08/26/2026
We lost a truly great member of our climbing community last week.
Dan Christopherson passed away after his battle with cancer. For many of us at TSP, this loss is deeply personal. I had known Dan since high school. We were the same age, and over the years I watched him become an incredible climber, mentor, educator, friend, and one of those people who simply made the community around him better.
Dan was also part of the story of The Scratch Pad before there even was a Scratch Pad.
Before we had a name, before we knew whether we would ever open a gym to the public, we hosted our first drytooling and mixed climbing clinic on a small climbing wall in the back of a warehouse. Dan and his company, 12 Finger Outdoor Adventure, stepped in to help us make that first clinic happen.
Looking back now, that little event became one of the first steps toward what eventually grew into TSP.
And Dan helped simply because that was Dan.
If someone was excited about climbing, Dan was excited for them. If someone needed help, he helped. If someone wanted to learn, he taught. He was positive, psyched, generous with his time and knowledge, and genuinely supportive of the people around him.
Through 12 Finger Outdoor Adventure, Dan helped countless people experience the outdoors and learn to climb, ice climb, and adventure safely. He worked with youth, new climbers, and experienced climbers alike. His contribution wasn’t measured in grades climbed or summits reached nearly as much as it was in people—people who discovered something they loved because Dan took the time to share it with them.
Today, TSP has grown into a community neither of us could have imagined back then. And Dan has a piece of that story.
More importantly, he has a piece of the stories of so many people whose lives he touched along the way.
Thank you, Dan, for the climbs, the friendship, the enthusiasm, the generosity, and for believing in a little idea before it even had a name.
You helped us more than you probably ever knew.
Rest easy, friend. We’ll keep climbing. ❤️
📸 (Dustin Lyons)
Steve Lloyd
