My name is Jon Glassberg and I own a production company called Louder Than Eleven. I make movies about climbing and adventure based out of Boulder, Colorado.

About two years ago I teamed up with outdoor clothing company Marmot and professional climber Paige Claassen to produce a world tour that would combine high end rock climbing in remote places of the world while simultaneously raising money for women and children in the countries we visited.

The project is called “Lead Now” and our goal is simple: spend one month in each country trying to climb the hardest routes we can find while working with non-profit organizations to develop marketing materials that they could use to fundraise for themselves and through our project.

The catch was that we wouldn’t be coming home between each month’s adventure and we would be traveling from one country to the next for nine months learning as we go.

Marmot’s Lead Now Tour – Stop 5 – China from Louder Than Eleven on Vimeo.

Stop #5: China

Five months into our trip around the world we ventured from our clean perfect lifestyle in Japan to China, a chaotic mess of a country filled with unusual smells, challenging communication and huge limestone rock walls.

We set up camp in the tourist village of Yangshuo, a once small locals only community, now overrun with tourists and climbers. We lived nestled among the famous karst features that dot the landscape and offer stunning views, climbing and adventure.  Paige went right to work and within a few weeks had climbed some of the areas hardest lines on some of the most impressive features, earning her some local fame.

It was a relief to finally climb on good dry rock after our month of typhoons in Japan. The team went a little crazy and climbed everything in sight while soaking in the rich and confusing culture of central China. We made new friends and reconnected with old American climbers in the cultural melting pot of Asia.

Check out the video for the full story and look here for more videos and information about the Lead Now Tour, follow our Instagram, or visit our Facebook page.

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Editor:Travis May

Photo: Video Still