My name is Nat Bailey, and I am an UnParallel ambassador. I am really excited about rock climbing; stoked to the moon! I also like to read and write (my Facebook has a really good book recommendation thread going courtesy of my friends), and I am an amateur skateboarder who has big dreams of kickflipping the stair set across from the Zephyr Cafe.

 

Climbing is a lot of things to me. It is my artistic pursuit (yes, cliche alert, I consider climbing to be art! Say what you will!), and my way into the mountains. There’s no ceiling, and it is a lifestyle that rewards the dreamers and the schemers, if they are first privileged enough to be so engaged in an artistic pursuit, and second if they are scrappy enough to put in the work. Baby wouldn’t have rocked the performance in Dirty Dancing without logging all those hours in the studio— and that classic water scene. I find climbing to be much the same, and for someone who loves to try hard but maybe lacks natural talent, it is perfect. Climbing allows me to dance. And I get to dance in the most beautiful places, with wonderful people. Wow. That fires me up!

 

Before I ever got a free pair of UnParallel shoes I had just bought my sixth pair of UP Laces (LV’s). I’m a bit old school for 20, but they do it all. Zion, where you edge more than you think you will, but still jam like you’re in a ska band. The Creek, where you jam and bleed and get drunk off the sunsets, and yes, the booze. Squamish, where you seem to do everything from screaming on steep cracks to wobbling up a runout slab. They are simply the best. I feel like Cinderella, except if I lost an UP Lace at a gala, I would go back and find it, curfew be damned.

Pro tip: Dollar Tree sells pink paracord that makes great laces and looks mega-aftermarket cool.