A Brief (But Very Exciting) History About monopkt.

A Brief (But Very Exciting) History About monopkt.

Hi! Welcome to our monopkt. – a culmination of all your new favorite climbing apparel and gear.

My name is Jackelyn and sitting next to me is Nick and our puppy Denali. We're so excited to bring you monopkt., a little idea we had in our head that has finally come to life.

My climbing journey started in 2016 when I wrote a mini-series on how to train for American Ninja Warrior as a work assignment. What started out as a research piece turned into my actual acceptance onto the show. With only three weeks to prepare for the competition, I found climbing. 

Although my performance on the show was meh, I was (and still am!) proud of being chosen as one of 500 competitors from a pool of 50,000+ applications. I didn't continue to ninja train after that, but I did stick with climbing. 

...and good thing I did, because through climbing, I found Nick. 



Let's fast forward to Planet Granite in Sunnyvale, CA just a few months later. I was on a balancy climb and lost my footing, which catapulted me into the air and flopped me onto the ground with a loud thud. I closed my eyes, hoping no one saw me. 

"Oh, you really committed that one, didn't you?"

What a jerk, I thought to myself as I turned around. And, there he was.

Nick. 

Somehow, between his sassy comment and the next hour, I gave into his charm and we hit it off. I left the gym that night feeling all giddy and cute, but puzzled because he hadn't asked for my number. 

Okay, Nick would like me to interrupt this piece by saying that he did look for me that night after we said goodbye. I had told him I was going to go stretch and he didn't want to seem overly aggressive by asking right away. Yeah, yeah, okay. Whatever.

He ended up magically finding me on Instagram and you guessed it, slid into my DMs. 

I didn't see his DM for 2 weeks (thank you separate Instagram DM folders for helping me play hard to get), but once I did, we were solid. 

We became best friends and climbing partners. Nick taught me the ropes, literally, and our first multi-pitch together was at Lover's Leap in Lake Tahoe. He had about two years on me with climbing and he was so strong and knowledgeable. 

Although I look back on our climbing trips and remember such happy and fun memories, I also recall the long and brutal growth that came with it. When I started climbing, I was terrified. I was nervous. I was hesitant. I used to tell Nick to stop inviting me on group trips because I felt like I was slowing him down. I also felt too embarrassed that I "wasn't good" and didn't want to fail in front of other people and have them all judge me for being weak. 

Instead of using these imagined situations to motivate me, I used them to shell myself. 

It took a very long time, but Nick helped me grow out of my silly imagination. He taught me to trust myself and my strength. I taught him which words and actions helped to empower. Together, we became a real team. 

I tell you this story because this is how it all started. monopkt. grew from all of this. It planted the moment we met and blossomed with every trip, every send, and every non-send. 

We believe you become a climber the moment you touch the rock and decide that you are a climber. You don't have to climb the highest grades to be considered legit, but if you do, then that's so amazing and please teach us your ways. 

We believe that climbing is meant to be fun, thrilling, and enjoyable. But, we also believe that climbing is an art that has hard, heady, and scary moments, too. That's what makes it beautiful.

monopkt. is meant to capture this vibe. It is made for the ones who find growth and joy through hard times. It is made for the ones who really just love the rock. It is made for the ones who climb – not only mountains and rocks, but all of the things. 

With that, thank you.

Thank you for supporting monopkt. We'll see you out there.

 


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