Climbing Companies Halt Operations for National Shutdown Against ICE
This week, several climbing companies announced that they will pause operations on Friday, January 30 as part of a planned national shutdown protesting recent U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) actions in Minnesota. The strike gained momentum after ICE agents murdered Minneapolis nurse Alex Pretti on Saturday morning. Participants pledge to skip work, school, and shopping to demonstrate opposition to ICE’s mass deportation operations across the U.S.
Yesterday, on January 28, Touchstone Climbing announced that all of its 17 locations across California would close on January 30 “as part of the national general strike in opposition to ICE and the violence, fear, and harm they continue to inflict on immigrant communities and those who stand with them.” Touchstone’s employee union, Touchstone Workers United, also released a statement claiming that Touchstone had “answered our call” to close gyms on Friday. The same day, several other gyms, including Ascent Studio in Fort Collins, Colorado and Boulders Gym in Madison, Wisconsin, announced that they would be closed on January 30.
But these aren’t the first gyms to participate in a strike. Last Friday, January 23, the Minneapolis Climbing Cooperative called upon its community not to purchase a pass; the co-op is also hosting a fundraiser for community members impacted by ICE on January 31.
On January 26, training board company Kilter announced on Instagram that it would shut down operations on Friday. “We believe that climbing cannot exist outside of politics, and that we cannot turn a blind eye to what’s happening in the U.S. and the current regime,” Kilter wrote in its post.
The following day, Tension Climbing echoed that sentiment in a similar Instagram post, declaring that “in solidarity with the ongoing strikes,” it would temporarily halt all business transactions on Friday.
Both board companies are based in Colorado, a state where ICE has arrested more than 3,500 people in 2025. A federal judge recently issued a preliminary injunction against ICE making warrantless arrests in Colorado in a class-action lawsuit, according to the ACLU. Tension Climbing is based in Denver, while Kilter is headquartered in Boulder, with a manufacturing facility in Louisville.
With around 15 employees, Kilter told Climbing that a viral post from Minnesotan pro climber Kyra Condie about the situation in her home state sparked deeper conversation within the company about taking action. Brendan Scorpio, who leads marketing and setting at Kilter, shared that the company’s first step was to reach out to people in Minnesota to ask about the best way to offer support. Following an internal conversation, the company decided to join the January 30 shutdown.
On Friday, Scorpio plans to be out in Denver in solidarity with local organizations participating in the nationwide strike. He noted that other Kilter employees might choose to show up for a demonstration as well, or just take the day to decompress.
“We believe that climbing is political in the sense that so many things that are political affect people’s day-to-day lives,” Scorpio says. “Physically pulling on a climbing hold is not political, but the idea of having access to rock, access to gyms, and understanding that climbing is a community, and if members of that community are under attack for any reason, then it affects the whole community.”
Kilter co-founder and chief operations officer Jackie Hueftle explains, “Living without acknowledging politics is privilege.” She adds that Kilter is known for being open about active issues. More commonly, the company shows up through charitable giving and fundraising.
In the last two weeks, several more pro climbers against ICE violence have also spoken out about the escalating immigration control situation. Following the murder of Renee Good, Eddie Taylor, a climber and schoolteacher from Minnesota, shared a post that began with, “This is not a climbing post.” He wrote, “ICE does not make communities safer. They do not maintain order. They do not protect us.” A few days later, on January 13, he followed that post with a black-and-white image of climbers ascending a ladder over a crevasse simply titled: “F*CK ICE.”
Tommy Caldwell shared that while he typically avoids stepping into politics, at the present moment, silence has begun to “feel like violence.” While he didn’t directly reference ICE, the situation in Minnesota, or any specific political issue, he invited comments from the community about whether people like him who “have a voice” bear a responsibility to use it at this moment in time. One of Caldwell’s sponsors, Patagonia, recently posted on Instagram that it was donating to organizations identified by its store in St. Paul, as well as writing to senators in every state where it has employees.
Overwhelmingly, comments encouraged Caldwell to use his voice and weighed in on the political situation in the U.S. right now. “The moment you recognize you have a voice, you use it,” wrote Teresa Baker, founder of the In Solidarity Project, which works to create more diversity and inclusion in the outdoors. In another comment on Caldwell’s post, British climber Hazel Findlay wrote that she wished Alex Honnold had “whipped out” a “Fuck Trump” banner at the top of Taipei 101 last weekend.
On January 28, Anna Hazlett, who also goes by Anna Hazelnutt, posted that if her followers support ICE, her content isn’t for them. Alongside a reminder about the January 30 strike, Hazlett wrote, “I don’t want my climbing to bring joy to fascists.”
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