Ardent Alpinists is a Minnesota non-profit that introduces veterans to rock climbing. It’s part of a broader organization called Ardent Outdoor Group, which provides outdoor recreation opportunities to people of all ages and backgrounds who lack the mentorship, funding or resources to get involved in outdoor activities.
Most of us know that climbing can become a significantly positive force in one’s life, especially when things get rough. Many veterans are working through traumatic stress injuries and anxiety, making programs like Ardent’s a critically important opportunity and a great example of climbing’s potential as a helpful tool for working through hard stuff in life.
We caught up with Logan Dop, a board member and instructor for Ardent Alpinists to learn more about how they’re helping Minnesota veterans through climbing…
What is Ardent Alpinists?
Logan: Ardent Alpinists is an introductory climbing program for veterans in Minnesota. We have contacts through Wounded Warrior Project, who helped us get started with funding. We work with veterans who have been injured, usually with something like traumatic stress injuries or anxiety, though we certainly can have participants with physical injuries like amputations.
When the program started, we hit the gym a few times before moving outdoors. Vertical Endeavors gave us their gym for four indoor sessions (thanks VE!). The first one was an introduction to climbing – the movement, technique, and the differences between bouldering, sport, and trad. Second time we taught them how to belay for top roping. The third time they came in, they tested out of top rope belay and started learning about lead. By the fourth session I was teaching the lead class. I want to get them at least knowledgeable up to the point where they feel comfortable going outside by themselves. And that’s the biggest thing that we try to do at Ardent – teach them so they can go and do it on their own. Something like climbing isn’t an activity you can just go out and do – it’s a little more involved than that. Ardent is a way we’re able to take these people who haven’t had the opportunity before teach them how to do it properly and then get them outside.
We planned six outdoor climbing sessions last year, three of which got rained out. We did two in Red Wing and one in Taylor’s Falls. I wanted to climb at both sport and trad areas so they’re able to see and distinguish between the two. A lot of you know, as climbers, if you’ve been strictly a boulderer, it’s a big step going from bouldering to ropes. If you’re just a rope climber who just climbs sport, it’s a big jump from sport to trad. So I wanted to get that basic, outdoor knowledge of what the different styles are when they see people on walls with ropes or on big mountains with ropes and know how that works.
We’re able to do that pretty efficiently by using these areas that are close to us in the cities and also using VE as a gym that allows you to do different stuff with a qualified instructor. It’s cool.
What kind of impact have you seen it have on veterans who have completed the program?
Logan: A couple of them loved it so much that they brought their kids in and got a family membership and I see them every week. It’s cool to see somebody pick up something like that and realize they’re capable of doing it. One guy I’m thinking of in particular has three daughters and a wife. Before the program, he wasn’t super active as he was getting over his knee surgery from a long time ago. But just getting him active and doing something again sparked something inside of him that he then passed on his kids and brought some family in and just saw this really beautiful transformation. It’s cool to see a lot of people really take to it.
There were a few people, obviously, who were excited to do it and have that experience, but realized it’s not for them. Obviously, you know, climbing is a little scary for some people and not everybody’s made to be a climber. That’s OK, too. More of this program is just teaching them a skill they didn’t have before, gaining some knowledge with veterans who they’re familiar with, and having fun outside. And that’s what this program really achieves at the end of it. Whether they continue to climb super hard after the program is over is not what I’m worried about. It’s more about getting people outside and seeing the transformation that it has.
Changing gears a little bit: personally, do you think rock climbing has healing power?
Logan: Yes, a hundred percent. Most of my friends took climbing and obviously took some negative poor habits, like maybe partying in college or drinking too much or whatever it is, and now most of them have focused more on climbing. Sure, it’s an addiction for a lot of us, but in my opinion, it’s a positive addiction. It’s something you can focus your energy on and focus your time on that benefits you as a person and gets you to places where other people can’t go. So I think it is very healing. For me, it’s healing to go outside, to be physical, and at the same time enjoy these things that I haven’t been able to do before. You get better and better as you go, and you get to try different stuff. And that, to me, is the joy. It’s like a progressive thing. I always tell people it’s like when they crack time for the first time. Crack climbing is the most miserable thing in the world the first time you do it. You hate it. But just like any other climbing, you get better. So it’s like the joy of going through miserable hand jams to being able to hang on one hand jam longer than any other hole, whether that’s a jug or whatever. It’s just cool, that progression. Climbing gives me that more than anything else in my life.
— — —
Thanks a ton to Logan for sharing and to Ardent for what they’re doing through climbing.
To learn more or get involved, check out https://www.ardentoutdoorgroup.com/ardent-alpinists/
P.s. – Ardent Alpinists is the non profit that received part of the profits from our Climb MN t-shirt. THANKS A TON to everyone who helped us send support their way! Super cool mission to be involved in.
