Access Fund Solid Protection Part 2: Dinner

Yvon Chouinard: “Doug? He’s a great guy. But I’m an old man and my farts smell. Go talk to someone else”

Andy Salo sends Planet Claire (5.14)

Local climbing is an amazing thing. Recently at the Gunks, there are some sends worth writing home about, and if the weather treats us right, a couple more to write about as well. 

Access Fund Solid Protection Part 1: Summit Conference

If you’ve been following my Twitter or Instagram feed, you know that this last weekend was Access Fund’s conference and dinner in Denver, Colorado. The goal of the conference was to connect two ways of thinking that they believe climber’s have for the most part kept separate. Climbing access and land conservation. Instead, we all learned that they two are inseparable. In this post, I’ll be talking about the conference. In the next, I’ll explain all the laughter that took place at the dinner.

Bittersweet Return Home

Over the weekend I was fortunate enough to attend and volunteer for the Access Fund Solid Protection Summit and Dinner. Needless to say, it was an amazing experience with a ton of passionate and like minded climbers. I will talk in more detail about the conversations and panel discussions that were had in a future post, but as a quick recap: Amazing.

Then I arrived home.

The Ego Trip of Bailing

It’s not easy to come down from a climb. After you’re completely pumped, falling 5, 6 or even more times at the crux, sometimes you need to admit that you’ll come back to it later. The rock will still be there tomorrow. You may be somewhat bruised that you didn’t crush your project and conquer the crux, but you can walk away proud knowing you tried as hard as you could have and your body just didn’t have it today. If only this were the reality for so many when they bail off a climb.

Climber Profile: Anak Verhoeven

Climber Profile Series. 

Here’s my goal, once a month interview someone who has a passion for climbing or the outdoors but is also a professing Christian. For anyone like that, you know that balancing both can be demanding and people from each camp take both those identities very seriously. Well so do I. Every month I’m going to interview someone new. I’m praying for some really great conversations.

Next up on the Climber Profile Series!

If you haven’t heard of Anak Verhoeven, do some research now. Not only is she a killer climber, but she’s unabashedly open about her faith in Christ. This can be rare as often times we go through life, interacting with tons of people, and unsure if we’re meeting any other Christians.