Meet Our Leaders
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Rue Zheng (they/them)
CO-ORGANIZER
Climbing has become a huge part of Rue’s life since they moved to Salt Lake City. They are passionate about creating supportive spaces for climbers and fostering the communities they needed when they first started climbing. Rue hopes that new and seasoned climbers feel like they belong in the sport of climbing and make connections that extend beyond the wall. Outside of climbing, Rue is a software engineer who loves to travel, dabble in photography, geek out on anime, birds, and nature.
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Matty Kastellec (he/him)
CO-ORGANIZER
Matty is a transplant from New York City, bringing experience both from his professional life as Managing Director at a national non-profit and from years of service with Crux Climbing, NYC’s LGBTQ+ climbing group. Outside of SLAQC, he has also volunteered with local orgs like Genderbands, Craft Lake City, and the Salt Lake Climbers Alliance. When not doing all that, he tries to get outside as much as possible to enjoy the natural wonders of the beehive state.
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Leandra H. Hernández, Ph.D. (she/her)
CO-ORGANIZER
Born and raised in Texas, Lea moved to Utah a few years ago and has loved every minute of being in the Wasatch. She is a communication professor, social impact advocate, DEI consultant, and horror movie enthusiast. When she's not climbing or organizing for SLAQC, she also serves on the Board of Directors and the JEDI Committee for the Salt Lake Climbers Alliance.
Meet Our Advisory Board
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Charlie Warner (she/her)
BUSINESS STRATEGIST, ADVISOR, EDUCATOR Human|Work
Charlie is a self–described “wanderpreneur” and is fascinated by the nature of work (and nature in general). She's a strategist by trade, an educator at heart, and loves tapping into her inner–child by asking all of life's deepest questions.
Charlie works with organizations like SLAQC and businesses to develop clear and aligned visions, values, and strategic roadmaps. She is the founder of Human|Work project, a professional development platform and mentor network on a mission to humanize the nature of work. She also runs her own strategic advising firm and teaches strategy and leadership at Westminster College. Outside of work, Charlie can usually be found climbing mountains, hiking with her pup Millie, riding bikes, and eating her way through the world.
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Siddharth Kapoor (he/him)
BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE Goldman Sachs & Co.
Originally from New Delhi, India, Sid moved to SLC in 2013 and went to the University of Utah. He currently works in Business Intelligence at Goldman Sachs & Co. He is a steering committee member of Goldman Sachs' Utah chapter of LGBTQ+ network and is actively involved in diversity recruiting. Sid also volunteers with various local organizations in Utah and is a Board member at Equality Utah.
He loves the great outdoors that Utah has to offer, is always ready for a challenge and enjoys trying new activities. He spends his free time climbing, running, hiking, camping, exploring new restaurants, bars and coffee shops with friends.
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Andrea Ramos Campos (she/her)
YOGA FACILITATOR Lovin’ Coven
Growing up in Florida, Andrea traded the beach and palm trees for mountains and desert landscapes in May of 2018. She believes it’s the best decision she’s ever made. Her roommate took her climbing up Big Cottonwood late one summer in 2017, and she was hooked on the challenge, problem-solving, and mind-body aspect of the sport. The Front became a place for her not only to work out, but also socialize, and build community, it eventually became her workplace as well. As chairwoman of the JEDI (Justice Equity Diversity & Inclusion) committee for the Salt Lake Climbers’ Alliance, she continues to work towards creating more seats at the table for people of color in climbing and giving them a voice. She’s passionate about stewardship, advocacy, and acknowledgments of the beautiful areas we recreate in and their past.
Our Mission
SLAQC creates a supportive space for all queer people to enjoy climbing.
We host weekly meetups, raise visibility by collaborating with brands who share our mission, advocate for increased access to climbing with gym partners, and promote queer stories and organizations.
Through these efforts, we empower queer individuals, create a more inclusive climbing community, reduce barriers to access, and cultivate collective knowledge.
Our Vision
SLAQC envisions a homespace where all queer* people can embody our limitless potential through climbing and the outdoors.
** Queer is a term for people of marginalized gender identities and sexualities who are not cis–gender and/or heterosexual. While we recognize this term has a complicated history, we choose to use it as an umbrella term to describe our community.
Our Values
Queerly Designed.
Queerly Beloved.
We believe community is the bedrock of climbing. We help each other grow, share knowledge openly and proactively, and create space for all climbers. Our experiences together keep us grounded and deepen our connections with each other and the lands we climb on.
Non–Toxic Culture
We intentionally build supportive connections that prioritize joy, respect, trust, and safety. Rather than chasing grades, judging gear, gatekeeping, and beta spraying, we model non–toxic culture through mindfulness, consent, and compassion. We refuse a climbing environment that only values individual achievement, sending not only for ourselves, but for the community that supports us.
Redefine Who Climbs
We reject traditional definitions and unspoken rules of who can climb.
We rewrite the narrative of who climbs to represent the totality of our community: bodies of all races, sizes, genders, sexualities, abilities and means.
We break stigmas of what our bodies can or can’t do.
We amplify stories within and beyond our organization, so that folks who want to climb have the opportunity to see all aspects of themselves in our sport.
We seek to center the most marginalized among us - those who face compounding layers of discrimination due to their races or ethnicities, sexualities, gender identities or performance, abilities, size, or socioeconomic status.
We hold ourselves accountable to making decisions that center these communities and building programming that intentionally serves these identities.