While celebrating our 20th Anniversary this month, we asked people to share their memories from the past two decades of Touchstone Climbing. SuperTopo founder, big wall climber, and Touchstone Climbing investor Chris McNamara shared this story of how he discovered the community 20 years ago.
Touchstone Climbing & Fitness is celebrating 20 years – which is exactly how long I’ve been big wall climbing.
This is not a coincidence. I got the business plan for Touchstone when I was a freshman at San Francisco University High School. I promptly turned over my life savings to Mark Melvin and Debra Melvin. The money came from being an umpire, grounds keeper and snack shack operator for Mill Valley Little League. I just wanted a free membership for life and to be apart of the one of the biggest climbing gyms ever conceived. Mark then offered to take me up El Capitan – which was HUGE considering I’d only been climbing 6 months and the tallest thing I’d climbed was the Golden Gate Bridge.
To train, we went over to the first gym, Mission Cliffs, which was vacant except for a giant “20 Ton Capacity” crane that could cruise up and down the building. Mark put a rope on the crane hook and raised it up to the ceiling. He taught me to ascend a rope as Debra and their infant son Daniel watched. Shortly after we climbed the West Face of El Capitan.
That climb changed the trajectory of my life. I became an El Cap addict and a few years later started the American Safe Climbing Association and SuperTopo. Best of all, I got a great friend and climbing mentor in Mark.
We went on to climb El Cap over a dozen times. My favorite ascent was where this photo was taken, The first Girdle Traverse of El Capitan. We climbed 13,000 feet and 75 pitches over 5 days. Here Mark pendulums over toward Mescalito. El Cap Tower is in the background.
Touchstone is still the best investment I’ve ever made, mainly for non-monetary reasons.
To hear more of the story, check out Chris’s interview on The Enormocast.
