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Loving Our People Color the wasatch joins Climb United's Affiliate Support Network

“We love our people. So we advocate for them.”

Color the Wasatch, based out of Salt Lake, is crimping hard and kicking-ass at building community for climbers of color.

And now that they’re part of Climb United’s Affiliate Support Network, they’re officially a nonprofit, and ready to thrive financially, too.

Priyam Patel, one of the founders of Color the Wasatch, is a mathematician and faculty at University of Utah. Her meet-cute with climbing might be pretty familiar:

“I solve problems for a living. Like math theorems. And climbing is a physical interpretation of that. You're solving these puzzles, but you get this body therapy in the meantime, and I really felt like it made me feel strong, right? The fears that you can overcome when climbing are kind of incredible. It's like a mind test on like seven different levels. So of course, with me being an overachiever, and very into puzzles, I just fell in love with it very quickly.”

But in every space she was in—the math world, climbing, running—Priyam has found herself in white-dominated spaces. Throughout her career she has done a lot of advocacy for diversity in math and STEM, but she kept waiting for someone else to take up the helm and create an affinity space for climbers in Salt Lake. Priyam was thinking: “I might not be the best climber. I might not be a pro, I might not be super embedded and entrenched in the community. But if I don't do this, who's gonna do it?” Priyam realized, if she needed BIPOC community in climbing this bad, there were surely many other climbers out there who did too. There was no time to waste.

“When something becomes a big enough piece of you, you need to nurture it and make it good for you. And growing [Color the Wasatch] has totally changed my life.” -Priyam Patel

Priyam started by creating a strong connection to her gym: The Front. And when she and her co-founder Matt Burbach hosted their first event, they were floored when 25 climbers showed up, even in the midst of the evolving pandemic. As the Salt Lake BIPOC climbing community started to grow, they found community and connection, talking about trauma and shared experiences. But they also found joy, relaxation, and a kind of weightlessness and liberation—and it was contagious. These days, they can regularly have 50 people show up to their meetups, with 60% of attendees returning again and again.

Priyam reflects: “We are very conscious to make sure that the most marginalized folks in our group feel like they are not marginalized within our group. We amplify the voices of Black, Indigenous, and Latino folks in our group, because we know that Asians, like myself, have much more presence and privilege in the climbing community.”

"I'm constantly examining: why am I pushing for these certain initiatives? Am I pushing this for the benefit of certain types of people, or does it outcast anyone? And that comes from trying not to create another bubble—for example, going from a white-dominated environment to just Asian climbers. I'm not saying 'Oh, no more Asian climbers,' but homogeneity [of any kind] is the opposite of the goal." -Ryan Suen, CTW Co-Leader

Color the Wasatch now hosts 2-3 meetups a month, rotating between The Front and Salt Lake Bouldering Project. They try to redistribute wealth by hosting raffles with gear that is donated to the group, and they regularly host outdoor events and clinics too. You’ll find CTW at events like Joe’s Valley Fest, and partnering with their sister organization, Salt Lake Area Queer Climbers (SLAQC).

“We each keep each other accountable—SLAQC can't become a white queer space, and we can't become just a cishet (cisgender and heterosexual) people of color space either.”

The leadership team's approach is not only thoughtful and intersectional, but it's also incredibly self-aware and centered on self-care.

"I keep in mind: community care, self care, and compassion. The core of everything for me is community. This is why I'm pushing these things. Because these are my people. These people are who I want to root for, who I want to see grow and thrive. Coming back to that [main motivation], and also having the compassion to know when you are doing too much...I can't give to my community if my cup is not full." -Andrea Ramos Campos, CTW Co-Leader

As they grow, CTW is determined to address the new and evolving needs of their community. Andrea Ramos Campos, a CTW Co-Leader, notes that despite covering travel expenses and gear, their outdoor events have been less popular. Her theory: accessing outdoor climbing goes beyond financial barriers and gear–it's also about safety and knowledge. So the CTW leadership team are delving into more outdoor education and clinics to address this gap as well.

“We push each other and encourage each other. And when you do something you didn’t think you could, your mind expands. And you learn what you’re capable of. And that brings you back to climbing and this community again and again.” -Priyam Patel

Joining the Affiliate Support Network

Like most affinity groups, Color the Wasatch's work is entirely volunteer-based, and the money to deliver on the needs of their community can be a big obstacle. Having started from just a few like-minded people bringing a community together, they now have a much bigger operation. And the money to create that space shouldn’t be coming out of their own pockets. The need for financial stability as an organization is crucial too, not only because the leadership team are people of color and don’t come from generational wealth, but also because their mission is to make it easier for their community to access climbing, a definitively costly operational objective.

From discounted or free day passes for their members, to raffles and gear giveaways, communal gear caches, food at events, gas for outdoor trips, educational clinics, and travel for their leadership team when they table at events and festivals, the cost adds up.

By partnering with the American Alpine Club and Climb United through joining the Affiliate Support Network, Color the Wasatch is able to start tackling those financial obstacles.

The Affiliate Support Network’s (ASN) primary function is currently twofold. Through the ASN, the American Alpine Club can serve as a fiduciary sponsor for groups that don’t yet have nonprofit (501c3) status, ultimately allowing new nonprofit affinity groups to access grants only available to nonprofits, receive donations, and otherwise manage their money in more structural ways. The ASN also brings together the leaders of these affinity groups for monthly support meetings, so that Climb United can be a hub of knowledge and resources for these community leaders—a think tank like space so our communities changemakers can potentially build on each other’s innovations.

“[Climb United] made [becoming a nonprofit] extremely painless. I filled out one form,” says Priyam.

And with these financial obstacles addressed, Climb United’s hope is that Color the Wasatch can continue to take up space, celebrate and support their members in meaningful ways, and continue the momentum of change they are creating for the climbing community.

Wisdom from Color the Wasatch Leadership

Carlos Vizcarra

Ideal Climbing Day: Crushing it and getting beers with my friends afterwards.

What He’s Learning: 'It’s really become a community. Like we climb together all the time with the people involved in SLAQC and the other affinity groups in the area, and you just see these friendships happen naturally, and people meet up to climb outside of the structures of CTW.'

Andrea Ramos Campos

Ideal Climbing Day: Chill approaches, water features, and snacks.

What She’s Learning: 'With the relationship with gyms, it can be a lot of work to get gyms or other partners to internalize that this should be a priority all the time, not just when it's convenient. And it’s also a process to help these organizations distinguish between “equality” and real equity.'

Ryan Suen

Ideal Climbing Day: Long sufferfests in the mountains where you fill the approach with intimate conversations about shared lived experiences.

What He’s Learning: 'While I'm very happy that there are so many Asian Americans in climbing, people that have similar cultural backgrounds as me, I also want to make sure that we are not creating another type of cultural bubble. We need to make sure that we're also doing things to service people with a wider variety of cultural backgrounds. Because that's not diversity by any means either.'