On finding a mentor

[polar]

With all the recent discussion on gaining experience and knowledge in climbing, I want to bring focus to one topic that hasn’t seen a lot of attention: mentoring. Most of my thoughts are from the perspective of a rock climber, but I think the same ideas can be applied to scrambling and climbing 14ers.

Mentoring with an experienced climber is a great way to learn, and I’d even argue the best way to learn, especially when someone get into technical climbing. Unlike an instructor/student or guide/client relationship, which is more formal, professional, and often a one-to-many relationship, mentorship is a more personal, one-to-one relationship. Before guides and instructors even existed, mentoring was the only way to learn climbing. That and just go out by yourself and wing it (maybe read a book or two before), but in technical climbing where a small mistake can very well kill you, it’s safer to learn from a mentor.

Everything I learned about climbing I learned from my mentors. In the beginning of my climbing career, I had two mentors. One was a little-known climber, but he was solid, safe, patient, and a good mentor. He took me all over Seneca Rocks and taught me all the basics of rock climbing. The other was a climbing pioneer and legend in his country. He was an unlimited spring of knowledge, he pushed me to climb to my potential, and I learned a lot of obscure but useful techniques from him. Even now, 15 years after I started rock climbing, I still have a mentor I climb with regularly. He’s one of the best climbers in the country and every time I go climbing with him I learn more about training, climbing tactics, technique, efficiency, etc.

So how did I find these amazing mentors? Well, the first thing is luck. It is purely by chance that I met all these mentors. Some I met online (climbing forums, e-mail lists), some I met by circumstance. But simply meeting someone doesn’t guarantee that you can keep them as mentors, so here are some things I did which will increase your chance of having a mentor.

1. Be psyched to climb, be available to climb. Most experienced climber already have other people to climb with. So I did everything I can to make sure there’s a good chance that they want to climb with me. If they want to be at the crag at 6am and no one else want to, I’m psyched to go. If they want to climb when it’s 40 degrees out and no one else want to, I’m there. If they only have half a day to climb at a local crag on a holiday weekend and everyone else is away on a road trip, I’ll stay local and not go on a road trip (even though a road trip sounds so much fun!). The point is, if you're more available than anyone else your mentor knows, then they're more likely to climb with you. This was easy when I was single with nothing else in my life besides climbing. It’s a little harder now with a family and a career, but as long as you try your best, people understand.

2. Be a proactive learner. Mentors share their knowledge, but it’s my responsibility to learn. So if my mentor showed me a new knot, I went home and practiced it. If my mentor showed me a new technique, I’ll write it down, I'll practice, I may even shoot a video so I don't forget it. I also read books, absorb as much as I can, and asked questions. It’s not the mentors responsibility to feed every bit of information to me, I need to be open to learning.

3. Be a good partner. My mentor is also my climbing partner. I can be the most psyched guy, with all the time in the world to climb, but if I’m a crappy partner, then no one will want to climb with me. So be safe, offer good belays, ask to carry extra rope/gear on the approach, don’t complain about the cold/heat/wind/long hike/bushwhack. Have a positive attitude, don't throw a wobbler if you can't get up something. Even if you are having the worst day in the mountains, don't say "I wish I'm home."

Mentors offer something very valuable and yet asks nothing in return, so it’s really, really important to appreciate that. You don’t need to pay your mentor couple hundreds of dollars every time you go out with them, yet a good mentor can teach you just as much as a guide/instructor, if not more. This is definitely not the case of “you get what you paid for”. Many new climbers are eager to get out there, have fun with their friends, be social, or do whatever they want to do. But so many are not ready to be out there. I’ve seen a huge number of climbers having no clue and doing really sketchy things. If you’re a new climber, it’s worth it to sacrifice a little bit of your fun and your time in the beginning, find a good mentor, stick to them like glue and learn everything you can.

[dstelk]

I enjoyed this perspective. Thank you.

[AnnaG22]

This is an excellent point to make. We have some great folks in this community who often take on mentor roles, and I wonder how many people actually seek this method of learning. I'm extremely grateful to the folks who've mentored me, whether it's once or regularly.

[AndrewLyonsGeibel]

Lots of good points here. I'll likely be looking for a hiking/climbing mentor in the future. Ive been a fishing mentor before and feel like it's good karma to pass on your knowledge. Finding a mentor that tolerates me is a whole new animal. I've been pondering looking for a hiking/climbing (not the same thing) partner for quite some time. So not to hijack the thread, but if anyone wants to teach a 5.10 gym climber that's never been outside to sport or trad climb, I'd be interested.

[MtnHub]

Living out-of-state made it much harder for me to find a partner period, let alone a good mentor. But it is still possible. What I did when I wanted to try something harder than just C2 stuff, I followed the forum for several years and learned from many of the more experienced people and their posts etc. You can get a pretty good idea of who you would want to meet and climb with this way.

Then just take the chance to contact someone directly you feel might be willing to climb with you. Ask them specific questions etc to get to know them and see if you two click. You really haven't got anything to lose. All they can do to you is tell you to get lost or find someone else (a good indication you wouldn't want to climb with them anyway).

When I was compiling information about Capitol, I read lots of different people's reports and learned a lot. I happened to read Alan Arnette's Capitol trip and contacted him shortly thereafter just on a whim. He responded almost immediately and said he'd be happy to do it again as he had another partner wanting to do it too. When I first contacted him I had no idea how famous he was or I probably wouldn't have had the guts to do it. But I've climbed with Alan several times now and he is just an amazing individual to learn from.

There are several other members I've gotten to know this way and I feel they have all mentored me in some way.

[SchralpTheGnar]

A good mentor is extremely important, Anakin Skywalker never really appreciated what he had in Obi wan Kanobi

[Alpine Guy]

Finding a good mentor would be nirvana - but I was banished to Nebraska then Chicago for the first 16yrs of my alpine climbing "career". Never found anyone that I could even remotely call a mentor (the Chicago Mountaineering Club folks were very generous but mostly focused on rock climbing). I filled in the skills gaps by selecting an objective then working with a guide service (usually CMS in CO, and RMI on Rainier) to go as a surrogate mentor/partner/safety net - and I've found professional guides to be very generous with their knowledge. I used the same guide as often as possible because I liked the guy and they tend to give you more leeway once they know you. Anyway, it allowed me to develop skills in a much more structured way than just trying to figure it out on my own.

Guide Lesson1 - everything and everyone above treeline is out to kill you. Be prepared, then have fun.