Ashley Kramer
With his contributions to the Club this past summer and now with his new Risk Management course for the Boulder Group, we happily award Keith for Volunteer of the Month (September 2025)! Check out this quick interview to get to know more about Keith and say hello at the next volunteering table - he'll be there!
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How long have you been with CMC? What is your background with the Club?
I've been a member of the CMC for seven years. I joined when I moved back to CO from Santa Fe in 2018, primarily for the courses being offered. I've been a member of the Mountaineering Club of Alaska and the Seattle Branch of the Moutaineers, which gives me a perspective on what is possible with outdoor volunteer-led organizations. I'm also on the Board of Directors for ClimbAvyAware (climbavyaware.org), a Boulder-based non-profit focused on making CO backcountry ice climbing safer by developing Avalanche Terrain Exposure Scale (ATES) ratings for various backcountry ice climbing areas.
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Do you have a particularly memorable moment with the Club?
Member Appreciation Weekend in Oct 2021. One of the educational sessions was a Rock Rescue clinic on North Table Mountain conducted by Joey Thompson, with a focus on using what you have on your harness to deal with emergency situations. I really miss the weekends like this and Mountain Fest with various education opportunities and would like to see them come back now that we have Base Camp.
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What are your favorite things to do in Colorado? What is your favorite trail?
My absolute favorite thing to do in CO is ice climbing, I also enjoy getting out in the different seasons for hiking, snowshoeing, skiing, rock climbing, and backpacking into high country sites. My favorite trail for hiking is the Ice Lake Trail down near Silverton (although any trail leading to an alpine lake will do), for snowshoeing it's the Mayflower Gulch Trail.
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What are you working on now for the Club?
One of my roles when I was working for the Dept of Defense was planning for Continuity of Operations, looking at worst-case scenarios and then planning how to ensure critical functions were maintained. This was my real introduction to Risk Management and it's been something of interest to me ever since. This is what led me to work with Boulder Group leadership to set up the new Boulder Risk Management School. I'm looking forward to offering courses as well seminars/clinics/field days on various risk management (which includes incident management) topics.
This also ties in with the concept of Preventative Search and Rescue (PSAR). Art Hogling's presentation on PSAR to the Leadership Summit in May of 2024 prompted me to delve into this area. Hopefully we can make the CMC a good educational partner to all of the Search and Rescue organizations around the state.
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What would you like to see for the future of the Club?
One thing that The Mountaineers emphasize is continual leadership development. I think that CMC leaders need to become more involved in developing and maintaining their skills beyond the basic certification requirements that we have. Simply leading trips is not enough, we need to ensure that perishable skills are constantly refreshed and that our skill set grows through on-going training.
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