Profile: Kim Allen

By Dawne Belloise

Kim Allen grew up in a small place called Green Pond, New Jersey, a glacier lake town in the hills with a tiny ski resort and summer homes that remind her of Crested Butte but without the commercialism. She learned to ski in Vermont, and that love of the sport was one of the things that eventually led her to Colorado. In 2012, Kim took her first class in Jiu Jitsu and now she has her own school here in the valley, called Ahimsa Jiu Jitsu.

Growing up in a beautiful rural setting, Kim says she mostly played in the woods, built forts and had a treehouse she and her friends spent time in. Her childhood was spent in outdoor-oriented activities like swimming at the lake and playing field hockey, which defined a lot of her New Jersey years. She tells that in high school, she was mostly involved in hockey and she carried that sports orientation through college. She graduated from high school in 2000 and enrolled at the College of New Jersey for criminal justice. Kim began working at law firms and offices, which she found fascinating. Graduating in 2004, Kim then attended the Widener School of Law in Pennsylvania and graduated in 2007. She passed her bar exam in both New Jersey and Pennsylvania that July.

Kim was hired as a law clerk for a criminal judge that first year, assisting with his cases and everyday tasks. “It was a one-year position that gets you experience, and he was the only criminal judge in the county, so I saw everything,” she says. After that, she then went to work at the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General as a deputy Attorney General where she dealt with child abuse and neglect litigation from 2008 to 2014. It was early in 2015 when she decided to move to Colorado.

Kim’s first trip to Colorado was in the summer of 2007 to visit a friend in Pagosa Springs and then three years later to ski Copper Mountain and Breckenridge. Ultimately, it’s what made her want to move to Colorado and after spending a few years in the Mile High City, Kim moved to Golden. She was working primarily on the legal and compliance team for a dispensary called Native Roots, making sure they were within state and local regulations.

Kim visited Crested Butte with a friend in 2017 on a powder weekend. “I remember seeing Schwinn bikes at the bus stop and thinking this town has a lot of character,” she recalls. She came up a handful of times to ski after that. Kim had met Margaret Morgan who worked for Mountain Roots, and they did some climbing and backpacking together. “Our first hiking trip was backpacking over West Maroon Pass. I visited her multiple times in Gunnison over the next few months and fell in love with the area even more. It felt more like home. I felt a draw to it,” and Kim then wound up volunteering for Feast in the Field, Mountain Root’s big fundraiser. Later, she joined the Mountain Roots board of directors while still in Golden. Kim feels it was easy for her to move here and she was even offered housing in Gunnison, which was especially helpful. “Looking for a place to live during COVID was challenging and super weird,” she says.

She wound up moving to Mt. CB, still working remotely from there for Native Roots as their in-house corporate counsel and was then promoted as a lawyer.

Kim had for a long time been fascinated with the martial art of Jiu Jitsu. “It started in high school, I was the wrestling manager. I loved wrestling. The biggest person would not always win, and I liked the way they moved,” she explains.

She began taking lessons in New Jersey in 2012 and felt that she had found something she had always been looking for. Once in Denver, Kim continued taking classes at Easton Training Center, also taking yoga, which she discovered at the same time as Jiu Jitsu. By the time she started Jiu Jitsu classes in Denver she was already a blue belt, and she then earned her purple and brown belts and is now working on her black belt. 

After moving to the Gunnison Valley, Kim began training others in Jiu Jitsu in people’s garages. After breaking her collarbone mountain biking on Star Pass, and two surgeries later, she was forced to stop training for a while. After a year-and-a-half of recovery, she started training again at Gunnison Jiu Jitsu at the Western Colorado University Field House in 2023. Realizing there was an interest in the art in CB, Kim rented a fitness room in the town offices. “I got mats, insurance and started up adult classes,” working up a curriculum “of various connecting movements, some repetition and learning new things to keep the interest high. It’s something you can start and return to, but consistency is key and coming multiple times a week is beneficial, just like any sport.” 

She started up kids classes this past October. “It’s been quite enjoyable,” she says. She also gives private lessons and offers self-defense classes. Kim partnered with the nonprofit group Gunnison Valley Mentors to do some classes for kids ages 9 through 15, for both mentors and mentees. “I think it’s going to be a little more out of the box, and we’ll make it fun for everyone.” 

Kim explains that Jiu Jitsu is very much about creating safe space. “It’s important to create a safe space for people to come and train for movements to protect themselves but also have fun and learn the sports side of it. There’s a difference between self-defense and the sports side of Jiu Jitsu, whereas in self-defense, the main goal is to get away from your assailant and only engage to the extent that you need to. In sports, there are different rules, it’s a different approach since we’re still aiming to get our partners to submit but we’re playing a game using their body and movements to your advantage,” she says.

Back when she had her biking accident and broke her collarbone, Kim was attended to by the Crested Butte Search and Rescue team. “They met us up at Brush Creek and afterwards, I thought they were great people and I was super impressed with them,” Kim explains. By September of that year, Kim had taken her Wilderness First Responder certification at Irwin. “I had already taken Swift Water Rescue, Wilderness First Aid, AIARE 1 and 2 avalanche rescue,” she says. Since she loved the outdoors, “and I like to be safe and be an asset to my partners,” she figured she should join Search and Rescue. “It was exactly what I wanted – camaraderie, training and giving back to the community.” 

As a vegan, Kim also created a Facebook page for the Crested Butte/Gunnison Valley Vegans. “The purpose is to highlight local businesses that have vegan options.” Additionally, she works with Project Hope of the Gunnison Valley, whose mission is to support, educate and provide confidential advocacy to individuals affected by domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking and human trafficking.

Kim also has her 200-hour yoga teacher training certificate and is close to completing an additional 300-hour yoga therapy program. She explains that Jiu Jitsu is one of the Yamas and Niyamas, which is one of the eight limbs of yoga. “It means non-violent, do no harm to yourself or others. It started in Japan but the Brazilians popularized it. It’s close to wrestling and Judo, with body manipulations where someone will submit.” Kim tells that the non-violence also comes into play because so many of us all have these other things we like to do here, like biking or hiking. “So we’re not trying to hurt ourselves or anyone so we can go do these other things. To me, it’s the yang to yoga’s yin.” 

Kim has more info on her website at ahimsajj.com.