Shout Out To Mentors!

There are fewer and fewer mentors coming to help the expanding rising generation... many climbers are now learning from Youtube University and the dark places that are Mountain Project and Reddit. The "What is the stupidest/unsafe thing you have seen at the crag?" thread is great proof of this... They're getting too much, "IMO yer doin' everything wrong and you're gunna die!" from so many different people, including other beginners like them who think they know what they're doing. They don't have someone to tell them what's right...

I'm a lucky one. My local climbing community is small and not in rapid growth (probably because we don't have a gym like others larger cities). I've had several experienced climbers who've been there to tell me how to make an alpine draw, tie a clove hitch, and belay me on personally groundbreaking leads. But, there's one in particular who's always been there to teach me. To say, "This is the right way, and here's why... Let me show you how." I haven't been climbing with him very long, just a few years. So he still teaches me all the time. He was there when I did my first lead, a pink point that he set up with gear every few feet, so I could move a toprope up the wall. He took me up my first multi-pitch and belayed me on my hardest redpoint. He gave me encouragement as I shed a few tears after my first trad fall. He calmed nerves on terrifying trad onsights so I could take it to the top...

But, more than showing me where the rattlesnake den at the local crag was, more than teaching and trusting a skinny little 13-year-old to lead belay a full-grown adult, more than anything, he taught me how to love climbing. I wanted to climb 5.13 in a year, to be fearless, to be satisfied with the success I hoped to achieve... He taught me to enjoy the taste of humble pie. I expected fulfillment from the hard sends, but he showed me to love the easy laps, the chossy routes, and the failures. I was climbing with my friend... what could be better?! 

I would like to call all the apprentices, all the students, all the lucky ones... they deserve something! Give them a Mentors Day show of appreciation. A card with an inside joke, a piece of gear, or even a hug! Gift a thank you, for the years of lifesaving from ignorant mistakes. 

I propose a Mentor's Day! Let's say May 14th... because why not? We owe them so much. 

Give a shout-out to your mentor in the comments, share a story on this Mountain Project thread, post a thank you at #climbingmentorday... I would love to see it!