Jason Nelson

When in Doubt, Go For It!

Jason's adventurous beginnings lie in the humble seacoast region of New England where his father would take him hiking and camping in the nearby White Mountains. He acquired his first mountain bike in junior high, greatly expanding the areas he could explore. Before long he had USGS maps on his walls and sought to roam the roadless spaces. He knew there was climbing in his area, but it wasn’t until a top rope lesson at an indoor climbing wall at Sugarloaf Ski Area that he wrapped his head around the pursuit. He went to EMS, bought a minimal amount of rock climbing equipment, and started taking his friends out to the nearby cliffs. A rappelling accident nearly killed him, but rather than quitting, the downtime recovering fueled his imagination. He dove headlong into his passion, moved to Colorado for photography school and climbing, and quickly began pushing the sport at its highest level across the globe.

You Can Sleep When You're Dead

Jason’s incredible talent and work ethic has resulted in one hell of life in the vertical arena. Big wall, alpine, ice, and mixed first accents across Alaska, Utah, Arizona, Colorado, Norway, and Mexico; hundreds of single and multi-pitch rock first ascents up to 5.13; thousands of bolts placed fathering the development of sport climbing and dry tooling in Ouray, Colorado; climbing wind turbines, bridges, aircraft carriers, church steeples, stadiums, skyscrapers, moulins, glacier caves, and mausoleums for rigging and filming work; a plethora of ice and mixed competitions spanning 2006-19; author of three rock and ice climbing guidebooks covering Ouray, CO and the surrounding Western Slope; combine those highlights with a photo, film, and website development career including working on shows for PBS, BBC/Nat Geo, and the NASA/JPL team developing the EELS robot destined for one of Saturn’s moons, and you start to wonder if Jason’s had three lifetimes to fit it all in! He’s not close to finished though, and still throws down on M13, 5.13, WI6+, and grade VI. Jason is Charlie’s best friend, climbing partner, and mentor. His critical eye has been part of Beartooth from the beginning, from pounding in some of our first pitons on first ascents to aiding with graphic design and website projects. Jason supports Beartooth because, “They are making gear the bigger companies don’t have the balls to make, and they do it better! There are, of course, my own selfish reasons too. I want to use the best gear I can get my hands on in the mountains.”

Instagram: @visualadventures

Website: visualadventures.com

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