Stacked blocks are an alpinist’s worst nightmare. You’ve come to a place where the only path forward is through a loose, vertical pile of giant boulders, held together by an unknown combination of ice, grit, and gravity.
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All climbers like to boulder and most lifers would rather get a workout touching actual rock than climbing in a gym. Bouldering in my generation was an extension of being a rock climber; having a repertoire of hard local problems in your quiver was a requirement if you wanted to burn off the visitors.
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People who hire professional mountain guides to take them skiing in the mountains spend a lot of time and money getting there. When they arrive at their destination, they expect to find good snow.
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Venture capitalists and mountain guides are perfectionists. We plan, and scheme, and study, and try to map out all the nuances to achieve the ideal result. Some of these we share with our entrepreneurs and clients because we need and value their input. Some we do not because the sausage-making would freak them out.
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Style means something specific to mountain guides and venture capitalists. And to the good ones, it matters a lot.
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In climbing, just like in venture capital, being early is the same as being wrong.
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When I first moved to Colorado full-time, I got into a lot of trouble with Chip Wilson. We skied and climbed together all over the place in the early ’80s, and had just enough skill and more than enough drive to put ourselves where we never should have been.
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To mountain guides and venture capitalists, where matters. There are only a few great ranges in the world suitable for guiding and even fewer that are outstanding day in and day out. In places like Revelstoke, Chamonix or Telluride, there’s a lifetime of guiding to be had. The guides that live there become masters of their complex terrain, attracting clients from over the world, all year long.
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Rob Slater was one of the strongest and most versatile climbers of my generation. An expert at big wall, aid climbing, his first ascent in 1984 of El Capitan’s Wyoming Sheep Ranch remains one of the neckiest leads ever on the Big Stone.
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It is remarkable that everywhere you go climbing or skiing in the world, you can find an IFMGA-certified mountain guide to take you there. It’s also a testament to the power and consistency of the IFMGA standard that certified mountain guides around the world have the same set of skills and competencies.
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As mountain guides and venture capitalists, it is our job to form authentic relationships with our clients and entrepreneurs. All of the value in our business comes from the effort.
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Effective communication between a guide and client is fundamental to their relationship and to their shared success on the objective. The more challenging the terrain, the more important this communication becomes.
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