7th Annual Climb4Life^SM Salt Lake (2008)

Register for the 2009 Climb4Life!

Pro Athletes

Noah Bigwood




Age:37
Years Climbing:30  

Resides: Salt Lake City

Occupation: Climber & Carpenter

Sponsors: Five Ten, Sterling Ropes, Metolius, Ropegun

I Started climbing at age seven with my step father in Colorado. I have always loved it and have pursued climbing with a  passion since I began. My adventures on the rocks have taken me all around the U.S. as well as abroad to Europe. I have experienced success at competition climbing, enjoyed the athleticism of bouldering, and am always intrigued by the endurance and excitement of both sport and traditional climbing. I helped to start a successful guide service "Moab Desert Adventures" in Moab, Utah and find that teaching people how to safely enjoy the vertical realm of the rocks brings me a great deal of satisfaction. I currently live in Salt Lake City and I am enjoying getting to know the local terrain of the beautiful Wasatch Mountains.

Whitney Boland

With fourteen years of competitive gymnastics to prep her, Whitney believes that was merely "training" for her climbing. She started climbing in 2002, with the urging from her brother, Reid, while attending Miami University in Oxford, OH to earn a BA in Creative Writing.

After graduating, she moved to Lexington to be closer to the Red River Gorge, where she climbed and worked in restaurants. Just a few years later, she headed west for a summer and never returned. Whitney now lives in Carbondale, CO and frequents the cryptic limestone of Rifle.

Currently a full-time freelance writer, Whitney has many plans on the horizon. "But I'll keep those to myself." She is a contributing editor for Rock & Ice and writes for BeThree.com, Landmark Books, Aspen Magazine, Rocky Mountain Sports and various other local and regional publications, and also writes for the HERA Foundation.

This is her sixth HERA Climb4Life event. "Sean Patrick is a great inspiration," she says, "not only for women, but all people."

Katie Brown

Alan Burgess

Started climbing in the UK with his twin brother Adrian.

Repeated many of the most difficult Alpine routes of the time in the European Alps.

Moved to western Canada making a number of first ascents of ice climbs.

Wrote "Everest Canada" an account of the first Canadian Everest expedition.

Climbed Fitzroy in Patagonia and an alpine style ascent of the North Face of Huascaran Norte.

Climbed Denali alpine style by the Cassin ridge.

Climbed first ascent of south face of Logan. (still unrepeated)

Spent 20 years in the Himalaya climbing on many 8000 meter peaks.

Climbed on 5 Himalayan winter expeditions. Summited Annapurna IV.

Guided on inumerable treks and climbs in Nepal, India, Pakistan and Tibet.

Nowadays is rock climbing more. Co wrote "The Burgess Book of Lies". (more bio info there)

Has been teaching Ashtanga yoga for the last 8 years.

Obe Carrion

Obe is Operations Director and Head Route-setter at The Rock Club. He also co-coaches Team Rock, TR's competitive climbing team.

Obe discovered rock climbing at age 14 and quickly became addicted. Feeding the habit quickly lead to climbing career that few can dream of, much less match. Just 6 years later Obe went pro, climbing with the best in the world. Obe was a member of the US National Team in 2001 and 2002, and pulled a win at the ABS Nationals in 2001.

Says Joe Iurato of Urban Climber Magazine, "[Obe] helped pioneer the whole bouldering movement by developing some of the most classic areas in the country... [Obe has] ultimately earned himself a place among the most elite climbers in history."

If you think you recognize Obe, you definitely do, he has starred in 8 classic climbing movies including Rampage, Frequent Flyers, and Dosage I & II. He has also been featured in nearly every climbing magazine in the world.

When Obe isn't setting, coaching or climbing, he's probably playing golf or sailing.

Suzanne Elgort

Suzanne Elgort has been climbing for 13 years and is currently living in salt
lake city. when she's not bouldering, sport climbing or cycling, suzanne manages
a laboratory and does cancer research at the huntsman cancer institute at the
university of utah. she considers herself privileged to once again be a part of
climb-4-life.

Sam Elias

My name is Sam Elias. I was born on August 25, 1982 in southeastern Michigan and it is where my family still resides. I currently live on the western slope of Colorado in the town of Glenwood Springs. Climbing is a driving passion for my life. I have been fortunate to feel an innate connection to its practice from the beginning. I was introduced to climbing through sport climbing, and it is my main pursuit. However, I enjoy many styles; traditional climbing, bouldering, and most recently ice and winter mixed climbing. The quest to understand myself through climbing has deeply enriched my life, and for this I am eternally grateful. As a result, I feel a responsibility to continue to explore within the pursuit for as long as I am motivated and capable.

Current Sponsors: Millet, Black Diamond, New England Ropes/ Maxim, Osprey Packs La Sportiva

Eric Harrison

Nickname: EZ

Born: 4/8/1968

Height: 5'8"

Weight: 140 lbs wet

Reside: Erie Colorado

Occupation: Construction Sales

Years climbing: 13

Types: Mostly bouldering, but all types on occasion.

Sponsors: Evolv, Metolius

Relationship: Engaged to Danielle Hoffman

Animals: Pit bull, Peanut.

I have been climbing for about 13 years. I started out climbing traditional routes and some sport. When I went to school full time at night and worked full time, I fell into Bouldering because of convenience. I wanted to stay in shape without having to go out and climb all day. Bouldering was the perfect alternative. I fell in love with the energy filled environment of the bouldering community and have never looked back. Recently I've turned 40 and am finding that I am still getting stronger and smarter. Staying motivated is the hardest thing for me as I get older. Having to hold down a full time job and pay a mortgage makes it hard to train and push myself to do harder things in climbing. Fortunately, I have met a great girl that also climbs and that helps to motivate me to get out and climb even if it seems like there are too many other responsibilities. Staying balanced seems to be the winning recipe for me.

Teaching people how to climb is also super motivating. Everything is new to them and it reminds me of when I was just starting out. Climbing has been the best thing that has ever happened to me besides meeting Danielle and Peanut. I am proud to be a part of such a amazing community that supports great causes like the Hera Climb For Life Foundation.

Danielle Hoffman

A 26 year-old nursing student, Danielle Hoffman loves to boulder and sport climb. She is engaged to Eric Harrison and has a two year old pitbull named P-Nut. Danielle's favorite climbing areas are Squamish, B.C., Rocky Mountain National Park and Bishop. She used to be a wilderness guide in the Boundary Waters of Minnesota. She was almost killed by a cow two summers ago while virus-hunting!

Jason Kehl
Jarrettsville, MD

I’ve been climbing in some form or another for most of my life and been interested in art for just as long. I started rock climbing over 10 years ago. Climbing always interested me because it is a great way to express yourself using your body, sometimes aggressive like a brutal fight and some times slow and seductive like a ritualistic dance. In that way I see climbing as good artistic outlet. I think my evolvement in the climbing world reflects theses ideas and I try to project this to whoever is willing to listen.

Jason will be presenting a slideshow at the event.

When/where were you born?
Baltimore, 1976

Started climbing when/where?
Baltimore, 1993

Favorite climbing area?
I mostly prefer sandstone bouldering, so the south east is a great place for that, Joes Valley is wicked too!

What was your scariest climbing moment?
Topping out on the first ascent of Evilution. Good Times.

Who are your heroes/role models?
Anyone who pushes their limit.

Do you have any knicknames
Hova, Le Croquemort.

Do you have any pre-climb rituals?
Tea and Stretching, alcohol to clean the hands.

What do you do when you're not climbing?
Art, Photo, Sculpture, Graphic Design, Workout.

What are your climbing goals?
To climb the most beautiful lines an are has to offer. The bigger the better, boulders always look nicer on a grand scale.

Joe Kinder

If you're looking for a little motivation, look no further than constantly psyched Joe Kinder. Since he began rock climbing at age 15, Joe's love for the sport has not dwindled. It is this kind of motivation that has kept the native New Englander on the top of his game for the last ten years. While attending university at Maine's College of Art, Joe's unstoppable energy helped him establish hard lines up to V13 and 5.14d. After graduating Joe decided to apply himself fulltime to climbing and moved out west to pursue his passion. Realizing that consistency in climbing means inconsistent living, Joe has moved all across the US including Boulder, Las Vegas, and Salt Lake City. When these cities or living on the road don't cut it, this savvy traveler heads abroad to prime climbing destinations like Spain, France, and Switzerland.

Joe's energy continues even when he unties. "Is he always that psyched?" is a common query to Kinder's constant glow at any cliff. Through clinics, slideshows, and promotional events, Joe loves bringing his passion for the world of climbing to outsiders in an animated way. His involvement with tons of media outlets, and more recently a focus on filming and editing climbing videos, keep Kinder busy on his rest days. With such an unmistakable vibe, it's easy to keep an eye out for one of climbing's key-players.

Joe will be presenting a slideshow at the event

Nate Gold

Nate Gold (AKA Biggie Smooth) lives in New Paltz, New York, where he works in a coffee shop and a rock climbing gym while training to get strong for the American bouldering competition circuit. Primarily an indoor climber, Gold jumped at the chance to travel to India with the two greatest climbers of his generation, Chris Sharma and Katie Brown, to be part of climbing filmmaker Josh Lowell's Pilgrimage, which premiered at the 2003 Climb for Life event. This is Gold's fifth year attending the Climb for Life.

Brittany Griffith



Brittany has climbed big walls in Yosemite, red-pointed 5.13b, competed on the NORBA pro downhill circuit and holds a black belt in Tae Kwon Do. Never one for complacency, Brittany's climbing prowess has seen her on-sight 5.12c and saunter up such notable Smith Rock routes as Oxygen (13b), The Backbone (13a), Darkness at Noon (13a) and Taco Chips (12d). Always humble, Brittany is quick to dismiss her amazing grace, insisting she loves gravity sports too much to limit herself to just one. Brittany's three state championships in three different disciplines speak to a balanced approach to excellence that resonates with Patagonia's core values and commitments. Last winter, Brittany spent another season getting to know the Fitz Roy and looks forward to returning for more rain.

Julia Niles

Julia Niles will light you up with her big, goofy smile. She is a all about adventure and uses climbing and skiing to take her her all over the world. She guides in Jackson Hole, Alaska, and South America- and is one of the few women certified by the AMGA as a rock and alpine guide. Two years ago, diagnosed with a lung tumor, she was not sure she would be able to continue her alpine climbing and guiding. Her doctor said she would lose a lung. But she found a great doctor who saved half of her lung and her passion for climbing picked her right back up after surgery. Less than six months later, she became the first woman to on-sight, solo the Grand Traverse of the Tetons in a day. Her passion continues, and she has been travelling the world climbing and skiing since. She is thrilled to be part of HERA.

Alli Rainey

Climbing since 1992, Harvard graduate Alli Rainey lasted for a single year working a real-world job before she chose to take a different route, becoming a rock climber and freelance writer. As a climber, Alli’s accomplishments range from redpoints of more than 30 5.13’s up to 5.13+ (including many unrepeated first ascents) and onsights of more than 150 5.12’s up to 5.12d, to bouldering V9, to winning and placing highly in numerous local, regional, and national bouldering competitions throughout her tenure as a climber. Alli’s climbing sponsors include Acopa, Clif Bar, Flashed, Native Eyewear, Petzl, prAna, Rocky Mountain Sunscreen, and Sterling Rope. As a writer, to date Alli has completed several full-length book projects, including Bouldering USA, as well as writing numerous articles for a variety of magazines and journals, including a monthly rock-climbing column she wrote for seven years for Rocky Mountain Sports and articles published in Men's Fitness, Rock & Ice, Climbing, Alpinist, Gripped, American Alpine News, and Boulder Magazine, among many others.

Lately, Alli’s focus in the climbing community at large has turned to public service, with her efforts geared toward participating in as many community-oriented climbing events that she can fit into her traveling-climber lifestyle. You’ll find Alli at community-oriented happenings such as Sterling Rope Women’s Weekends, Rocktoberfest, HERA Climb for Life events, and more. Alli’s philosophy is simple: she believes that it’s these types of events—the unique opportunities to reach out to the climbing community and/or the community at large and to speak the language she knows best (the language of rock climbing)—that enable her to positively impact the world around her in the most effective way she can. In sharing her infectious passion for rock climbing, which has defined and shaped so much of her world, lifestyle, and core being, Alli has found a way to take her relationship with climbing onto the more meaningful level of benefiting others.

When she’s not climbing or writing, Alli enjoys spending her time exploring and playing in the woods and the desert with her friends and her dog, Jedi; cooking; reading; listening to and playing music; eating good food (good being a relative term, since anything tastes good if you’re hungry enough); running; and laughing.

Paul "PABLO" Stein

ROCK / ICE / MIXED CLIMBER

Pablo currently lives in Utah and specializes in mixed climbing establishing first ascents ranging from M6 to M10-. Working as a guide for Exum in the winter in Utah gives him the chance to network with many climbers from all around the country. Ouray, Colorado is another favorite climbing area noted for diverse backcountry and farmed routes. Rock climbing face and crack in Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming makes him a well rounded climber. Teaching rock climbing for a University gives him an opportunity to network with the next generation.

“I enjoy climbing on all mediums and am very goal oriented. My main focus is to push my difficulty level. I pursue traditional and sport rock climbing depending on the season and my inspiration. My attraction to mixed climbing comes from the blend of style and technique that make anything possible!"

Sarah Watson

Sarah is 25 years old and though she has only beenclimbing for three years, she has progressed rapidly in the sport. Born in Wisconsin, she grew up unaware there was such a thing as 'rock climbing'. Planning on going to veterinary school, she graduated from UW-Eau Claire in December of 2004. With half a year before
resuming school, she took off to travel the country, and just never went back. Hitchhiking around the west, she learned the art of trad climbing and was immediately taken by the power of the sport. The backpack eventually was traded in for the comfort of van life.

A desert-rat at heart, Sarah is constantly on the
search for new routes and splitter cracks. In the
summer of 2007, Sarah and Sean Jones put up a new 21 pitch route on the south face of Half Dome called Growing Up (5.13a A0).

After an extended stay in Boulder, CO and a scary bout with a life-threatening infection, she is currently back on the road with her new pooch "Charlie", climbing everything and anything she can get her hands on.

Kevin Wilkinson

Climbing since 1999, rock climber Kevin Wilkinson spent nearly a decade working as a backcountry ranger for Canada’s B.C. Parks before he decided that even four months away from climbing every year was too much. Since 2007, then, Kevin has made climbing even more his reality, traveling to locales both far and near to pursue his passion. To date, his accomplishments include redpoints of nearly 20 5.14s, onsights of 30 5.13s, 125 first ascents in Japan, Canada, Spain, and the U.S., and equipping routes in Maple Canyon, UT; Last Chance Canyon, NM; Ten Sleep Canyon, WY; Lakit and Saint, BC; among others. Kevin’s sponsors for rock climbing include La Sportiva, Petzl, and prAna. The writer of two self-published guidebooks (Lakit, BC and Saint, BC), Kevin has also bouldered V11/12 and recently tried his hand at indoor competition for the first time in 2007, with positive results.

When Kevin isn’t climbing or training for climbing, he uses climbing as a vehicle to give back to the climbing community and the community at large. Kevin’s community participation has included events such as Rocktoberfest, HERA Climb for Life, and the American Alpine Club’s annual gathering, as well as helping to found and coordinate the inaugural climbing program for the C5 Youth Foundation (www.c5yf.org) in the summer of 2008. Sharing his passion for climbing with others through teaching and outreach programs provides Kevin with the opportunity to support the growth and development of this sport both within the community and beyond, while helping to promote the companies he believes in in the process.

Outside of climbing, Kevin enjoys searching for new rock, riding his motorbike, and of course, eating gummy bears.

Heidi Wirtz

Heidi’s love for adventure and exploration has been the driving force behind her climbing accomplishments. She enjoys all types of climbing, finding herself high on giant rock walls and frozen waterfalls throughout the world. She has been climbing in the U.S. as well as parts of Canada, Baja, Great Britain, South America, and India over the past twelve years and doesn’t plan to ease up on her globe-trotting any time soon, with plans to climb in Europe, Tazmania, and Greenland in the near future. While continually raising the bar for her personal performance and for women’s climbing in general, Heidi envisions a broader view for her role in the sport in the years ahead, hoping to do more work with people in need around the world and create opportunities to “give back, help and inspire.”

Heidi recently co founded a non-profit called Girls Education International, that aims at bringing education to young women in under served areas throughout the world.

Heidi will be presenting a slideshow at the event

Justin Wood

Justin Wood is a Salt Lake City based climber but isn't often found there. After learning to climb in the canyons around Salt Lake, the wanderlust took over and Justin now lives a vagabond lifestyle. Keeping it light enough to travel, Justin is most often found in his van or abroad with climbing being the driving force of his travels.
Bouldering is his primary interest but sport climbing and trad climbing aren't far behind.