I’m looking for dirtbags and day jobbers

So, there’s a LOT going on over here in the quiet little world of a climber girl. In addition to work, and other work, and then all the work I do just for fun, I’m getting ready for another trip, and trying to get my living situation in order, and my freelance writing is starting to pick up… and… phew. I’m getting tired just thinking about it all.

I’m going to need your help.

From the dirtbaggers in the house
I need to find a few “road warriors,” “dirtbags,” or whatever you identify yourself as, who’d be willing to speak with me about your life as a climber on the road. Whether you’ve been living the life for a few months, or a few years — I’d like to pick your brain (and borrow a photo or two) for an upcoming feature for one of my projects. Please send me an email if you’re willing to speak with me — I know a few of you are out there already but I haven’t had time yet to find email addresses and get in touch that way.

Climbers with jobs
Next, I’m also trying to find climbers with jobs to profile for this site, and, possibly for other projects. Are you a climber who’s managed to find (or is getting closer to finding) a work / climbing balance that feels sustainable? What have you learned over the years about the way you need to live and work, in order to be a climber? If you’re interested in having this conversation with me, please drop me an email to get started.

Thank you, as always, for reading, and I look forward to engaging more through these conversations!

Filed under: Climbers with jobs, The climbing life

Climbers with Jobs: Dustin Clark, Web Manager at Mountain Hardwear / Montrail

Sometimes, you climbers are just too nice. You strike up a brief conversation with some climber girl on Twitter, and next thing you know your phone is ringing and she’s asking all sorts of probing questions about your career. I hope I didn’t scare Dustin Clark, self-effacing Web Manager at Mountain Hardwear and Montrail, and self-described “kind of a luddite” right off of social media. Dustin is the MH-er behind Mountain Hardwear’s award-winning online presence.

Dustin’s a rock climber, and has been in it for 20 years — he grew up in Bishop, CA. He comes from a family of alfalfa farmers, and it was a high school journalism class that lead him toward a college degree in English instead of farming. Dustin went into GIS work and web development after college (hmmm… sounds familiar). Finding himself living in Mammoth, working several jobs to get by, he decided to make the move to Mountain Hardwear, where he says he can climb more now than when he lived in Mammoth. He chose Mountain Hardwear in part because of his interest in the outdoor scene, and the chance to work with other outdoorsy types.

Dustin has been with Mountain Hardwear for just over three years, having started out as a web project manager, and moving into the role of web manager.

One highlight of the work Dustin does for Mountain Hardwear (and, by the way, Montrail) is the evolving nature of the social media aspect of his work. Despite Dustin himself not having a cell phone, under his watch Mountain Hardwear is on Twitter and Facebook, and incorporates social networking into both the Montrail and Mountain Hardwear sites through blogs and promotions. Dustin says he spends only about 10% of his time on social media, which amazes me. This must be one efficient dude, to have the kind of presence MH/Montrail does, with 10% of one FTE. MH and Montrail have a great network of athletes who provide content for the blogs, which helps Dustin be able to focus on his core responsibilities.

While some prefer to keep work and play completely separate, Dustin says there are “certainly not cons” about working in the outdoor industry… he gets to spend his days looking at people climbing, going through video, pulling out slides… and “never gets burned out. It’s just clearly separate from when I’m going to leave that weekend and go out to Yosemite.” Compared to other folks I’ve chatted with who experience some stress or lack of satisfaction in mixing work and play, perhaps because of Dustin’s low-tech life outside of work he seems to be in a bit better balance than those of us whose Blackberries and iPhones go everywhere with us, buzzing incessantly with all manners of information. He is able to enjoy the high tech work he does during the day, and then go play outside during his free time.

A challenge of his work, even being a climber himself, is targeting and reaching the climbing community. Dustin didn’t use these words, but my climbing and non-climbing friends describe climbers as “socially awkward” with great regularity… and while I have aspects of my personality that are highly social, I’m still relatively introverted in most situations (I wouldn’t be surprised if people put me in the “socially awkward” category myself despite my selective-outgoing-ness). I’d imagine that climbers would be a challenge to market to, with different buying criteria than other types of customers. A recent Dead Point Magazine cover article focused on sex not selling to climbers… my theory is that because we trust our lives to our gear, we make buying decisions based on advice from friends and other respected sources based on safety, quality, workmanship, and longevity, and less on advertising messages than the average consumer. Dustin confirmed that the running community Montrail interacts with, and the climbing community are dramatically different to work with.

Thanks, Dustin, for letting me interrupt your packing for the Ouray Ice Festival to allow me to pepper you with questions, and have a great time in Colorado!

Now it’s your turn. What climbers with jobs would you like to see profiled here on rockclimbergirl.com? Comment, below!

Filed under: Climbers with jobs

Climbers with jobs: Jason Keith, Policy Director for the Access Fund

If you know me “offline,” you know that I’ve been on a quest for some time to put together a work life that is compatible with my climbing life. As part of this effort, I’ve started harassing other climbers who have work lives that I think would be interesting to me. One of those individuals is Jason Keith, Policy Director for the Access Fund. If you’re not already a member of the Access Fund, join. By joining the Access Fund, you are helping to protect and conserve climbing areas. Seven bucks a month is a bargain.

Anyway – back to Jason Keith…

Jason has been with the Access Fund since about 2001. He landed there through a lead from his personal network — a friend was a board member, and encouraged him to apply for what was, at that time, a policy analyst position. Since then, Jason has been “cranking away ever since,” and his role has evolved into policy director. Jason is responsible for advocacy work in government and political circles, which means time spent at his home base in Moab, UT; part of the year spent in Mazama, WA (where I have yet to sample the tasty climbing); and a fair amount of time in the other Washington (D.C.).

As happens, when I talk to other climbers, our conversation starts with climbing and eventually winds around to whatever else we intended to talk about. Jason grew up in North Seattle and spent summers growing up in Mazama — he says that the climbing in Mazama is good but that he’s a little biased because he’s spent so much time there and has so much history there. He has been climbing all his life (since about eight years old); his dad dragged him up death marches in the Cascades when he was a kid. From there, his love of mountains and climbing took him to Jackson, Wyoming where he was a mountain guide in the Tetons and did international guiding across the Alps, Nepal, and Everest. Jason enjoyed guiding, but realized that he needed “something more” for when he “got old” and his knees blew out, so he went back to school.

School consisted of a masters degree in public lands policy, followed by law school. In 2000, Jason received his J.D. and went to work practicing water and property law in Glenwood Springs, CO.

Like most of us law school survivors, Jason went into law school with altruistic and idealistic goals — his aim was to be involved in environmental protection and conservation. Also like most of us law school survivors, Jason wound up somewhere else — handling water rights issues for golf courses. It was at this point that a friend suggested he apply for the policy analysis position with the Access Fund, and the rest is history.

Jason confirmed that the appeal of his work with the Access Fund were the political and advocacy aspects; he had done a lot of volunteering and had been in the outdoor industry prior to this gig. When he went to work with the Access Fund, he felt the job would be a pretty good marriage of his interest in climbing, his advocacy interests, and his skill set obtained through his higher education.

I didn’t ask Jason specifically if he’s happy with his job, or how it allowed him to balance work and climbing and life — but he sure sounds happy. Unlike most conversations I have with climbers, we actually spoke more about some of the initiatives he’s working on and excited about than we spoke about climbing. Jason has been working hard with the Outdoor Alliance, a multi-user-group alliance of organizations (including the Access Fund) formed to ensure the conservation and stewardship of our nation’s land and waters through the promotion of sustainable, human-powered recreation. OA gives recreational organizations a stronger voice in Washington DC — the theory, which seems to be holding true, is that by working together the various recreational user groups can do more both for conservation, and to preserve access to recreational areas for us outdoorsy types. When Jason talks about his work, he has that contagious enthusiasm and energy that I’ve only ever heard in the voices of people who live and work what they love.

Jason’s advice to folks who would like to follow in his footsteps is to gain experience and understand out the systems work — industry, government, nonprofit entities — and specifically, to “learn Washington D.C.” He emphasized the importance of fostering mentors and relationships with folks, if you’re going to ultimately try to persuade someone that you can provide value to their policy efforts.

Jason also confirmed something that I’ve seen in my own life and work — the importance of being in the right place at the right time. Jason landing at AF “was just a total flue of timing and opportunity,” he observed, “I never set out to do this job. I always thought I would be involved in advocacy work on the conservation side. When I figured out I could do that and work related to climbing, it made a lot of sense.”

He sees opportunities both at the national and regional levels for folks who’d like to get involved with public lands and conservation issues. That’s good news for those of us who think that Jason may just have the world’s greatest job.

Filed under: Climbers with jobs, Interviews, Lawyers who Rock Climb, Rock Climbers