Recovery Beyond has its roots in mountaineering and the volunteer-driven Climbing Out of Homelessness Program created by Mike Johnson and Mark Ursino in 2011.

Along with a team of committed volunteers, Mike and Mark led groups of men and women from the Seattle Union Gospel Mission through a 10 month training program which culminated in a summit climb of Mt. Rainier (Also known as "Tahoma", "Takhoma", "Ta-co-bet", and several others). This story is captured in the feature documentary, A New High, released in 2015.

In 2016, Recovery Beyond Paradigm was founded as a 501c3 non-profit foundation to help expand the vision of an outdoor recovery community that would support those living in recovery from substance use.

In 2019, the name was shortened to Recovery Beyond with a renewed focus to help guide and support those in recovery who have moved beyond the initial crisis of addiction and are wondering, “What’s next?”