Early in my career, a mentor from the U.S. Olympic Committee issued a standing challenge: hike Barr Trail to the summit of Pikes Peak — not once, but several times a year.
Each climb followed the same rhythm.
Long before Ascend Strategy Group had a name, it had a trailhead.
Forged in Colorado SpringsEarly in my career, a mentor from the U.S. Olympic Committee issued a standing challenge: hike Barr Trail to the summit of Pikes Peak — not once, but several times a year.
Each climb followed the same rhythm.
A sequence simple enough to repeat, and demanding enough to respect.
Before every hike, we studied the route, checked conditions, and got honest about what the day would actually demand. Partway up, Barr Camp gave us a place to rest, recalibrate, and decide how the rest of the climb should unfold.
Above treeline, conditions could shift fast: incoming weather, changing energy, the occasional decision to turn back. The plan had to hold its shape without becoming rigid.
What stayed with me wasn't the summit. It was the pattern.
Climb after climb, the same sequence produced the same result: complexity became clarity. Overwhelming terrain became a series of manageable decisions. Eventually, I started to wonder if that pattern was bigger than the mountain.
So I tested it — first informally, then deliberately, across organizations with no trail in sight: nonprofits, ministries, schools, and advancement teams navigating growth and complexity of their own.
The pattern held.
The same sequence that turned a mountain into a series of manageable decisions became a methodology, tested for years before it ever had a name.
Five phases, refined not in a conference room, but on a trail in Colorado — tested for years before it ever became a methodology.
This is why Ascend exists. Not to hand leadership teams a plan and walk away — but to walk the route with them. To help them trade fragmentation for sequence, reaction for pacing, and noise for clarity.
We're not the summit. We're the guide who's made the climb before — and knows what to do when the weather changes.
Based in Colorado Springs · where the process was forgedLet's find out if we're the right guide for where you're headed.
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