Celebrated climber inspires Sonoma youth

Earlier this month, Santa Rosa climber Kevin Jorgeson captivated the world with his 19-day, 3,000-foot, death-defying ascent of Yosemite’s Dawn Wall.

But Jorgeson had already captivated Sonoma a few years ago – in 2010, to be precise, when he helped bring climbing walls to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Sonoma Valley and to the Presentation School on Broadway. And he’s been inspiring local youth to tackle their own Dawn Walls ever since.

“He really does connect with the kids that he coaches,” said Tracy Walthard, assistant head of school at Presentation, who explained that Jorgeson has been a regular climbing coach at the school for years, teaching students life lessons about endurance, perseverance and problem solving.

As for the Dawn Wall ascent, while others around the country may have been more casually interested in the unprecedented feat – accomplished by Jorgeson and a climbing partner, Tommy Caldwell, who both summited Jan. 14 – the students at Presentation were rapt.

“We were live streaming it in the classrooms,” Walthard said.

Nor was it the first time he connected directly with Sonoma students from the side of a sheer cliff: “Several years ago when he was making an attempt ... he actually called into the school while he was on the wall,” Walthard said.

For Presentation and the Boys & Girls Clubs, it all began in December 2009 with Andrew McDermott, himself a rock-climbing aficionado and Sonoma resident, who felt the sport should be as popular here as it is in Europe. As the story goes, he simply called Jorgeson with an idea, and the two collaborated on bringing indoor climbing walls to the two Sonoma locations.

Jorgeson designed the professional-grade walls himself, according to Walthard, and within a few months there were kids climbing them – building not only their own muscles, ?but a sense of self and of community.

“Climbing really is a team sport,” Walthard said.

Presentation’s wall is the taller of the two, a 40-foot “horizontal traverse wall” that Walthard’s son, Owen, got his start on. As the youths developed a love for the sport, Jorgeson expanded their horizons, Walthard said.

“He showed them how to climb the California coast. And they camped, and they cooked their own food around the campfire, and they climbed all day.”

Today Owen, 15, is a freshman at Sonoma Academy, a school he decided to attend “partly because they allow him to climb there. ... It’s really become a passion,” his mom said. The Sonoma teenager also is a dedicated member of the Northern California Youth Climbing League, or YCL.

He’s not alone. In fact, a bonafide rock-climbing movement appears to be taking shape in Sonoma, thanks to the efforts of Jorgeson and McDermott.

Larry Krieger, president of the Boys & Girls Clubs, said his organization felt “lucky and happy” to have the climbing wall – and he added that Jorgeson himself has visited the Maxwell Farms site since its installation to offer support, advice and encouragement.

Krieger also praised McDermott, saying, “He’s doing a great deal for the entire industry” of rock climbing. McDermott’s plan all along has been to bring the sport to the entire nation, starting with Sonoma.

McDermott was not immediately available for comment. But when the climbing walls were first installed in September 2010, he told Lorna Sheridan, now the Index-Tribune’s education editor, that rock climbing is about more than physical fitness.

“Giving them challenges they can overcome with their own bare hands will hopefully inspire a few kids to follow their dreams,” he said at the time.

Jorgeson has a similar idea about rock climbing. “Everyone has their own Dawn Wall,” he has been known to say.

He may be internationally famous now, but Jorgeson “will stop in on a regular basis to say hi to the kids,” even showing up at competitions to cheer them on, Walthard said.

“He has really taken time to invest in our youth,” she said.

“He’s in many ways their hero. He’s going before them and paving the path.”