What We Do
Ruedi Beglinger leads the classic Salbyt Flame pitch, near the summit snowfield of Salbyt Peak in the Northern Selkirks. Photo by John Catto.
In August 2018, an experienced group of alpinists and Mountain Guides traveled together to a remote mountain hut north of Roger’s Pass in the Selkirk Mountains of British Columbia. The Mt. Moloch Hut, built and owned by the renowned Swiss Guide Ruedi Beglinger, is perched on a rock outcrop at the head of the Dismal Glacier, surrounded by pristine granite peaks and accessible only by helicopter.
The Mt. Moloch Hut, built and owned by Ruedi Beglinger.
Over the past twenty years, Ruedi has developed the Moloch Hut into an extraordinary alpine venue, establishing hundreds of short and long climbs on fantastic granite. The combination of quality, comfort and remoteness makes the Moloch Hut one of the best alpine rock climbing destinations on Earth.
Among the longest and most visible of Ruedi’s climbs in the area is the Innominata Ridge of Mt. Salbyt. It’s a Selkirk classic, with more than a mile and a half of technical rock and scrambling to a rocky summit, one of the highest for miles around.
The East Face of Salbyt Peak with the Innominata Ridge Route shown in its entirety.
While the Salbyt Ridge can be accessed on foot from the Moloch Hut, this approach adds several hours of glacier travel and loose scrambling to reach the Innominata shoulder. Our team elected to use the helicopter to fly us from the Hut directly to the shoulder and pick us up on the summit snowfield for the short flight back to the Hut.
The author watches Ruedi secure the B-3 from Glacier Helicopters at its landing on the Innominata Shoulder of Salbyt Peak.
We divided into three roped teams led by Ruedi, Erich Unterberger and Jeff Honig and spread out along the Salbyt Ridge for our climb. The skill of our team was evident as we moved together at a consistent but relaxed pace across the ridge, surmounting its technical sections and moving together toward the summit of Mt. Salbyt. We took photos of each other spread across the magnificent landscape, enjoying our climbing experience and each other’s company.
Erich Unterberger guides King Grant and Dan Nordstrom on a difficult step along the Innominata Ridge.
At the top, Reudi called up the helicopter from the valley and our team made it back to the Moloch Hut in time for cocktail hour on the deck and a thorough debrief of our adventure.
Team debrief over cocktails on Ruedi’s Deck.
The ascent of the Innominata Ridge of Mt. Salbyt by our team is an exact match for What We Do at Boulder Ventures.
At Boulder Ventures, we’re only interested in important projects, where successful outcomes can move the dial financially for our investors and for the society we live in.
We only go on trips like this with people we know and trust, who we’ve been doing this with for decades. Everyone knows what they’re getting into, everyone has a lifetime of experience doing it, and everyone knows what to do once we’re there – that experience base allows us all to focus on the objective, instead of on a bunch of stuff that doesn’t matter. The same is true of our relationship with each other as General Partners, and with our serial entrepreneurs at Boulder Ventures.
Our projects are risky. We could die climbing in the Selkirks or lose all our money investing in startups, so we work hard to manage those risks to achieve the best outcome we can.
We know the Guide that owns the Hut, what to bring, who to call for the helicopter and what time of year to go for the best weather. You can’t find this information anywhere – you have to know the people, have access to the tools, and know how to put them together for success. The same is true in venture capital – you have to know what to do and how to do it. Despite what you read on the internet, there’s no instruction manual in our business.
All of us at the Moloch Hut in the summer of 2018 were proud to be there and proud to climb together – it was a worthy objective for a world class group of experienced Guides and climbers. We feel the same way about Boulder Ventures – we’re proud of our portfolio companies and the teams that run them, we’re proud to manage our investors’ capital, and we’re proud to be in business together.
The Mt. Moloch team in August, 2018 (l to r): Charles Goldman, Jeff Honig, the author, King Grant, John Catto, Dan Nordstrom, Erich Unterberger, Chef Boy-ar-Dee, and Ruedi Beglinger.
In addition to a week of great climbing at the Moloch Hut, we opened some excellent bottles of wine and our chef cooked some beautiful dinners at the Hut. We celebrate our successes at Boulder Ventures in the tradition of Mountain Guides around the world: Safety first, then drinking!
Charles and Ruedi prepare themselves for the first course of another epic meal in the Mt. Moloch Hut.
A splendid example of What We Do at Boulder Ventures is Array BioPharma, a company we started in our office in Boulder with Marv Caruthers, David Snitman, Kevin Koch, and a group of Amgen scientists in 1998.
We hired Bob Conway to be Array’s CEO in 1999, and he did an awesome job building the business and research pipeline and taking Array public in 2000. We then hired Ron Squarer in 2014 to build the commercial infrastructure at Array, and he also did a fantastic job.
Boulder Ventures financed Array in three rounds of venture capital through its IPO in 2000 as the lead venture capital investor, and I served as Chairman of the Board from its inception until after our first drug was approved for sale by the FDA in the summer of 2018, just before our trip to the Moloch Hut.
I then helped recruit Carrie Cox, one of the most experienced commercial pharmaceutical executives in the world, to replace me as Chairman of Array when we began selling our drugs, but I stayed on the Board as an Independent Director until our sale to Pfizer in the summer of 2019.
Ron and Kyle on June 14, 2019, the day we announced the sale of Array BioPharma to our employees. We took this picture because we knew that the sign wouldn’t last long.
Together, we built the largest pharmaceutical company in Boulder, and we sold it to Pfizer for $11.8 Billion in cash - the largest life science exit in the history of Colorado. Most importantly, Array invented five FDA-approved cancer drugs, each of which has had a material impact on the lives of thousands of cancer patients around the world.
Mark Robinson at Centerview Partners represented Array in the sale to Pfizer and hosted us all for a fantastic closing celebration on the Vail Powder Guides Cat.
Mark Robinson and the Array Board and Management enjoy a good day of powder skiing with Ben Bartosz and the VPG Team.
Array was an important project led by experienced people.
Ron Squarer, Array’s CEO, David Snitman, its Founder and longtime head of business development, and our CFO, Jason Haddock deserve credit for the sale of Array to Pfizer, and at Boulder Ventures we have an authentic relationship with each of them.
Ron, David and Jason prepare themselves for another epic VPG lunch in the Yurt served by T-Fal.
We used every trick in the book to drive Array’s successful outcome, which was satisfying for all of us financially and life-changing for cancer patients.
We’re proud of our collective efforts at Array and celebrated our success with everyone in classic Boulder Ventures style.
That’s What We Do.