Thousands of visitors ask our ambassadors for downtown Reno recommendations every month, just like you might ask a food server for a recommendation at a restaurant. That’s why we started our Hospitality Training program to compliment the social outreach training they already receive.

If we want our ambassadors to make great recommendations tourists can only get from an insider, then we need them to experience all the great things downtown Reno has to offer. Think of us as a mobile concierge.

For our first big Hospitality Training, we turned to Whitney Peak Hotel, right across the street from our offices. What started out as a request for a quick tour, turned into the hotel’s amazing Community Relations Manager Rachel Zunino offering our ambassadors tickets to a Cargo Concert Hall show, day passes at the BaseCamp climbing gym and even climb on “The Big Wall” – the tallest artificial climbing wall in the world.

The ambassadors were overjoyed. Though many of them have never climbed or haven’t climbed in years, 10 of them jumped at the chance to try to ascend 164-feet of a 5.8-rated climbing wall. Though the rating requires less technical climbing knowledge, it does require strong arms and legs and a willingness to push past difficult sections.

Fear of heights is optional.

The 10 ambassadors geared up and tried their hands (and feet) on the auto-belay routes and eventually the Big Wall. Many of them didn’t set goals to reach the top, but instead, wanted to push themselves as far up the multi-pitch route as possible. The first pitch is a 70-foot tall flat wall with various routes and the second pitch is 94 feet of artificial rock grooves, an underhang and a one-person route.

Zunino and BaseCamp’s manager Brian Sweeney took photos of the whole event. And not just any photos, but Sweeney strapped on a full-body harness and climbed up the side of the wall to capture great moments of our team so we could share this experience with everyone.