Team Ascent — Boulder Ventures Ltd.

*(L-R) Tom Frost, Royal Robbins, Chuck Pratt and Yvon Chouinard on top of El Capitan after their first ascent of The North America Wall on October 31, 1964.*

On a chilly October morning, high above Yosemite Valley, four men stood atop El Cap after climbing the hardest rock climb in the world. Each was an acclaimed climber, with notable first ascents to his credit. Each had already made their mark on American climbing, and each would go on to even harder and more daring ascents in their long and storied careers.

But for ten days in October 1964, they climbed together as partners, venturing into unknown and untraveled terrain with no expectation of help or rescue, wholly dependent on their relationship with each other and the skill they each brought to the task ahead. When Royal Robbins, Chuck Pratt, Tom Frost and Yvon Chouinard made the first ascent of the North America Wall on El Cap, it ushered in a new era of American excellence, proving to everyone that these climbers were the best in the world.

Royal Robbins was the leader of the group and organized the North America Wall ascent. One of the original Yosemite hardmen of his generation, Royal was the dominant figure in American climbing throughout the 1960s, equally adept at hard free climbing, difficult aid, and mixed alpine terrain. He would go on to join the top American Guides of his generation at John Harlin’s ISM in Leysin, and then established his own climbing school in Modesto, California in the 1970s. His iconic status enabled him to enter the outdoor clothing business in 1979 with his beloved wife and climbing partner, Liz, founding a brand that survives today.

As a child, Royal’s instruction manual Advanced Rockcraft was my bible. When Royal and Liz owned a condo in Beaver Creek in the early 1990s, I had the opportunity to open a great bottle of Barolo with them at our favorite Italian restaurant. Royal died in 2017 at his home in Modesto, CA.

Chuck Pratt was the best free climber in the group, and his early ascents of technical Yosemite cracks set the world standard in the early 1960s. He joined Royal, Tom and Joe Fitschen for the second ascent of The Nose of El Cap in 1960 and made the landmark first ascent with Royal and Tom of the Salathe Wall in 1961. That same year he established The Crack of Doom on Elephant Rock in Yosemite, a fearsome two pitch off width that was among America’s first 5.10s - it routinely spits out expert climbers to this day.

Chuck was also one of the finest mountain guides of his generation and spent most of his career with Exum Guides in the Tetons. He spent his winters in Thailand with a wife and family, a part of his life no one knew about until after his death in 2000.

Tom Frost was the group’s anchor, an even-tempered expert on all types of rock and a frequent partner on Robbins’ cutting-edge exploits. He was also the best educated of the bunch, with a mechanical engineering degree from Stanford, and was Chouinard’s partner and co-founder of their climbing equipment business in 1966. He climbed hard into the 1980s when he moved to Boulder to establish his business, Chimera Lighting, the dominant worldwide brand in studio softboxes.

Tom was my neighbor in Boulder for many years. Though we didn’t climb together, I recall a walk with him across Dakota Ridge in the late 1980s where I wanted to know about his attempts to preserve Camp 4 in Yosemite and he wanted to ask me about recent advances in optical processing and biotechnology. He also pointed out some obscure boulder problems I thought I’d climbed first – he assured me that Dave Rearick, another Boulder neighbor and legendary California climber, had sent them all in the 1960s. Tom died in 2018 at age 82.

Yvon Chouinard was the team’s equal in climbing prowess and hard first ascents in Yosemite. He made the first ascent of the Muir Wall on El Cap with TM Herbert in 1965, a route that Royal later soloed. A genius at tool building, Yvon was the most successful of his teammates in business. Chouinard Equipment, which became Black Diamond, and Patagonia are his legacies, and these two companies revolutionized all aspects of rock and ice climbing with Chouinard’s visionary advances in technology.

Yvon invented the curved ice axe, which changed the game in hard ice climbing in the 1970s – he then wrote the book to teach us all how it’s done. I ordered a Chouinard ash piolet in 1978 after my first season flailing on Northeast ice and carried it with me throughout the 1980s, from the Alps to K2 to the Cordillera Blanca. It now proudly hangs on the wall of my study at home, it’s shape a constant reminder of Yvon’s genius and its impact on my life.

The four men who made the first ascent of the North America Wall were mountain guides and entrepreneurs, and at Boulder Ventures, we seek to emulate their spirit of partnership. Peter Roshko and I were each successful VCs before teaming up 27 years ago for Boulder Ventures III in 1999. Jonathan Perl joined us for Boulder Ventures IV in 2002 after a successful run at Intersouth Partners. Peter backed Kishen as our serial entrepreneur at Broadhop in 2008. Following its sale to Cisco Systems in 2013, Kishen was a limited partner in both Boulder Ventures VI, our 2014 vintage partnership, and Boulder Ventures VII, our 2018 fund. After ten years growing Cisco’s global 4G software business, Kishen joined us as a General Partner in 2022 for Boulder Ventures VIII.

Together, we have skied and climbed and guided our clients for decades in the terrain we know best. In early-stage technology, telecom, and biotech, in Colorado and in the Mid-Atlantic, we are the most experienced venture capitalists in our markets. The funds we’ve managed together have returned our investors a multiple of their capital, and our two most recent funds, BV VII and BV VIII, are top decile performers for DPI in their respective vintages.

After 120 days of fundraising, mostly skiing and climbing with our investors, we closed Boulder Ventures IX on April 15 at $55 million of committed capital. 27 new investors joined 100 long time Boulder Ventures limited partners in our 2026 vintage partnership.

Peter, Kishen, Jonathan and I have teamed up again to do what we’ve always done: back the best serial entrepreneurs in our markets with expert capital.

Like Robbins, Pratt, Frost and Chouinard on the North America Wall, it’s a Team Ascent.