‘Unearthed Climber’ winner earns slot as athlete on Team SCARPA

BOULDER, Colo. – North America’s most talented but little known boulderers and climbers who’ve seen their peers ‘Unearthed,’ Urban Climber’s feature that puts the spotlight on unknown talent, have yet another reason to get discovered. The winner each year – highlighted by the magazine’s Climber of the Year Award – will also earn a slot as a climbing athlete on Team SCARPA.

Paul Jung, chosen as this year’s Climber of the Year in the October-November 2007 issue of Urban Climber, is the first to earn a seat on Team SCARPA. Moving forward, each Climber of the Year will earn a slot on Team SCARPA.

“These climbers are total guns, but cool thing about what Urban Climber has done with this is that there’s more to the to the contest, in terms of being an ambassador for the sport, getting people stoked at their local crag, and being an advocate at the community level,” said Chris Clark, Sales and Marketing Director for SCARPA North America. “So that made it a natural to welcome the winner as a SCARPA athlete and ambassador.”

Said Urban Climber Editor Joe Iurato: “I grew up a skater, and the skate mags always had a strong emphasis on core community. So that influenced what we wanted to do here. It’s awesome to see what Chris Sharma, Dave Graham or Joe Kinder are out there doing, but it’s also awesome to turn the page and see people who quietly live the life every day.”

Nominees should be climbers pushing the boundaries at their local crags, but other factors contribute to winning. For instance, criteria include looking for people who are role models in the sport, who have positive energy, and who are socially or environmentally active, Iurato said.

In the last year, Urban Climber has received roughly 150 nominations for Unearthed Climber. Jung, chosen as this year’s Climber of the Year, is a boulderer out of New Paltz, N.Y. with a healthy tick list at the Gunks and a positive attitude to match.

Unearthed Climber works like this: Urban Climber accepts nominations for Unearthed Climber on an ongoing basis. Nominations should be submitted by a nominee’s friends or peers and include information about a person’s tick list and qualities that make her or him stand out. Each issue, from the nominations received, the magazine profiles the person who most exemplifies the characteristics sought out in the contest. From the six people profiled in Unearthed Climber each year, Urban Climber and SCARPA choose one person who will earn the Climber of the Year Award. Submissions should be e-mailed to unearthed.coty@gmail.com.

For more information about SCARPA, visit www.scarpa.com. For more information about Urban Climber, visit www.urbanclimbermag.com.

About SCARPA and SCARPA North America

Founded in 1938, SCARPA builds performance footwear for climbing, hiking, skiing, mountaineering, trail running and other outdoor pursuits from its headquarters in Asolo, Italy. SCARPA has been owned and operated by the Parisotto family since 1956. In 2005, SCARPA opened its North American headquarters in Boulder, Colo., staffed and directed by veterans of the North American outdoor industry, to oversee sales and marketing in the U.S. and Canada.

About Urban Climber and Skram Media

Skram Media is one of the leading independently owned and operated consumer-publishing companies. We serve the passions and interests of climbers of all ages, covering their interests and pursuits through special-interest magazines and related multi-media projects and events. Climbing is the journal of record for climbers worldwide, and together with its website, Climbing.com, reaches more climbers than any other climbing magazine. Urban Climber is the leading youth climbing magazine, and its companion website UCTV is the leading destination on the Internet for climbing film and video entertainment. Combined, Climbing and Urban Climber deliver the largest audience of any climbing media combination. For more: skrammedia.com.

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