Mountain Ascent Association?

Does anyone know anything about Mountain Ascent Association club out of Sacramento area?
It looks like an updated Southern California mountaineering association meets Outdoors club.
You pay to join then are voted and evaluated to join days at the crag. Not sure if it’s value.

These are the leaders:
Darren Shutt, Todd Martin, kelvin nguyen, Paul Shaughnessy

Formally the Sierra Mountaineering Club(SMC) Fredrick Lorenz leads some stuff for the Southern chapter.
Lots of intro classes and events. Certification is required before you are allowed to belay or lead events.
Lots of loaner gear for both rock and ice.Events can be a little pricey.

Is the main benefit to payment that they save campsites? Or they set up the top ropes and do all the leading?

They can try to save campsites, and yes, they will setup topropes and do all the leading - if you want.

They have pretty much become a non-profit guiding company (except they don't have AMGA certified guides.) My feeling is that its a decent deal if you were thinking of hiring guides for getting training and going on trips, it would be cheaper than hiring a bunch of guides.
If you are thinking its a club to meet other climbers to get shit done, its not the best option. 

Hey all, one of my buddies who's part of MAA just let me know about this thread and thought I could help a bit. I realize as an officer in the organization that I could be a little biased, but I'll try to keep it as objective as possible. MAA is not a guide service, but a coalition of mountain enthusiasts of varying degrees of skill and experience. As of now there are at least 30 event leaders and 5 who are either PCIA or AMGA certified Single Pitch Instructors (one of these 5 on all training events). The club offers trips & training in rock climbing, ice climbing, snow/glacier travel, mountaineering, back-country skiing/ski mountaineering, treking, etc. I've been a member of SCMA for a while and still involved with that club. Great group! They do mostly trad rock climbing. However I wanted to learn ice climbing and mountaineering but couldn't afford the high cost of hiring guides. I heard about MAA (SMC at that time) through a buddy in both clubs. I have been very happy with the training. Learned a lot in a short time and now leading a bunch. Trips range from local craging to international expeditions. We have a team climbing Island Peak & Ama Dablam in Nepal right now. We screen for events where a certain level of expertise is required, and are working on an evaluation program to streamline this process. The club is based in the Sacramento area but have members all over CA and some in other states. Most of the membership is in the Sac area but there's a rapidly growing contingent (myself included) in the SoCal area. Plenty of info on the website: mountainascent.org . If you all have any questions I'm glad to help. Not here to sell you, just help you decide if it's a right fit. :)  

PCIA?

You get what you pay for.

I was getting a bunch of their emails. Confusing, but now after reading this thread, makes more sense.

Anyone know of a club near SF where people are just getting together to go out and climb...no business/monetary gain associated? Ideally one where we could just get together, assess each-others skills before heading out to committing terrain......Rock and Ice in Santa Rosa seems great but SR is a bit far.

Where these pseudo meet ups are concerned , I ask "are these guides-not-guides paying their own way, getting a discount for trip leading, or any outright compensation?"  Is there a detailed disclosure on how the membership money is spent?  Does organization leadership rotate in any way through the membership?   Those answers tell me if it's a business or a club.  Personally I'd rather pay for real guide service or climb with real friends. Pirate guiding is an ancient practice.

Ron O wrote: PCIA?

You get what you pay for.

What’s wrong with PCIA? Other then it being a lesser known and less expensive offshoot of AMGA?

Maureen Maguire wrote: Where these pseudo meet ups are concerned , I ask "are these guides-not-guides paying their own way, getting a discount for trip leading, or any outright compensation?"  Is there a detailed disclosure on how the membership money is spent?  Does organization leadership rotate in any way through the membership?   Those answers tell me if it's a business or a club.  Personally I'd rather pay for real guide service or climb with real friends. Pirate guiding is an ancient practice.

“Real” guiding is great if you can afford $300 per day or more depending on group size. Then again what’s a real guide? Someone who paid to take a class, pass a test and buy a permit? They aren’t necessarily better then a skilled climber with a great attitude.

I was involved in the club (then known as SMC) from 2014 to 2017, first as a member and later also leading some trips. I got some great opportunities that I wouldn't otherwise have had, such as climbing Rainier. I left the club when they raised the dues by a large factor in 2017. They were a hybrid of nonprofit mountaineering club, guide service that doesn't have permits, and a way for Darren to make a living and support his family. There was always a tension between the mission of serving members who wanted a mountaineering club and Bay Area tech workers who wanted something cool for their social media. The post-2017 structure has tiers at different price levels, and I have an uncomfortable feeling that these days  in order to improve your chance of getting included on the cool trips, you have to pay for the higher levels.

For rock climbing in So Cal, SCMA is a bazillion times better. For mountaineering in So Cal, CMC is worth looking into, http://californiamountaineer.net/ , but they're inactive because of covid, and even before covid their level of activity seemed pretty low.

Darren is a good man, I would and do trust him with my life.

Covid had a severe impact on his trips, and now there are fewer courses.

For 25$ a month you get quite the access to trips and people