Colorado senator John Hickenlooper聽only climbs with the best. He first hit the rocks a decade ago in Boulder with a friend of a friend named Lynn Hill, who is best known for making the first free ascent of the Nose on El Capitan聽in Yosemite. The second time the senator went climbing, on a chilly morning this September, his belayer was Tommy Caldwell, a man widely considered to be among the best climbers of all time.

After Caldwell helped Hickenlooper tie into his harness and informed the 69-year-old that no, you shouldn鈥檛 put orthotic inserts in climbing shoes, he demonstrated an ascent of a slab of rock overlooking the newly opened Clear Creek Trail in the Denver suburb of Golden. Caldwell bounded up the section, rated 5.4, like a spider climbing a wall. Then he made his way back down, belayed by Norie Kizaki of the Colorado Mountain School, and it was the senator鈥檚 turn.

A small group of spectators formed as Hickenlooper scrambled up the rock, using his hands, feet, and knees鈥攚hich can be considered an 鈥渁dvanced technique,鈥� he reminded me afterward. He got about ten feet high, by my estimate, before declaring, 鈥淚 think this is good.鈥� When his feet touched the ground, everyone cheered, including three women in pink jackets who had paused their morning stroll to watch.

Hickenlooper told me he鈥檚 afraid of heights, and that the morning鈥檚 climb required 鈥渁 tremendous amount of courage.鈥� Then, like a good politician, he used the topic of courage to segue toward the item topping his political agenda this year鈥攃limate change.

鈥淚 think when you鈥檙e talking about climate change, and trying to get the country to have the courage to face the issue head-on,鈥� he said, 鈥渕e overcoming my innate fear and kind of digging deep, that鈥檚 sort of what the country鈥檚 gotta do.鈥�

Climate change is what brought Caldwell and Hickenlooper together for the climbing session. The two met through Protect Our Winters, an environmental nonprofit that seeks to form a climate-oriented voting bloc of outdoor enthusiasts. The group organized the climb to draw attention to 聽and to urge senators like Hickenlooper not to back down on the climate provisions in the reconciliation package.

Hickenlooper was one of 22 senators who drafted the infrastructure bill, which calls for billions of dollars in new federal spending on roads, bridges, and trains, as well as investments in public transit and electric-vehicle charging stations. That bill passed on August 10 with bipartisan support in the Senate.

But many of the measures needed to curb greenhouse-gas emissions have been shunted to the $1.85 trillion budget package that Democrats are currently trying to pass through reconciliation, a process that allows Congress to pass budgetary measures with a simple majority. Even a simple majority is tenuous for Democrats, who control half the Senate, with Vice President Kamala Harris potentially acting as a tie-breaking vote. The biggest thorn in the party鈥檚 side is moderate West Virginia senator Joe Manchin, whose insistence that Democrats lower the package鈥檚 price tag stripped it of one of its , a $150 billion program that would have paid utility companies to switch to clean energy. The plan is set to include billions of dollars of tax incentives for clean energy and electric vehicles.

For Caldwell, a switch to clean energy cannot come soon enough. Climbing may not be as climate dependent as snow sports, but he鈥檚 noticed his share of environmental changes during his decades outdoors. It鈥檚 now too dangerous to climb in places like Patagonia, Chile, because of increased rockfall during thaws, and the climbing season in Yosemite has been pushed back by a month in the past decade, he said. 鈥淚 used to go in October,鈥� he noted. 鈥淣ow I don鈥檛 even bother going until November, because it鈥檚 too hot.鈥�

That鈥檚 not to mention the personal effects of a warming world. Caldwell said he and his family have been evacuated from their Estes Park, Colorado, home three times in the past five years due to wildfires, and another blaze ripped through the forest surrounding his house in Yosemite.

Hickenlooper, for his part, fell in love with the outdoors while studying volcanic rocks in the Absaroka Mountains north of Yellowstone National Park for his master鈥檚 thesis. He went on to work as a petroleum geologist for an oil and gas company after graduating鈥斺�渢he greenest oil and gas company that you could ever imagine,鈥� he said鈥攁nd he continues to maintain strong ties with the industry. He upholds his position that fracking is safe and necessary, and he鈥檚 accepted donations from oil and gas companies throughout his political career, including at least $325,000 from Anadarko Petroleum and Noble Energy during his second term as governor, according to the .

The senator views these ties as an asset in the fight against climate change. 鈥淣o matter how big their company is, no matter how strongly they want to grow and find new reserves, we鈥檙e going to transition to a clean-energy economy,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 happening now. It鈥檚 going to accelerate. They should be part of that.鈥�

Hickenlooper鈥檚 ties to oil and gas have opened him up to his fair share of criticism, and he knows it. 鈥淭hey still call me Frackenlooper,鈥� he said. As recently as 2010, he about the catastrophic nature of climate change. More recently, he鈥檚 been a of the Green New Deal, which he says sets 鈥渦nachievable goals.鈥� But now Hickenlooper聽appears to be straddling the line between progressivism and industry, touting his climate bona fides without committing to the type of clean break from fossil fuels that environmentalists demand.

Both the senator and the climber believe that the transition to green energy should be fueled by industry. While Hickenlooper sees a carbon tax or a clean-energy standard as a free-market solution to the climate crisis, Caldwell and Protect Our Winters are relying on the millions of people around the world who work in the outdoor industry to effect change.

Caldwell, an ambassador for the eco-friendly apparel brand Patagonia, said that his work with the company has showed him that advancing environmental issues 鈥渋sn鈥檛 only great for the world. It鈥檚 great for business, too.鈥�

Even as the reconciliation bill faces an uphill battle in the Senate, both Hickenlooper and Caldwell find solace in how the conversation around climate change has shifted in recent years, from debates over whether the earth is really warming to solutions for curbing emissions. And while he doesn鈥檛 get to spend much time outdoors these days, Hickenlooper relishes any chance he gets to enjoy nature, even if it鈥檚 just an hour on the rock.

鈥淲ilderness allows me to have a certain optimism and belief in our future,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e at that cusp of a new awareness that we are one of many species on this planet, and that the ecosystem needs a balance and diversity to be successful.鈥�

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