Schedule & Speakers

The Climbing Advocacy Conference

Organized by Access Fund and The Climbing Initiative

Times are displayed in (UTC-07:00) Mountain Time (U.S. & Canada)

Day 1: Saturday, November 14 

09:00 AM - 10:15 AM

Welcome Roundtable

Let’s kick off the weekend all together in an international town-hall-style meeting. After welcoming remarks from Chris Winter, Access Fund’s executive director, we’ll facilitate what might be the world’s largest round-robin of climbing advocates. It could get cruxy, but our goal is to briefly give everyone a chance to introduce themselves, their organization, and their country and local climbing areas. We’ll guide folks through it, but the goal is to open the floor, welcome everyone, and bring our family of dedicated climbers closer together. We hope to spark new friendships and set a “we are in this together” tone for the weekend by showing that our many access issues are interrelated and that we can help each other by sharing inspiration and solutions. Hope you’ve got a big computer screen!

10:30 AM - 12:00 PM

Climbing as an Economic Force

Climbing significantly impacts communities; for example, it generates substantial revenue for climbing destinations. Climbers are often willing to spend money for lodging, food, gas, and more to visit their dream rock, stimulating local economies and even creating employment opportunities. In this session, three experts will offer their perspectives on this discovery, along with other useful statistics they found in their research. These data have been used to foster supportive community relationships and create long-term climbing access.

10:30 AM - 12:00 PM

Conserving Cliffs Through Bat and Raptor Protection

Climbers aren’t the only creatures who call cliffs home. This panel will take climbing and wildlife conservation to new heights by looking at how climbers can participate in studies for bats and raptors. These creatures have caused tension between climbers and land managers in the past, but the community is starting to look at this as an opportunity to get involved and help land managers collect better data. This session will go over why bats and raptors love the same cliffs that climbers do and how recreationists can play a bigger role in conservation. Attendees will also hear updates from a recent study that supports using adaptive management plans rather than blanket closures.

12:15 PM - 01:45 PM

Best Practices in Local Community Engagement

Whether in the U.S. or abroad, climbers run the risk of creating tension with local communities unless they specifically seek to engage those communities from the get-go. A crucial tool in your climbing access tool kit is learning about the due diligence needed before starting to develop a climbing area, and the ways to build and maintain relationships as that area grows. A foundation of trust and communication can go a long way to ensuring that climbing areas benefit everyone. This session will discuss several examples of climbers approaching community stakeholders to create partnerships that led to lasting climbing access.

12:15 PM - 01:45 PM

How a Community Built an Urban Bouldering Park in Chattanooga, Tennessee

Sometimes it takes a village to make a climbing area. Get inspired by a story about how climbing groups, a local land trust, a foundation, and inner-city high school kids came together to find and create a new bouldering park in downtown Chattanooga: The Boulders on Old Wauhatchie Pike. The innovative partnership behind this project brings together ideas and practices and the intersection of urban renewal, land conservation, support for underprivileged inner-city youth, climbing access, and best-practice climbing area infrastructure and trail building. Now one of Chattanooga’s most accessible, family-friendly climbing spots, the Wauhatchie Boulders are a true climbing park, offering lessons for any kind of climbing advocate or community builder.

02:00 PM - 03:30 PM

Planning Large-Scale Stewardship Initiatives

The idea of climbing-area stewardship has shifted from single-day trash cleanups to planned, multiyear trail crew projects that transform a climbing area into a truly sustainable recreational resource. More climbing organizations are embracing this approach, applying long-term strategies to create sustainable solutions for erosion, social trials, and other climbing impacts. Two leading local climbing organizations in the southeastern U.S. will go through the basics of planning large-scale stewardship initiatives, including getting land manager permission, creating stewardship proposals, recruiting work crews, mapping, and much more. These multiphase plans may seem intimidating, but tune in to learn the tips and tools of two experienced local climbing groups restoring and rebuilding their climbing areas from the ground up. 

02:00 PM - 03:30 PM

Raising the FUN(ds) During a Pandemic

Organizations rely on funding and community engagement to function and spread awareness. Many of us have been learning on the fly and testing our creativity skills to come up with new ways to stay engaged with our community and fundraise during an unprecedented time. From fully virtual events, like film nights and workshops, to safe in-person events, like scavenger hunts, there are seemingly endless options, presenting a unique opportunity to experiment with virtual community building and fundraising. Attendees will come out of this session feeling more prepared to try their own virtual events and fundraising campaigns. This information will also apply beyond COVID-19 to any time that forces the use of limited resources. Events, virtual or otherwise, are crucial to cultivating community, welcoming new people into the fold, and bringing in important fundraising dollars that keep organizations afloat.

06:00 PM - 07:30 PM

Mountainfilm on Tour

Mountainfilm on Tour is hosted by Access Fund. Join us for a virtual program of inspiring and captivating films handpicked from the Mountainfilm festival in Telluride, Colorado.

Founded in 1979, Mountainfilm is one of America’s longest-running film festivals. The annual festival is held every Memorial Day weekend in Telluride, CO. Mountainfilm is a dynamic nonprofit organization and festival that celebrates stories of indomitable spirit.

The program will feature a collection of culturally rich, adventure-packed and engaging documentary short films that align with Mountainfilm’s mission to use the power of film, art and ideas to inspire audiences to create a better world.

The show is available for viewing from 06:00-07:30 PM Mountain Time. 

Day 2: Sunday, November 15 

08:00 AM - 09:00 AM 

Yoga for Climbers

Kick off Day Two with some movement, as we learn—on the mat—how to prepare our bodies for the wall. Jessica and Laura lead Yoga for Climbers and will guide attendees through yoga sequences specifically designed for climbers.

About Yoga for Climbers
Yoga for Climbers started as a passion project. Founders Jess Malloy Flener and Laura Olinger wanted a way to get friends together to climb and do yoga. In the process, they stumbled upon a community and found themselves starting a business. They are passionate about yoga and climbing and believe that they complement one another perfectly in philosophy and movement. Over the past few years, Jess and Laura have taught many workshops, written an ebook, and facilitated outdoor trips that encourage climbing and yoga. They are Access Fund ambassadors, and through the program, they have learned that small actions can have great impacts.

09:00 AM - 10:30 AM

Regional Meetings

There are more local climbing advocacy and conservation organizations than ever, so it helps to break it down a bit and get together with smaller groups of neighbors. Attendees can choose a regional breakout meeting to hear from Access Fund regional directors and the local climbing organizations that work on protecting access to your favorite climbing areas. These sessions are also designed to have attendees participate and ask questions. Join in to experience a more interactive session that is tailored to your specific region. 

10:45 AM - 12:15 PM

Climbing Access Solutions for Private Lands

Gaining climbing access to private property requires a specific set of skills. Private landowners can be skeptical and often worried about risk, user impacts, money, or a long-term plan that assures them their property will be taken care of and used responsibly. Each situation is unique, but this session offers international case studies in opening climbing on private land. We will use these examples to explore a common set of tools and solutions that climbing organizations use to start relationships with landowners, negotiate access, and open climbing to the public. As the examples and speakers will prove, when it comes to private land, solutions vary and there isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach. Success could mean purchasing the property, transferring the property, or setting up an easement—just to name a few. This session is for those advocates who want to expand their knowledge of how to make climbing on private lands open to the public.

10:45 AM - 12:15 PM

The State of Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in Climbing – Case Studies from India, Kenya, and the U.S.

There are large demographics of people who may not feel welcome at the crag because of barriers such as race, gender, sexual orientation, or other identities. The climbing community can create a cultural shift by intentionally building specific opportunities for everyone to enjoy the sport. Learn from these speakers who have used climbing as a way to bring people together, developing supportive and inclusive communities. Protecting access to our crags means keeping that gate open for every person.

12:30 PM - 02:00 PM

Global Perspectives on Sustainable Rebolting and Anchor Management

Good bolts keep climbers alive. Bad bolts are ticking time bombs that pose a serious safety risk and potential access problems. The good news is, around the world, more climbing organizations and volunteers than ever are tackling the problem, spearheading best-practice bolt replacement initiatives at their local areas. It’s working: More bolts are being replaced than ever before with higher-standard, longer-lasting bolts and anchor hardware. And the work is being done in a more systematic, organized fashion that future “vertical stewards” can carry on. Behind this massive effort are loads of important decisions, including what type of hardware to use, when to replace old hardware, how to replace or reuse old bolt holes, how to pay for the work, what top-anchor set-up to use, whether to go mechanical or glue-in, what grade stainless-steel or titanium, and so on. This panel will dive right into it and feature three experts from around the world doing work in their local spots. We’ll learn through local case studies and best-practice examples, and wade into the science behind what makes a solid bolt.

12:30 PM - 02:00 PM

Innovative Approaches to Sustainability in the Mountains

As climbing areas grow older and the sport continues to expand, the community has learned a lot about caring for these resources to ensure they are around for the long haul. There are a lot of components to creating a sustainable crag: erosion control, human-waste solutions, wildlife management, parking lot access, and much more. These are also items that public land managers and private landowners look out for and that can make or break access into an area, depending on how they are addressed. These speakers will show attendees how they’ve gotten creative with solutions to managing impact on resources.

02:15 PM - 03:45 PM

Beyond Access: Measuring Community Impact

The act of climbing can be transformative, changing lives for the better, especially for youth, and at-risk and underserved populations. The speakers in this session will offer powerful case studies in community-focused programming that reaches beyond climbing access and conservation to lift up the lives of the people they aim to serve: disabled climbers, younger climbers, and at-risk youth fighting poverty and lack of opportunity. We will learn not only how these programs are inspired, created and managed, but also how these leaders measure the impact and effectiveness of their work, and use that information to confirm or shift their approach. This session is for those who are looking for examples of inspiring programming and ways to analyze their organization's impact and use that data to push their mission forward. 

02:15 PM - 03:45 PM

Educational Strategies for Low-Impact Climbing

Worldwide climbing is seeing an unprecedented surge in popularity. Climbing gyms are booming, and our sport is poised for an Olympic leap in popularity. Are our outdoor climbing areas doomed? Although it’s true outdoor climbing areas are feeling the pressure, the good news is that focused and creative climbing organizations are embracing the challenge with innovative educational approaches. Their aim is to shape climbing use and behavior for the better, by educating and promoting low-impact climbing behaviors. Our panelists will share their approaches to this problem and highlight their own climber-aimed educational campaigns. As we will see, almost any issue can benefit from an inventive educational strategy, whether it’s bad dogs, terrible parking, tick marks, preservation of plants and wildlife, COVID-19, or that nasty one nobody can escape: poop. While climbing use and behavior can determine the fate of our climbing areas, these examples show how education can put that fate in our hands. This is a great session for organizations thinking about mounting a campaign, as well as climbers who recognize the problem and want to be a part of the solution by setting a better example. 

Speakers:

Dave Turnbull CEO, British Mountaineering Council

Kim Harrison Community Ambassador, Bay Area Climbers Coalition

Maura LaRiviere President, Bay Area Climbers Coalition

04:00 PM - 04:30 PM

Wrap Up

After two full days of connecting with U.S. and international climbing advocates, let’s come together one last time to recap our time, hear your feedback, and talk about ways you can put the skills from this weekend to work. Access Fund will provide a list of organizations, volunteer opportunities, and post-conference resources to help you take the next step in your climbing advocacy adventure.

Questions? Reach out to conference@accessfund.org