Democratizing Climbing Income Through Crowdsourcing

It’s Just Fun

Climbing at its core is best done with others. It’s a communal activity that we get to share with friends, and strangers that become friends. Contributing here — and giving hardworking athletes the chance to win big — is another way to keep the psyche alive; to encourage climbers to document their progress; to celebrate the fought-for strength, coordination, and skill that (in combination with the often-incredible settings) makes our sport as special as it is.

The Elephant In The Room

Climbing has experienced exponential growth over the past few decades, but professional climbers — particularly those in the United States — are no better off than they were in the 1990s. Boulder Bounty aims to change that by democratizing how climbers can earn money through crowdsourcing. The global cost for standards of living have risen dramatically, while wages have barely kept up with inflation.

At best, this creates a series of impossible choices for young climbers at a time period when they’re most likely to commit to their craft as an occupation:

  • choose to be a starving artist? #vanlife seems sweet till you realize that the cost of buying a used van and kitting it out — even in your own time — is an expense that most people simply can’t afford
  • grind away at the comp circuit for a limited payout? For women in particular, this sounds like a completely thankless mission for silver (till Janja retires; sorry, Janja!)
  • throw in the towel and try to find a job that manages to pay the bills without selling your soul (hello, weekend warriors!)?

At worst, it keeps talented athletes from doing what they love.

That’s where we come in.

How Does It Work?

Anybody can submit a bounty using the payment link. Bounties are aggregated at the climb (and type of climb) level. Boulder Bounty, the site, is updated once per day with bounty info. Boulder Bounty earns a small percentage off of submitted bounties, using the following logic:

  • 10% of submitted payments through Stripe, our payment processor
  • corporate donations (in the event of wire transfers/checks): 1% of the donation amount up to a fixed cap of $5000. Contact us for more info.

That’s it. Every other cent goes to climbers.

Your payments help to keep the lights on here — we don’t know of another venue where 90% of your money goes directly into the hands of the climbers pushing the boundaries of our sport.

How Do I Claim My Reward?

You can contact us to redeem bounties. At minimum, we require that footage of your first ascent or send be submitted (video sharing sites, such as YouTube or Instagram, are perfectly fine) along with your contact information. Depending on your nationality and locale, Boulder Bounty will either cut you a check or wire the bounty to you.