In the summer of 2011 my family decided we were going to do something different for vacation and go somewhere new. I wasn’t completely for it yet but my mom told us we would be going to Gatlinburg, Tennessee. We went hiking, visited the University of Tennessee (my favorite college team), and more importantly visited CLIMB Works. I had never gone ziplining before, but always wanted to and my mom said she found a company that ranked above the rest! I had an awesome time that helped solidify my love for the outdoors and learn a little bit along the way.

Fast forward four years later. I was about to graduate college from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. It had been a great four years, and I don’t regret one bit of it but there I was 30 pounds heavier than when I started. The weekends out with friends, sharing a couple pizzas a week with my roommates, a busy schedule with work & school work had done a number on me. I needed to make a change. I decided that I was going to take a week off to hang out with my family and friends after I graduated and then I needed to make a serious change in my lifestyle. I needed to leave that comfort zone of pizza, beer, and laziness. I joined a gym, looked up some workouts online, and set a goal to lose 30 pounds. I went to the gym every day after work and then to the track for another workout. At least once a week I would be wearing my CLIMB Works t-shirt that I had gotten four years ago. I had slowly realized that the words printed on my shirt were becoming a major part of my life. Weight loss isn’t easy. You have to work hard and challenge yourself. You have to learn about what to do to get rid of that excess weight. You have to believe in yourself and the process because it’s a long process that doesn’t just happen overnight. It took a long time to pack on those pounds and it was going to take some time to get rid of them and keep them off. You need to have a strong and solid reason to start so when you’re feeling down and don’t want to continue you will think back to why you started to keep you going.

Since going to the Smoky Mountains, I had this love for the outdoors. I used that to help me with my weight loss and started hiking more after work, on my days off, and even when visiting my friends on the other side of the state. I went mountain biking for the first time that summer as well. It was something I always wanted to do but never knew much about it or where to go. My days off were filled with hiking, mountain biking, and the gym. Weight loss suddenly became easier! How? Because I found things that I love to do and can challenge myself to push a little harder to become a little faster and to last a little longer each time. I entered CLIMB Works video contest last summer in the hopes to reach out to others so that they could realize that losing weight doesn’t have to be a miserable thing. Hiking up One Thousand Steps trail was hard and took a long 30 minutes in 90 degree heat with 100% humidity but being outside was more fun than going to the gym.  When you are happy and having fun with what you are doing then success will follow. I was bummed that I didn’t win the contest and the GoPro but I felt even better knowing that my video had at least reached one person if not more and inspired them to achieve their goals.

I continued lifting, running, hiking, and mountain biking all through the fall and winter. I believe it was around Christmas time when I finally reached my goal of 30 pounds lost. I felt great! I felt like I was standing on top of the world and that nothing could stop me. I decided to keep the weight loss going! Ten more pounds! I knocked those pounds out in a couple months! March came and I had decided to go for ten more pounds. It was going good and I was feeling great! I reached the 180’s and injury struck. I couldn’t lift, I couldn’t mountain bike, and at first running and hiking was difficult. This was just a little bump in the road, and I had to figure out how to reach my goal without those things. After a couple weeks off, I was able to start running and hiking again. I continued to push myself and did the One Thousand Steps trail again with one of my best friends, Jared. To us we were just briskly walking up the trail but to others we were probably blurs because we made it up in 13 minutes exactly! That’s 17 minutes faster than the last time I did it. I worked and put in the time and 355 days after I started I was there. I didn’t just do it; I mastered weight loss and completely crushed my goal. I lost 50 pounds in less than a year. I stepped out of my comfort zone, changed my whole lifestyle & eating habits, and reached something that many see as impossible or too boring to keep going.

When I tell people I lost 50 pounds I get a congratulations that is usually followed up with “how did you do it? Why did you want to lose 50 pounds?” In a shortened version of what’s above I tell them you don’t have to always go to the gym or go for a run. Go for a hike, walk, or bike ride; just get outside and do something! As long as you are happy and having fun with what you do then success will follow. I have had many people ask me what my reason for keep going is: I wanted a healthier and better me. I have a long bucket list that I want cross everything off of, and if I continued with my college ways there would have been no way I would have been able to cross everything off my list. I did it for my family and friends so that I can spend many years with them as well. That is why I chose to always C.L.I.M.B. and continue to do so to this day.

If an 11-mile hike to the top of Mount Cammerer is stepping out of your comfort zone, then I guess you could say I was really going for gold recently when I went on a hike with a guy I had never before spent any one-on-one time with. Getting to know someone new absolutely qualifies as stepping outside your comfort zone, too. Scrolling through someone’s Instagram profile is a pretty risk-free way to get to know someone (well, risk-free until you accidentally like a picture from a year ago), but if you really want to get to know someone, spend 3 hours in the car and 5 hours hiking with them. I’m not recommending this as the best way to get to know someone, I’m just telling you what happened. And instead of long breaks of awkward silence, I actually really got to know this guy. And I really enjoyed his company, which, if I’m being honest, I partly requested because I didn’t want to hike alone. In the dark. With bears. And we did see a bear.

At CLIMB Works, we feel like time spent doing things together in the outdoors is something special. It’s a way to make memories and share experiences that bring people out of their comfort zones and closer together. And our hike is evidence of that. We did probably spend too much time together but we enjoyed each other’s company and have a better friendship now because of it.

So invite someone that you’d like get to know to do something, whether it’s to go on an adventure, go on a walk or grab a cup of coffee. It might be uncomfortable at first, but I kind of think that’s the point, right?

Here are some photos from our hike to the Mount Cammerer Fire Tower (we wanted to make it by sunset so we ended up hiking back down in the dark):

You’ve seen it on our t-shirts, on our website and all over our social media, but what exactly is AlwaysCLIMB?

Perhaps you’ve wondered why our name is CLIMB Works when there isn’t much climbing involved. CLIMB is actually an acronym that stands for Challenge. Learn. Inspire. Master. Believe.

If you’ve ever been on one of our tours you’ve heard your guide give his or her personal take on what AlwaysCLIMB means to them. Each guide’s explanation is a little different because everyone’s interpretation of CLIMB is a little different. And that’s exactly how we intended it.

Our goal here at CLIMB Works is to get people out of their comfort zones, to push them to do something that may seem scary or out of reach to them, and to help them realize they are capable of doing so much more than they thought they could do.

We want to see you CLIMB.

On the zipline course, as in life, everyone’s CLIMB is different. For some people, going against all their fears and jumping off a platform is monumental for them. For others it’s the challenge of going upside down or making it up the ascension faster than their partner. Everyone’s comfort zone is different so everyone’s CLIMB is different.

For some it’s committing to run a 5K. For others, it’s training for the IronMan.

For some it’s going after that dream internship. For others, it’s going for the corner office.

For some it’s jumping off a cliff. For others it’s not letting themselves fall off the cliff.

For some it’s letting people in. For others, it’s letting people go.

We had a recent participant who is currently fighting cancer and has used the AlwaysCLIMB motto as his personal fight motto. What an inspiration that is to hear.  

An amazing thing we’ve discovered along the way is that it’s easier to CLIMB when you feel supported. We’ve had people that were scared to death to jump who were cheered on by complete strangers on their tour. And you know what? They jumped. Sometimes we all just need to be told ‘you can do this.’ And when we realize we can do that thing we didn’t think we could do, we want to do the next thing we didn’t think we could do, and the next and the next.

That is what we want to give people; the realization that when we push ourselves we can do incredible things.

And that is what it means to alwaysCLIMB.

Share YOUR AlwaysCLIMB story. We want to hear how you AlwaysCLIMB. You never know who will hear your story and be encouraged by it. We are, after all, all in this together. Share your stories using the form below.

Some woodpecker literally stuck its nose in our business.

Yes, Wobbly Pine had to come down due to damage caused by a woodpecker. While we are sad to see it go, we are excited to introduce the newest platform to the CLIMB Works platform family.

There she lies…

The new, sweet potato of a platform.

Still has that same unbeatable view.