{"id":40056,"date":"2022-06-07T16:58:45","date_gmt":"2022-06-07T22:58:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/everest-team-sets-a-standard-is-the-next-generation-watching\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:53:26","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:53:26","slug":"everest-team-sets-a-standard-is-the-next-generation-watching","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/everest-team-sets-a-standard-is-the-next-generation-watching\/","title":{"rendered":"Everest team sets a standard. Is the next generation watching?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Climbers
Climbers with the Full Circle Everest Expedition near the summit earlier this spring. (Evan Green\/Special to The Colorado Sun)<\/span>Evan Green\/Special to The Colorado Sun<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

The walls of the dining tent were covered with letters from elementary school students cheering on the mountaineers from afar.<\/p>\n

The Full Circle Everest Expedition climbers saw those letters every time they gathered for meals at Everest Base Camp.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was our inspiration. It was real,\u201d said Thomas Moore, the Denver mountaineer who last month was part of the first all-Black climbing team to reach the summit of Mount Everest, almost doubling the number of Black athletes who have stood atop the world\u2019s highest peak.<\/p>\n

Those letters did more than motivate the climbers to reach the summit. The notes from school kids from across the country revealed a mission bigger than a mountain.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a group with many different backgrounds, we can speak to a pretty wide audience, not just Black people,\u201d Moore said.<\/div>\n

\u201cThis can play into conservation. It sounds funny to say out loud but to conserve the outdoors you need more than just white people. To better protect the outdoors, you need the whole collective to come together and move as a group,\u201d he said. \u201cThat, to me, is what we can do: show the benefits of getting outside. Introduce more people to the outdoors. We all recognize it. We all see it. Now it\u2019s time to spread that message.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Full
Full Circle Everest Expedition poses for a group photo this spring. Leader Philip Henderson is at left. (Evan Green, Special to The Colorado Sun)<\/span>Evan Green\/Special to The Colorado Sun<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The historic May 12 summit push saw several members of the nine-mountaineer Full Circle Everest team reach the 29,032-foot peak. The Full Circle goal \u2013 beyond reaching the top of the world \u2013 was to encourage more people of color to spend more time in nature and push for lofty goals. After more than a year of training and fundraising plus six weeks in Nepal preparing for the ascent, the expedition now shifts into a new mode, sharing the success of the mission as a tool to diversify and grow the outdoor recreation world.<\/p>\n

The expedition was led by climber Philip Henderson of Cortez.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe definitely hope this will have a lasting impact on our community,\u201d Eddie Taylor, a Full Circle mountaineer and teacher and track coach at Centaurus High School in Lafayette, told The Colorado Sun<\/em> last September.<\/p>\n

Taylor, who has spent his adult life shepherding kids and friends into the outdoors, laments a lack of people of color at his local rock crags and remote mountain trails. \u201cMaybe this expedition can help change that,\u201d he said in September.<\/p>\n

Now that Taylor has been home for a couple weeks \u2013 and was able to catch athletes he\u2019s coached for four years compete in state finals \u2013 he\u2019s starting to recognize \u201cthere are many levels to the impact this expedition could have.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur goal was to inspire others to get outside and already this is happening,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Full Circle model<\/div>\n

The team spoke over the internet with classrooms across the country as they acclimated in Everest Base Camp. Taylor sees the expedition resonating not just with kids of color but urban kids who maybe always thought of Mount Everest as something for the most elite athletes.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow we have this whole group of kids who see Everest as something more approachable,\u201d Taylor said. \u201cMaybe we\u2019ve helped people think about Everest in a new way and maybe what the face of mountaineering should look like.\u201d<\/p>\n

The group has plans for a documentary detailing its preparation and ascent. There are early plans to assemble a Full Circle nonprofit that could shepherd even more people into the world of mountaineering, with guided trips and programs. The timing is right.<\/p>\n

After years of struggling to move the needle on participation, the outdoor industry cheered an uptick in the number of people going outside during the pandemic. The Outdoor Industry Association\u2019s 2021 participation report showed more Americans embracing outdoor activity, with newcomers tending to be young, more ethnically diverse and from urban areas. The challenge now is to maintain that momentum as the pandemic fades.<\/p>\n

Full Circle can help with that.<\/p>\n

\"Thomas
Thomas Moore, in front, and the Full Circle Everest Expedition team earlier this spring. (Evan Green\/Special to The Colorado Sun)<\/span>Evan Green\/Special to The Colorado Sun<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cIt would be so amazing to see this as a way to introduce more kids to the outdoors,\u201d said Moore, who in 2017 read the book \u201cThe Adventure Gap: Changing the Face of the Outdoors\u201d which detailed the first all-African American summit attempt on Denali and counts the story as a turning point that introduced him to mountaineering. \u201cI know this can work because it worked for me. I hope we can help change the face of the outdoors, and maybe add a bit more color.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leaders in the outdoor recreation community who have spent years working to welcome more people of color heralded the historic summit. But their appreciation reaches beyond a story of perseverance and triumph, even by an all-Black team.<\/p>\n

\"Eddie
Eddie Taylor, second from left, with the Full Circle Everest Expedition team members (Evan Green\/Special to The Colorado Sun)<\/span>Evan Green\/Special to The Colorado Sun<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The Full Circle success will most certainly inspire generations of young people for many years, said Misha Charles, Vail Resorts\u2019 senior manager of change, capability and culture. Charles is a mountain climber who has studied the sport under Full Circle expedition leader Henderson.<\/p>\n

\u201cPhil has advanced a model for leadership that prioritizes vision, grace and humility and a framework for mountaineering that centers the expertise of guides, respect for host communities and stewardship of the natural environment,\u201d Charles said, adding that she was \u201cbeaming with pride\u201d at the success of the team. \u201cThis is the future of climbing, these are today\u2019s rock stars.\u201d<\/p>\n

Patricia Cameron, the Colorado Springs journalist who created Blackpackers to help introduce more diverse youths and families to the outdoors, also swells with pride as she reads the \u201cWe made it!\u201d social-media posts from the Full Circle team. And like Charles, she sees a team that executed under incredible pressure now able to open even more doors for people of color.<\/p>\n

Cameron said her overarching goal with Blackpackers is not just to expose young Black girls to trails and mountains, but to show them a career path.<\/p>\n

The first all-Black Americans to scale Everest can do that same thing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is more here than just going outside and getting more people to get outside,\u201d she said in an interview with The Sun.<\/em> \u201cThis is the outdoor industry getting an opportunity to show that there are ways to succeed in this industry and field and be a leader. That is huge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more at The Colorado Sun<\/div>\n

The Colorado Sun<\/em> is a reader-supported, nonpartisan news organization dedicated to covering Colorado issues. To learn more, go to coloradosun.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Circle Everest team included Denverite Thomas Moore, Lafayette teacher Eddie Taylor and Cortez leader Philip Henderson<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40057,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[2748,21,28,976,346],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-40056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-climbing","tag-cortez","tag-headlines","tag-outdoor-recreation","tag-sports"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40056"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40056\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84531,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40056\/revisions\/84531"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40056"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=40056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}