Tag: Advanced Rock

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Meet the Mazamas

Nick joined the Mazamas this year to take part in our Advanced Rock course, but he’s been an outdoor enthusiast for years and enjoys hiking, backpacking, snowboarding, biking and more. When not in the wild, he runs his own tech support and production company and is a classically trained musician, instrumentalist, singer, composer and former yoga instructor. 

Name:  Nick Hankins

Pronouns:  He/Him

Year Joined Mazamas: 2024 

Present-day outdoor activities:  Cragging, Alpine Epics, Hiking, Backpacking, Camping, Photography, Slacklining, Skiing, Snowboarding, Running, Biking, Fixing Vanny (my elderly campervan)

What’s your earliest outdoor memory? Technically accurate, but super throwback…swinging on a swing set in France when I was about 4 or 5 on a sunny day and a girl walked over and kissed me on the cheek.

How did you first hear about the Mazamas, and what prompted you to engage with the organization? My friend Julie told me about the Mazamas when I was climbing with her at Movement. She literally said “You should join the Mazamas and take their Advanced Rock class. I took it last year and it was awesome. You’d love it.”

As more people seek to recreate outdoors, what advice would you offer them? As certain sectors of the world seem to be trending more and more towards chaos, the sanctity of the great outdoors and protected natural spaces has never been more important. As best as you can, try to be considerate of other people’s spiritual experience in these spaces…whether that means adhering to the Leave No Trace principle or leaving your bluetooth speaker and your drone at home (preaching to myself about the drones) or smiling at someone as you pass them on the trail or taking education classes like those offered by the Mazamas to enrich your experience and to propagate best practices that help keep everyone safe, which in turn helps to keep these sacred spaces open and available to all of us. Join a community of like-minded friends and get away from the doom screens as often as you can! I recently deleted Instagram and Facebook on my phone and instead share photos and videos with my friends on a shared Discover Server.

What activities/situations/people most inspire you? People climbing hard in beautiful places. People living simply and minimalistically. People going out of their way or sacrificing their own safety or freedom to help or to stand up for those in need. 

What is your favorite book/movie/TV show/social media account that you follow and why? Pick one. I love the Reel Rock documentaries. They’re produced really well and the stories and cinematography is always top notch.

What’s on your adventure bucket list? I have a number of destinations and crags and alpine peaks on my bucket list, but the one I obsess about the most is a top secret route on the Oregon coast that I’m planning to rebolt and revitalize. 

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Mazama Climber Task Force Comes to Aid of Local Zoo

By Katie Mills

Way back in September, the Mazamas received a call from the Oregon Zoo with an absurdly awesome request: they wanted the walls of their new chimpanzee habitat tested for climbability!

“It’s one of our traditions before opening a new habitat,” said Tanya Paul, who oversees the zoo’s primate area. “It’s just for fun and not a real ‘safety test’ — the habitat is designed with the knowledge that chimps have incredible upper-body strength and are much better climbers than humans. Still, it’s good to know whether our new habitat passes muster with some of the area’s most expert rock climbers.”

Lynny Brown, the Advanced Rock Committee Volunteer Coordinator, quickly assembled a task force of elite Mazama climbers to bravely tackle this challenge.

On a beautiful, sunny Tuesday afternoon, Lynny, April Henderson, and I met up at the zoo with two bouldering pads, a rope, and all our climbing gear. We were given orange safety vests. A curious elephant wandered up as if to say hi when we passed his habitat, walking through behind-the-scenes areas of the zoo that none of us had seen before.

A safety supervisor introduced herself but did not say anything as we bouldered up the ramparts to install a top rope off of a seemingly hefty eye hook that I did not know the true purpose of.

The elite climber task force fruitlessly attacking the walls of the chimp habitat.
Photo: Zoo Team

I was chomping at the bit to unleash my might on this enclosure and geared up first, gleefully throwing myself at the unsuspecting walls…and…did not even get off the ground. After a few minutes of grunting and flailing I gave up. April, with her longer wingspan, fared better and managed to get a couple feet off of the ground, but still nowhere near the top. We screamed happy cries of encouragement before gravity sternly returned her to earth.

A small crowd of onlookers had gathered to supervise our attempts, among them the zoo’s construction manager. He was stern and serious at first, but his face softened into smiles, laughter, and even a bit of heckling as our attempts to scale the walls proved futile and fruitless.

Lynny attacked a wall that had a shallow dihedral reminiscent of Pure Palm (5.11a Lower Gorge, Smith Rock) to no avail, and even tried some dynamic movement to parkour up the corner above the fenced-in exit door.

April attempts a “pure palm” type climb while Lynny spots her. Photo: Kate Giraud

Exhausted, we reluctantly declared the enclosure “UNCLIMBABLE” and walked out with our tails between our legs. But, what was a stunning defeat for us was an incredible victory for the zoo, and I look forward to seeing all of the chimps living safely and harmoniously in their habitat in the near future!! We were promised a backstage tour of the new Primate Forest habitat in the near future for our efforts and happily went home, knowing the chimps will be well taken care of.