Safety First, Then Drinking
A group of friends celebrate the author’s 40th birthday atop Remillard Peak in the Northern Selkirks. Unterberger carried the bottle of Veuve Clicquot in his pack, a classic move for a veteran mountain guide. Photo by Eric Reynolds.
Mountain guides and venture capitalists love to share success with our partners. After struggling together for many years, it is a special moment when a VC and her entrepreneur celebrate the exit of their company. Within the context of their authentic relationship, this moment is both joyous and bittersweet.
Joyous, because the only peaks worth climbing together are demanding ones, and the effort brings out the best in both of them.
Bittersweet, because their shared success might not be repeated for a long time, if ever.
Experienced guides learn to savor these moments, and work hard to make them special for clients. In recognition of the importance of the customer care skill set, the AMGA recently adopted a fourth discipline, Apres, to the Alpine, Ski, and Rock standard for the certification of full guides.
Since I introduced this discipline to the American guides and have practiced it for decades, the AMGA has hired me as their new Apres Discipline Coordinator, a role for which I’m highly qualified.
A local guide might attain the summits of his home range a dozen times each season, but even the most determined client might only experience a few of those heights in a lifetime.
A skilled venture capitalist might make as many as fifty investments over her long career, but a seasoned serial entrepreneur will have a chance to start only five companies in his.
When one of these companies or peaks is a success they share, there is a cause for professional celebration.
While the great entrepreneurs I’ve worked with always credit their teams for the prosperity of the effort, they also take time for a memorable glass of wine with their venture sponsor.
Of the traits shared by the venture capitalists and mountain guides that I’ve known in my career, opening an excellent bottle without provocation has been a consistent theme.
Mountain guides owe their first duty to client safety: no matter what the outcome, everyone must return home in one piece. But once the climb is behind us, mountain guides and venture capitalists all practice the Apres discipline with the same motto:
Safety first, then drinking!
Eighteen years later, Unterberger and the Author celebrate another first ascent in the Selkirks, with Strappo Hughes looking on.