We love climbing. More than that, we love sharing our love for climbing through stories, shared experiences, and mutual stoke.
That critical piece of beta (if you want it), encouragement through the crux, the perfect belay – that’s what our community is all about.
We are the helpers, the encouragers, and the stoked voices. We scoured the climbing community to find the most talented and psyched crew and brought them together under one roof.
Founder
He has been climbing for more years than not at this point. His passion for climbing has evolved over the years, but he will always have a soft spot for putting up new routes via chossy adventure climbing in remote areas.
Nowadays he spends most of his free time camping, climbing, and backpacking with his two small kids, as he and his wife try to instill them with a love for the outdoors.
Co-Founder
Erin discovered climbing while following her husband, J., up obscure trad routes 15 years ago. She quickly fell in love with climbing, and then J. These days she is more passionate about the climbing community at G1 than the scary trad routes they did pre-children. Erin is fueled by the mental challenge of climbing, from finding her flow on a vertical slab, to cruxing out in the cave. Her favorite routes often include murder crimps. When not at the gym, she is probably daydreaming about adventures with her family – camping, climbing, backpacking, and exploring National Parks.
Front Desk Manager
Chris is a Texas transplant with a love of climbing and mountaineering that began while climbing with his grandfather in the Cascades at age 13. He began working in the gym industry in Dallas, Texas, where he found his passion for sharing the stoke with first time climbers. After spending countless hours road tripping to Colorado, Chris moved to Denver in 2023.
Operations Manager
Nicole is originally from the Midwest and discovered climbing in 2010 upon her move to Boulder. She immediately fell in love with the climbing community, the sense of accomplishment completing a climb, and FaceTiming her mom from the top of a mountain. Her most memorable climbing adventure-to-date is climbing Monkey Face at Smith Rock.
Adult Programs Director
Jeff hails from Indiana, where he fell in love with climbing at a local gym and the nearby Red River Gorge. Colorado has been home since 2010, and much of Jeff’s time has been spent climbing all over the Front Range as well as many crags throughout the West. In 2014, after earning an Outdoor Recreation Leadership degree from Colorado Mountain College, Jeff set out to share his passion and knowledge of climbing with others. He began his career as a rock climbing guide in the Black Hills and at Devils Tower in Wyoming. Eventually, he made his way back to Colorado to guide and work in the climbing gym industry. Spicy slab climbing is his happy place.
Retail Manager
Vanessa’s first outdoor climb was Cascading Crystal Kaleidoscope, an exposed multi pitch trad climb at the Gunks. After that, she was hooked on this exciting form of exercise in nature. What keeps her engaged is the friendly community and the endless mental and physical challenges that climbing provides. Vanessa enjoys teaching new climbers and sharing excitement over their accomplishments.
Head Routesetter
Keith has been climbing since 2007 and setting since 2011.
After a brief stint out in New England, he is glad to be back home in Colorado and just a short drive from the best limestone choss around – Rifle.
Routesetter
Alex started climbing in Massachusetts in 2013. What really got him hooked was the community. The climbing made him feel at home. Climbing has been a safe space for him and a source of growth and introspection.
He has been routesetting for 7 years now. His Favorite catchphrase is “long hair don’t care,” but he does care very much. While setting has very little to do with the Communications degree he earned from Emmanuel College, it is the best thing that has happened to him.
Outside of work, Alex is skateboarding, enjoying the company of friends, exploring new climbing areas, and probably spending time on injury prevention.
Routesetter
Patrick is originally from North Texas. He started climbing in 2017 and quickly fell in love with the sport. After a few years of strictly climbing indoors he took his first trip outside to Horseshoe Canyon Ranch, where his passion for climbing grew even larger. Wanting to have a vast amount of outdoor climbing to explore he made his move to Colorado. Outside of climbing you can find him hiking, snowboarding, and playing with his dog Juno.
Head Coach and Youth Programs Director
Cam grew up in the suburbs of Chicago as a youth gymnast in a family of rock climbers. This meant that most family trips revolved around climbing and/or exploring new outdoor destinations and cities.
After a few years back in Illinois working as a Head Coach, Cam moved back out West now to CO and after exploring the local scene, found G1 to have the most encouraging, forward thinking, and positive atmosphere of any gym he’s visited! A fun fact about Cam is that he spends most Saturday mornings at The Taste of Denmark Bakery in Lakewood, filling up on chocolate croissants as a rest day pastime. He can’t be more stoked to be a part of the team!
Assistant Retail Manager
Originally from the Arizona desert, surrounded by some amazing climbing, Molly decided to start climbing only after moving away to the flattest state of them all – Florida. Despite the lack of anything resembling rocks or mountains, she stumbled into the local climbing gym, where she found some amazing people who were equally stoked on climbing. With the closest outdoor climbs a 10-hour drive away, it wasn’t until she visited Colorado that she realized the joys of climbing actual rock. After that, she knew it was time to make the move to Colorado. Though this desert kid is still working on how to properly winter, you can typically catch her out and about with camera in hand, taking in all of the mountain shenanigans.
