We’ve been getting a lot of chatter about people thinking that there’s one man behind this boycott and it might just be a personal vendetta he has against Touchstone Climbing. So to clear up any mystery, here he is.

Hi!  I’m Morgan. Formerly MCG of Touchstone Route Setting, and currently JohnWickskers on Kaya. I’ve been climbing since 2008. My first introduction to climbing was after hours at Mission Cliffs, before there was Planet Granite/Movement, before the yoga room, and the Walltopia expansion, back in the days of “The Chamber”. I saw there was V0-V10 in the gym so I figured V5 was a good place to start. It did not go well. I did take to it very quickly and after someone taught me the art of the warm up I actually did really well. After going outside for my first time with what was then a stranger, and now a long time friend, to Goat Rock, in the North Bay, I made the leap and got a Touchstone Membership in June of 2008.

I started working for Touchstone in 2012 as a very green and inexperienced Route Setter, as my first full time job. That did not go well either. The work was physically and mentally taxing. The commutes were horrible, and the industry and culture was very, very crusty. This was the era of rainbow holds and co tape. If you don’t know what that is, thank your lucky stars. I was also there to do the opening set at Dog Patch Boulders and we even put in the foam floors. Starting pay was $12 an hour and after my car breaking down and not getting my $1/hr pay increase after my probationary period, I decided Route Setting was not going to be sustainable.

After several years working in drug and alcohol treatment, I went back to Route Setting part-time in 2014/15 while in grad school (Social Work then Integral Counseling Psychology) because of better pay ($18/hr) and because the crew was under new and improved leadership. After burning out in mental health, both academically and personally, I decided to Route Set full time. I saw the industry booming and I thought there was possibility for a career, but after two years of being broke, broken, and even struggling to go on climbing trips, I knew I had to make a change.

In 2019 I was recruited to join the labor union IATSE, Local 16 as a Climbing Rigger working concerts, festivals, theatre, and conventions in San Francisco. Today I’m a non voting (apprentice) member of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, and I’m projected to Journey(Man) out in June of 2026. I specialize in Arena Rigging, with aspirations for Theatre. I’m a Lead at Chase Center, Cow Palace, and one of the Head Riggers at Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, with another legendary Route Setter, F.O. (If you know, you know) 

While building my career as a Rigger, I worked with Touchstone part time as a Route Setter up until the pandemic, where I was given a choice between a partial or full furlough. I accepted the full furlough, which meant my position was not guaranteed to me upon returning. I returned from being on the road in Feb 2022, where I returned to working for Touchstone as needed due to my new career as a Union Rigger. I was to help forerun hard climbs and offer suggestions on tweaks and grades. After several months of scheduling conflicts, Justin Alarcon and I decided, that this special arrangement wasn’t going to work and that was the amicable end of me working at Touchstone. For my years of service to the company I was given a year’s membership and by 2023 I was a member again for the first time since 2014/15.

I truly love the staff members, management, and members of Touchstone. It was not an easy decision to leave, and I did not do so with hatred or animosity to them or anyone in the company. I left because I’m a Union member. Because I have been in the community for so long, many gym members and staff know that I left Touchstone to join a Union.  Staff members would come to me and tell me about working conditions at Touchstone. You can only hear so many grievances, so many people asking about unionizing, so many Route Setters asking how to get in my Union before you think, “Someone should do something about this.” After some reflection and consideration, I realized that I could do something. So I started the petition.

Initially, I started the petition with no mention of unionizing all of Touchstone, simply that staff deserved a living wage, by any means possible. With or without unionizing. People responded well. I was put into contact with many motivated members of the Touchstone and the greater climbing community wanting to take action.  They suggested protests and boycotts immediately, but I believed that Touchstone was negotiating with the Union in good faith, and that with enough representation and feedback from the members, Touchstone would start negotiating better wages for all staff, since they were opening their 18th and 19th gyms.

I contacted the Union to see how negotiations were actually going and to see if we could join forces to help promote both the interest of The Union and the petition. After months of inaction and unresponsiveness from Touchstone, and now embolden attempts to both stall negotiations in So Cal and prevent the spread of the Union in Nor Cal, I had heard and seen enough. As a Union member, I cannot support a company that is so committed to hostile and antagonistic relationships with their union.  I believe the Union, the disgruntled staff in Nor Cal and So Cal, and I do not believe Touchstone when they say they are doing their best to negotiate and offer fair wages. Many others and I believe that they can do more, but they are choosing not to. Members were already discussing a boycott and several asked me to put the call out to the many other petition signers, members, and staff that felt similarly to me.

 I didn’t start the boycott. I just stopped trying to prevent it and let more people know it was happening. The petition, the boycott, the solidarity page on IG is bigger than just one person. It is a collective sentiment and a collective call to action that I have helped moderate in some ways, but ultimately was started by Touchstone. Over 30 years of disgruntled employees wanting Touchstone to hear their pleas for change and reform gone unanswered and is culminating right now, in this labor movement. It started in So Cal, and is inevitably spreading to the rest of the gyms.

After several months of consideration, it is my belief that the best way to bring about the change called for in my petition, is through Unionizing all the gyms. Currently there is a tenacious effort to undermine the labor movement going on within this company. The people undermining this effort want to frame it as a So Cal issue or one man’s crusade. Members, staff, even affinity groups that have strong social justice identities, are speaking out against economic justice for their community. Touchstone is sowing division and dissent amongst its members and staff and the only hope for ALL STAFF MEMBERS is through solidarity, unity, and unionizing.