MARCUS GARCIA ENCOURAGES EMOTIONAL VULNERABILITY IN CLIMBING

Words by Erin Phillips | Photo by Jess Chambers

Marcus Garcia, a Durango local, is a professional athlete known for bold and varied rock and ice climbing, as well as a coach and mentor to the next generation of climbers. Something that sets Garcia apart as an athlete is not just the obvious physical risks that he’s willing to take in these vertical environments, but the emotional ones as well.

In 2019, Osprey released a documentary called The Mentor , which follows Garcia’s heartfelt journey from climbing the route that his mentor Jimmy Ray Forester died on to becoming a climbing mentor himself. But the story didn’t end there for Garcia.

After the film came out, he had a lot of unexpected feelings come up. “I thought I was grieving because I lost my friend,” he shares, “but I had actually lost my identity. I had to figure out why and what, specifically, I was grieving.”

Liam Foster, one of the climbers Garcia coached, says when he first met Garcia, he was quiet and reserved. “I think part of him still had so much pain from Jimmy that he was hesitant to make real connections with some of us on the team. He didn’t want to put us through what he went through. You can tell, since then, he’s put a lot of work into himself and opened up.”

With tears in his eyes, Garcia recalls when his own teenage daughter, who he was rebuilding a relationship with after years apart, watched a public showing of The Mentor and asked him in front of the crowd, “How has forgiveness been a part of your healing?” He had resented having a family when that kept him from going on the climbing trip Forester died on, and over 10 years later, he responded to his daughter with open honesty and the realization that he needed to forgive even himself. “I needed to start showing up for myself, so that I could show my daughter how to show up for herself.”

Garica’s got a soft spot for the kids. He owned a climbing gym, The Rock Lounge, that closed during the pandemic. “Being able to provide that gym to the kids in Durango was such an important thing to him and having that taken away was really hard,” says Foster. But, that hasn’t stopped him from building deeper relationships now, with both his family and the climbing community as a whole.

“Showing vulnerability and fear is mistaken as weakness when really it’s the most courageous thing to do,” says Garcia. “In the climbing culture, there is a focus on proving how strong and powerful you are physically, but emotional vulnerability is lacking. These two should be encouraged together.” One thing Garcia does with his students is create time for journaling and sharing openly about what they’re experiencing with the team.

Foster, a very accomplished climber himself (the youngest person, at age 17, to climb the hardest mixed route in the world), learned so many things from Garcia, but especially that climbing doesn’t have to be a selfish sport — that through working together, we accomplish more.

When Foster was 12, he was introduced to Riders on the Storm (5.14). He spent six years projecting the route with Garcia. “We would go up to this ledge, our own little private crow’s nest overlooking Durango, and be completely present in a time in both of our lives when it was very hard to do so. We both were uncertain and kinda scared of the future, so we could go through it together,” Foster remembers.

“Mentors don’t just give you a training plan or help you become a better climber objectively. They are so much more than that; they teach you how to live,” says Foster.

“Other teams that we grew up around have produced mind-blowing athletes, but when you look behind the scenes, there’s a whole lot of burnout,” he continues. “I wouldn’t be climbing today if it wasn’t for Garcia. He’s still my mentor, and that’s not something I ever see changing.”

Garcia continues to teach climbing clinics and publicly share his journey of healing through grief. This spring, he’s headed to Kenya with the Global Climbing Initiative to build a mentorship community. :

Follow his journey and upcoming events @mgclimber1 or facebook.com/mgclimber.