I started rock climbing in 1992, after I saw the movie "K2". Shortly after seeing the film, I enrolled in a rock climbing class. After the completion of my first rock climbing class, I was out every other weekend rock climbing. I started winter mountaineering in the spring of 1995, after I saw a National Geographic show on Mt. Everest. I was inspired by the climber’s accomplishments. After reading the book "Seven Summits", I began climbing all of the highest mountains in southern California.

This expedition has been a dream of mine for since I read the book "Seven Summits". I told my family and my friends about my endeavors with this project, and they shared the excitement with me. A bi-racial (his dad is white and his mother is black) friend of mine is working on his Ph.D. in sociology and he conducted a study to ascertain why African Americans and minorities are not actively involved in the great American outdoors. His research indicates that there are two reasons why they are not involved. One is because there is a lack of awareness and the other reason is because of the reinforcement they receive from advertising.

My friend reviewed print ads in a variety of magazines ranging from Newsweek to Ebony over a two-year period. Ninety-eight percent of the print ads always showed minorities participating in the traditional sports such as football, basketball, baseball, and track. There was little participation in the great American outdoor sports by minorities. Ninety-seven percent of the non-minorities print ads always showed them participating in the great American outdoors sports ranging from climbing to fishing. I was astounded when I viewed his collection of print ads. After I viewed his print ads, I decided to change my focus on this expedition. The only way I could get minorities interested and aware about the great American outdoors was to make history by doing this expedition. I never was interested in golf until I saw Tiger Wood’s accomplishments and now I watch and play golf actively.

I am interested in inspiring minorities to explore the great American outdoors. The Pioneer Climbing Expedition plan is described below.

Email me at... elliott@pioneerclimbing.com

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Hello. My name is Stephen, and I’ve been climbing since 1989. My first exposure to the sport was at Mount Rubidoux in Riverside. I was site-seeing and happened upon a small group of people with ropes and ‘jingly pieces of metal’ things on their sides. As I sat and admired the attempts of this group to climb, what appeared to be quite easy, I thought to myself, "I wonder if I could do that"?

One month later I was treated to a gift that changed my life. It was a rock climbing class where I first learned the basics of knot tying and rope handling techniques. However, my real interest was in finding out if I was correct in my first assumption... that climbing was easy. I discovered that it was, and that for the first time in my life I’d found something that I was naturally good at.

Since that first day of climbing I have traveled around the world to pursue different aspects of climbing, for business and pleasure. I have worked with the French Government as a climbing instructor in the South of France, and as an instructor at an indoor climbing gym. I have also helped to expose the sport to inner-city, at-risk youths.

The one thing I’ve found lacking in this sport is the interest and participation of minorities . I’ve often asked other men of color why they’ve never tried to climb. The majority of those asked responded with statements like, "you’re crazy!" My goal is to inform and inspire other minorities to begin to think outside of the well crafted box they think they should be in, and to share in the joys of the outdoors as I have.

Email me at... stephen@pioneerclimbing.com

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