on plastic stools by a patch of grass in the front yard.
And like so many other immigrant families,
my folks came to this country with nothing through their names or their wallets.
And putting food on the table was their only goal.
(emotional music)
You know, so it says something,
when my first hike was in my early twenties
and only when I got an invite from
my sister did I try hiking and climbing.
And who knows the amount of people who don't get to experience
what I'm experiencing now because they never got their invite.
So at this fall
I was working on my boulder project I heard a new phrase that day
when a group of strangers who were supporting me.
And one of them said, "We're here for you."
I don't know why that still resonates with me to this day,
but it feels so embracing and empowering
when I think about it.
Hi, my name is Crystal Hudelson.
I am co-director of rock instruction
with Climbers of Color.
I name's Don Nguyen .
I'm one of the co-founders of Climbers of Color, and I'm the director
and head guide of the alpine climbing mountaineering part of Climbers of color.
Climbers in Color is a community based group
that's run completely by black, indigenous and or people of color.
Our mission is to increase the amount of leaders of color
in climbing
Climbers of Color
We have essentially built a pipeline to get people outside.
Someone can start at a climb night at one of the local gyms
and start to build community and learn about our courses outside.
And if they decided they wanted to be a professional
in that industry, we do offer scholarships and mentorship
to help them enter the industry as full time guides.
(upliftingmusic)
There are a lot
of different forms of climbing outside.
The simplest sense in climbing would be bouldering, where you are
climbing on shorter rocks with pads beneath you.
(uplifting music)
Now sport leading is you're climbing up
and you're pulling the rope as you're going up, clipping into designated
fixed points on the rock that are already preexisting.
(carabiner clipping onto a piton ring)
Yeah.
So trad
essentially is more crack climbing because you're actually taking pieces
of protection, placing it into the rock
and clipping into that.
In mountaineering often times it's, it's the same way.
You use the rope for protection.
But with mountaineering, many times you have to hike a lot longer.
You have to hike, maybe,
you know,
a quarter of a day, half a day
or a full day to even get to somewhere you can begin your climb.
And so, as you do the sport, sometimes you'll be walking a long way,
carrying a heavy backpack up or down, walking on rocks,
you know, in the mud, on snow and ice on glaciers,
and there'll be different rope techniques involved.
(ropes pulling through carabiners)
Well I started my guiding, mountain guiding career,
in, in Washington, I saw that
mountain guiding was very
country club like.
It was a not a diverse place.
There weren't a lot of women guides.
There weren't any there weren't any minorities in positions of management
or power.
It was just kind of like, you know, you're the ground floor.
And upon seeing that, I said, well, what conditions led
to this culture in this industry being so homogenous?
And it got me thinking about these questions.
And when I answered them, it's like, okay,
like I presented it to some of the management.
They're like, Well, we're not interested in that.
That's not who a clientele is. We don't really care.
And I go, well cool.
I mean, that's a perfect opportunity to begin something like Climbers of Color.
The entities and systems that exist in America
were not built for people of color.
And if they are, a lot of times those systems are built to keep them out.
It can be something as simple as the relationship to the land.
If you look at Black people within America, the relationships
of the land due to the way that we were brought here
and what we had to do on the land is very painful.
So I'm going to use a particular example recently went and bought a guidebook
for trad, for Leavenworth. And just kind of thumbing through it.
Well, there was one called Motown, which excited me and it had like
Tears of a Clown, kind of cool names, but at the very bottom it had Tar Baby.
And just knowing that I had struggled over
whether or not to buy this $45 book and then I bought it
just to be slapped in the face was really emotional for me.
And so if you're newer and you're looking at that, you're like, well, why?
Why would I want to go to this crag?
Why would I want to climb that climb?
It is boiling.
What are you thinking?
I'm thinking.
Try to top up the whole thing.
See how the whole thing feels.
Yeah.
And so with Climbers of Color, we need a healing space.
We need a space where we are
very intentional about wanting to explore our own identities
and having like minded people who are also comfortable
with that.
A lot of climbing is about domination.
It is about hierarchy.
It is about conquering.
And that's dominant climbing culture.
And I feel like the last few years of my climbing journey
have really been about trying to get away from that,
because I realized not only was this harmful to me as an individual,
it also contributes to the ongoing erasure of indigenous peoples.
on stolen land across the United States.
I think originally
when I started going out more into the outdoors
and doing these more adventure based activities,
I think I just wanted to get away from my life,
run away from my trauma of my childhood and my and my family.
Going to the outdoors was pretty impactful
into, growing into the person I am now, spending all that time outside.
It really helped me process things and reflect on my life
and at the end of the day, coming out
really restored mentally and emotionally.
Then it turned into something that I really like to do.
I really liked learning about technical skills.
I absolutely love guiding and I love it to the fact
where I really want to improve it to the detriment of my health sometimes.
I wouldn't be totally candid
if I wasn't giving like the also the negative sides of it.
We're seeing the huge extractiveness of it
and seeing folks doing like laps up and down the mountain all the time.
It does kind of weigh on me every now and then.
Coming originally
from a place of peak bagging, I really want to be at the top
I'm still trying to really unpack what it means
for me to be a guide to other people.
I'm just kind of scratching away at the surface of my own
personal relationship as being a guide.
When I was first trying to get into alpinism
at 21, reading all these books and whatever I could get my hands on.
They never described the work of BIPOC or marginalized groups.
You know, that is unless it was a Sherpa who weren't climbing the mountain
for the prospect of recognition, but as labor.
My trip with Climbers of Color
had a much different approach and perspective.
The difference, I feel, was that we respected each other
where we differed in skill level and the land that we were on.
We were there for the lessons that could give us not to conquer.
When we go into these spaces with people who don't look like us,
there are a lot of guards up around us, right?
These are our normal modes of working within the world.
It's really anxiety inducing
because pretty much everything that I do,
I am now a pillar for my race and gender.
But when we have affinity spaces, we can come into that
and the sense is different.
When I teach these courses, the sense is of excitement
and of joy and of camaraderie and community.
And that's why these spaces are so important, because if we don't
get out of our own comfort zones, if we don't learn the necessary skills
to be in the outdoors and to adventure, then we'll never get there.
And we'll never know what we're truly capable of.
... pulling on the ends.
The bag will not inflate.
However, oxygen will be flowing.
Put your mask on before helping others
and keep it on until your advised by a crewmember,
it's no longer necessary.
There is a life vest under your seat. If the life vest ...
I'm very Afrocentric person, just based off of my identity.
So any Black people hold a very special place in my heart
and anything that I can do to assist them in their climbing journey,
I will definitely do it.
So I was online
and I saw Shea's Instagram account, and they had posted
that they were looking for a multi-pitch mentor.
So I flew out to Salt Lake City and Shea was agreeable to it.
Well, this is 50 pounds of climbing gear.
- Nice. - Yeah.
(song Playing on vehicle stereo)
Down, down.
Come here.
(song Playing on vehicle stereo)
Yeah.
The first time I climbed was outside and
there are some other LGBTQI
folks there, so I felt supported in community .
I felt a great amount of distrust though.
Like I didn't know these folks.
So there's a lot of people here, but they're all like, white,
or white passing.
And I just wasn't like, feeling that.
I was just like, cool,
so now I have this spiritual obligation
to become a rock climbing guy. If not my wild self,
you know what I'm saying?
It's not the crazy spirit that is, you know,
Shea Freedom the traveling trans man. Who, who else?
[Shea] - Oh yeah [Crystal] - Oh yeah, oh yeah.
[Shea] - Oh yeah, we rucking.
Oh yeah, we rucking today
Whoo!
hop up.
(marmot making sounds)
When it comes to mentorship,
It can also be much more than actually climbing with someone.
Shea and I have a lot of similarities, not just being Black American.
We were also foster youth and I feel like that
also has a huge piece in our stories.
The way that your life overlaps climbing is incredible.
Okay, because you're up next.
You're going to do it and I'm going to have my life, like, in your hands.
Are you ready for that?
Yes. I trust myself.
I trust you too.
It's important for me to have a
BIPOC, Black, Indigenous, person of color,
mentor, and or someone who is trans.
Because I don't want to have to teach you
how to make me
feel safe.
I'm not saying that everyone who's trans and BIPOC gets it right.
Lord knows that's not true.
But when it comes down to it,
there's an
unspoken conversation that's had.
When I look at you, you look at me, and we know in our heads we acknowledge that.
You know, we acknowledge so much with that.
That look, that little smile that head nod.
Hey, I see you.
I'm glad you're alive.
Keep going.
[Shea] - (singing an indigenous song)
I just want to give thanks for being here in a good way.
I ask that you guide us and protect us as we climb,
and enjoy this beautiful rock today.
Keep us safe on this journey and all the ones to come.
Thank you, ancestors,
for giving us permission to be here in a good way.
May we leave it better than we found it.
(emotional music)
I challenge,
you know, other trans folk of color, a trans men of color to come out
and try rock climbing, it's got me through some stuff,
you know, and.
It's.
Yeah.
I feel like it's.
It's just, it's taking me on a journey.
(emotional music)
(birds chirping)
Essentially
what I'm suggesting for our goal is we camp anywhere
above the 22
So this is 25, no, go down to 22
2,200 feet.
(water flowing)
I grew up in
Idaho, and while there's lots of mountains out there
it never dawned on me that one could,
go out there and climb them.
It wasn't until,
you know, obviously I moved to Washington and
started to get a little bit more exposure of what
the outdoors could be.
(emotional music)
There's a distinct memory I have as well that I think
I reflect on often.
I was out climbing, and I saw some people
climbing up the face of the peak that I was at.
And I remember looking down on them thinking," Wow, that's amazing."
"But that's never something I'm going to be able to do."
And you know, that
that those thoughts were, of course, very self-limiting.
But I feel like when I think about it more in depth,
I think it is attributed to that aspect of what our society
has shown to be the type of people who can climb,
or who can recreate outdoors and,
I've never felt that connection and being able to identify.
- One, two, three, falling! - Falling!
I've been very grateful that I have found.
People of color, in particular
women of color to recreate with.
I don't think I've ever felt as much enjoy,
even if our personal experiences are all unique.
(emotional music)
(wind blowing)
(tent rustling in the wind)
(falling rain)
(emotional music)
(laughter)
(wind blowing)
Being outside either hiking, or backpacking,
or mountaineering allows me to just focus on
the things that are in front of me.
And make everything else in the world, hold it in my mind,
silent.
- Hey there - See ya
(emotional music)
(wind blowing)
(emotional music)
I'm incredibly grateful.
I want to share my own experiences
that we never thought were possible for us.
(uplifting music)