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.