What It's Like to Climb with Northern Vertical: More Than Just a Day on the Rock
At Northern Vertical Climbing Guides, we do more than tie knots and scale cliffs — we guide people into deeper confidence, connection, and trust. Climbing with us isn’t just an activity. It’s a journey — often the first step into something more powerful than our guests expected.
When you come climb with Northern Vertical, you’re climbing with me — Ryan Howes, founder, guide, teacher, and lifelong student of the vertical world, or, another climbing lifer I have personally trained with a same ethos and zest for the outdoors. I started this company after a long, personal journey of transforming fear into strength. I wasn’t a fearless kid. I loved sports, but lacked confidence. At 17, rock climbing gripped me — not with excitement, but with raw fear. Still, something inside said try again. And I did. Again and again, with a mentor at my side and the cliffs of Camden, Clifton, and Acadia as my classrooms. That journey reshaped me, and I love to help others discover that shift for themselves.
What You Can Expect
Whether it’s your first time or your fiftieth, when we meet at our 15 Elm Street office, or the trailhead, the experience begins with trust. We take time to learn who you are — your hopes and goals, your fears, your reasons for being here. And then we’ll walk. We’ll talk. And we’ll climb.
On the rock, Northern Vertical instructors guide with patience, humor, and clarity. Every movement is a conversation between body and stone — and we help you learn to listen. We encourage you to “trust the inner voice — intuition,” because climbing is just as much about the inner terrain as the granite and schist beneath your hands and feet.
Safety is never compromised. With a perfect safety record, full insurance, and 25 years of professional guiding experience, our instructor team bring deep technical and communication skills to every outing. But our greater passion is helping you discover your own strength — that moment when fear softens, breath deepens, and you find yourself higher than you thought possible.
Climbing with Heart
Guests often tell me the day stays with them long after the ropes are packed. That’s by design. Northern Vertical isn’t a cookie-cutter tour company. We’re here to spark something meaningful. You’ll leave with skills, yes — but more importantly, with a sense of who you are when you’re standing tall, looking out over the Camden Hills and beyond, feeling the wind on your face.
That’s the gift of climbing: it strips away the noise and reconnects you with the real. And my job, our job, is to hold that space with care, professionalism, and heart.
So if you’re ready to take a leap — toward adventure, toward courage, toward yourself — come climb with Northern Vertical. Let’s go vertical. Let’s go inward. Let’s go together.
~Ryan Howes
