In my nearly two decades of working as a strength coach, I have worked with many, many people across all sports imaginable. I have worked at many gyms, and I have worked out at even more gyms. I have coached many teams, and I have been coached on many teams. However I felt that something was missing for me in all those experiences. There were great parts of all of them but there was a lack of a complete puzzle. The part that I realized was missing was the fun-loving welcoming community of like-minded individuals in the “silent sports” arena. I love traditional sports as I grew up playing them, but I also have a deep passion of the sports like snowboarding, mountain biking and climbing. Combining what I know about strength training and sports science into the outdoor sports community was important to me. That is where summit strength and fitness came from. Yes, the purpose of the gym is to gain physical strength. That is what I have been educated in. That does happen at summit. However what I am more proud of and what is more important is the community at summit.
I am proud of the people that make up Summit (both staff and members) and one of those people is our very own Alex Molzahn. Read on to see his perspective;
“Summit, for me, is more than just a training centre, and much more than just a climbing gym. Summit is a gathering place for all sorts of adventurers. A central location where people with different goals in mind can meet, train for their goals, and share psych with others. The community at summit is vibrant, fun loving and welcoming. We have long distance hikers, rock climbers, mountaineers, sailors, yogis, international travelers, and so many other passionate adventurers. It’s just a wonderful community who pursue different adventures on both land and sea, and our community is constantly growing; we have new members joining, coming to Summit to train for their own goals, and finding a community that supports them in their endeavors.
I myself started training with Coach Kubi first as a member of the high school climbing team. After a brief hiatus for school, I started training with him again in the fall of 2016. This was to rehab a knee injury that I had gotten while hiking the 2200 mile long Appalachian Trail. My knee injury occurred just 200 miles north of the Southern Terminus. I was devastated, since I had about a week left of hiking until I was going to finish the entire trail. Instead, I flew home early, 200 miles short of my goal, and spent the next 2 months rehabbing and strengthening my knee. I returned in December of 2016 to finish the Appalachian Trail.
After that, in January of 2017, Keith opened up Summit Strength and Fitness, and I began working for him. I continued to train under him to pursue my other climbing goals. My biggest goal of 2017 was to complete another of America’s Long Distance Trails, the Pacific Crest Trail. In the months prior to my hike, I spent my time at Summit focusing on strengthening myself. That was mostly injury prevention tactics, so that I could successfully walk from Mexico to Canada without injuring myself this time. And I successfully hiked from Mexico to Canada, 2500 miles, in 115 days. I really credit my successful thru-hike to all my prior preparation at Summit. I was physically ready to start with big mile days from the beginning of the trail. Hiking 30 miles on day one, and was able to keep an aggressive pace through the heat of the desert, the snow in the Sierras, and the varying terrain of the Pacific Northwest.
Summit is quite an amazing place, a vortex of interesting people pursuing all sorts of goals. Not everyone who comes to Summit is there to pursue climbing goals. That’s a big part of what makes our community at Summit so unique and amazing. The fact that we all have different passions, yet still find real value in working with each other to help one another achieve their goals, it’s quite a wonderful thing, with quite a wonderful community at Summit that is constantly growing.”
