NMT Climbing Team hopes for podium placements

The New Mexico Tech Climbing Club hosted the 11th Annual Box Canyon Climbing Competition in November of 2025. NMT Climbing Team members, many of whom are also club members, competed in that event. The Box Comp has been the only consistent outdoor comp in this region lately, so mostly the team travels to climbing gyms for climbing competitions, some in the USA Collegiate Series.

The club is currently led by Brayden Stidham, the club president, and the team is coached by Scott Roberts. Both were out at Box Canyon that day climbing with and supporting team members.

“I’ve been coaching at NMT for 13 years, and instructing and guiding for over 20 years,” Roberts said. He said that what he enjoys most about coaching is “witnessing the next generation of climbers further the sport. And climbing with them, of course.” 

The NMT Climbing Team mainly trains in Tech’s climbing gym. It is currently only a bouldering gym, but there are hopes to expand and have roped climbing as well in a future building. The team supplements with the outdoor training space that nearby Box Canyon provides, with numerous boulder problems and sport routes (on rope). 

Many aspects of climbing are individual, as the climber does the hard moves on their own in the moment. However, the coach and teammates support each other by spotting while bouldering to protect falls, safely belaying each other while rope climbing, motivating others in training and cheering others on when trying hard.

“The strengths of the team are dedication and inclusivity. The team brings out the try hard in each other,” Roberts said.

The team hopes for podium placements at USAC National Championships for indoor climbing. Their outdoor goals are to finish up some personal projects: boulder problems and/or sport climbing routes.

“Some athletes are vying for the hardest climbs at Box,” Roberts said.

Max Strack, David Harkey and Brayden Stidham have already completed many of the hard climbs at Box and are working on a problem named Fight Club Sit, V12. The difficulty grade of V12 is considered elite-level bouldering that perhaps only 1-5% of climbers achieve. The team has an especially strong bunch of climbers right now, but some of them expect to be finishing up at Tech this coming May.

“The biggest weakness is the large portion of seniors and grad students that will be graduating. The challenge will be a young team next school year, although there is some serious talent in the younger climbers,” Roberts said.

The next qualifier for the team is on Feb. 7 in Castlerock, Colo., which will be sport climbing. The qualifying athletes are: Max Strack, David Harkey, Elijah Henderson, David Franke, Noah Fry, Jaxen Bujold, Christopher Esquibel, Brayden Stidham, Brendyn Hart and Jonathan Smith.