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Build-A-Crag

The Western Michigan AAC Chapter partners with the Grand Rapids Bouldering Project to build an Outdoor Bouldering wall.

PC: AAC member Charlie Hall

Grassroots: Unearthing the Future of Climbing

By Sierra McGivney

Towering rock climbing cliffs, or even boulders, are hard to come by in Western Michigan. But if you can’t go to the rock, make the rock come to you.

Charlie Hall and Kyle Heys did just that by building an outdoor bouldering wall in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Inspiration came from climbing farther out West and seeing man-made boulders in public parks. Heys had always thought it was funny since these places had real rocks to climb, minutes outside of town.   

“We thought, man, this is what we need in the Midwest, where it takes six hours to drive to good rock,” says Heys. 

Kyle Heys was introduced to rock climbing in New Mexico in a semester away program through his college; he continued his climbing adventure by exploring Grand Teton National Park that summer with a band of climbers.

 Once he returned home to Michigan his climbing lifestyle slowed. He didn’t want to pay for an expensive gym membership. Luckily his neighbor had a climbing wall in his garage, feeding his climbing addiction. 

PC: AAC member Charlie Hall

When attending college at Western Michigan University, Charlie Hall saw a class labeled rock climbing and decided to take a chance. The two instructors at the recreation center wall nourished Hall's love for climbing.

“I idolized them a little bit and quickly realized that they were these supernatural beings who could scale a wall.” Says Hall, “I was fascinated by it.” 

Everything revolved around climbing after that. 

PC: Zane Paksi

Hall and Heys started the Grand Rapids Boulder Project five years ago with hopes of diversifying climbing through accessibility. The bouldering wall eliminates almost all barriers to climbing. Participants don’t have to pay for a membership or a day pass to a gym. The wall is open to all. 

 Through word of mouth, they hope to get more recognition for the sport in a less outdoor-centric area. Another goal is to facilitate programs for kids who wouldn't normally get access to climbing. 

“How do we create something where anybody can get a chance to get an introduction to climbing?” says Heys. 

Hall and Heys needed a fiduciary so they got connected with the Western Michigan AAC Chapter. It was synergistic. The Western Michigan AAC Chapter was growing and looking to foster a community around climbing but didn't have a concrete project. Heys and Halls provided just that. 

To raise money for plastic holds, the AAC and the Grand Rapids Bouldering Project fundraised through the No Man's Land Film Festival. This doubled as a chance to provide a broader picture of what it means to be an outdoor adventurer to those not within the climbing community. Sponsorships and donations, whether that be time or money, have been the foundation of the Grand Rapids Bouldering Project. 

The Grand Rapid City Park funded a majority of the materials to build the project and helped walk the pair through building an outdoor bouldering wall. When building within a city, there are lots of restrictions and requirements that need to be met. Williams Marks, an engineering firm, donated their time to help get the project approved by the city. Private and public partnerships worked together to make this project possible.

The Grand Rapids Bouldering Project took off in the fall of 2021, and building began this spring. Hall, Heys, and their crew of 5-10 volunteers thought their spring days would be idyllic. It has not been above 40 degrees on any of the building days. That hasn’t stopped the excitement.

“It's been a real, old fashion Amish barn raising.” says Heys with a laugh, “People all lifting the walls together. It's been great fun.”

The bouldering wall nods toward old-school climbing gyms made out of plywood and two-by-fours. The structure is meant to be a test site to see if people from all different communities use it. Down the road, the wall could evolve or grow into something bigger, possibly a wall crafted out of fake rock material, tied to the landscape. 

PC: Zane Paksi

Two 12-foot-high free-standing structures sit next to each other surrounded by twelve inches of tumbled wood chips waiting to soften climbers' falls.

Overhangs, slabs, and vertical walls are all featured on the bouldering wall. All of the holds will be put on the wall to start out. Problems will be rotated based on consistency and quality of routes. The difficulty will be determined by colors: purple, blue, green, and red. A dedicated crew of local setters will set regularly. They have access to a storage unit on-site at the park. On their website, Grand Rapids Boulder Project has a spreadsheet that they plan on using to communicate what's up on the wall. 

PC: AAC member Charlie Hall

Grassroots work has brought this project to life. The soft launch of the Grand Rapids bouldering wall will take place in Mid June once the wall has been painted and holds have been mounted. Hall and Heys will host a grand opening on July 9 with a climbing competition, food, and music. 

“We have the ability to network and provide accessible climbing to the community,” says Hall.

Policy updates in the era of COVID

COVID19 is inundating the national news cycle—and it should be. During this global pandemic, people want the latest information about the virus and how to best protect themselves and those around them. It can be hard to consider attacks on the environment when many are working at the front lines of the epidemic, have lost jobs or income, or are experiencing the sudden responsibility of caring for family members.

While we adapt to this new “normal”, the government is still chugging along making decisions that affect our public lands and waters. 

Recently, we’ve witnessed some issues that gave us pause for concern. During a time of media overload, government officials are working without the same level of public scrutiny, and some appear to be exploiting this opportunity.

In a time of national crisis, the government should press pause on all non-essential activities, just like the rest of us. But over the past few weeks we’ve observed government officials loosening regulations on polluters, pushing anti-environmental rule makings without sufficient public engagement, making final decisions on land use plans, and even hosting lease sales of oil, gas, and coal on public lands.

All government efforts should be focused on the current crisis and ensuring that every American is supported throughout. 

While many members of Congress have called for a halt to actions such as the proposed changes to the regulations implementing the National Environmental Policy Act, the administration seems to be pushing their “energy dominance” agenda forward. This may have to do with fast approaching deadlines imposed by the Congressional Review Act, a law that could allow the next administration to erase any rule or regulation implemented later this year. 

The American Alpine Club has put our outdoor endeavors on hold temporarily, but we’re still keeping an eye on what’s happening behind the scenes. We want to distill some of what we’ve seen to catch you up to speed.

ISSUES TO HAVE ON YOUR RADAR

Suspect candidates continue being placed in high-ranking land management positions

Department of the Interior Secretary David Bernhardt—a former lobbyist for oil, gas, and agricultural industries–is in charge of managing 700 million acres of American public lands. Among his many responsibilities are to oversee public land managers at agencies like the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) where in January, he extended the tenure of Director to a person who expressed anti-public lands ideology in the past and was not formally confirmed by the typical process in the Senate. Most recently, Bernhardt appointed Edward Keable, a longtime associate of Bernhardt’s, to oversee Grand Canyon National Park (GCNP) as Superintendent. Keable’s lack of formal experience within the National Park Service (NPS) is concerning at a time when the GCNP faces continued threats of uranium mining and a controversial development project on the Park’s iconic South Rim—a project that Bernhardt’s old lobbying firm strongly supports. Not only does this appointment take the opportunity away from qualified NPS career employees, but it yet again demonstrates the current administration's lack of commitment to protecting public lands by undermining leadership positions at land management agencies.

National Park Fees were waived before more than half of Parks close their gates

While many National Parks and other public lands have since decided to shut their gates in order to maintain social distancing orders, protect their staff, and reduce crowding—a responsible move that should be commended—Secretary Bernhardt’s initial response to the COVID pandemic was to waive all national parks fees and leave the parks open. Similar to the government shutdown of 2019, National Parks were inundated with visitors ready to explore the nation’s public lands. Typically, these visitation numbers and new visitor groups would be celebrated. However, risk of exposure to the novel coronavirus amongst park employees and gateway communities led many towns and counties to request the closure of their nearby public lands. At this point more than half of the 62 National Parks have closed their gates to the public.

The EPA is loosening its hold on critical environmental standards

The EPA decided to suspend enforcement on various environmental laws allowing companies to not satisfy important health and environmental standards during the COVID-19 pandemic. While the policy change is temporary, and the “EPA will assess the continued need for and scope of this temporary policy on a regular basis”, there is no end date in sight as the pandemic presses on. Vague language encouraging entities to “make every effort to comply with environmental compliance obligations” amounts essentially to a massive hall pass for dirty corporations who are no longer required by the EPA to monitor their pollution. Without clear understanding on when the COVID pandemic will end, it is highly irresponsible for the EPA to allow industry to utilize the pandemic as a free pass.

Agency rulemaking charges forward amidst calls from Congress to stop

New research from the Center for Western Priorities found that the Interior Department executed 57 separate policy actions unrelated to COVID-19, occurring after President Trump signed the first emergency Coronavirus bill on March 6th. Many of these decisions resulted in the expansion of oil and gas leases, removal of protections for wildlife, or increased mining operations across the country. Despite numerous requests from members of Congress and State officials for Secretary Bernhardt to suspend rulemakings during the pandemic, it appears the Interior has opted to push through policy with limited public input. Americans should not be required to find and comment on rulemakings when they are experiencing such upheaval in their daily lives. 

CEQ and USFS continue to chip away at NEPA

The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), widely regarded as the “Magna Carta” of environmental law, has been under relentless attack over the past year. You may recall this past summer the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) was considering sweeping changes to how it implements NEPA that would drastically limit engagement on up to 93% of USFS projects. More recently, the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) is attempting to rewrite the rules that implement NEPA. The proposed rule would drastically restrict public engagement in future environmental analysis, limit the scope of environmental reviews, and cut out important tools for combating climate change. Both the USFS and CEQ are working through their revisions now, and the AAC and our partners are keeping a close eye on their progress. It’s important to stay vigilant at times when the Federal government seems to be limiting important checks and balances.

SOME GOOD NEWS

Okay, that was heavy and we get there’s no absence of stress inducing news right now. So, to leave things on a high-note, here are a couple golden nuggets to celebrate.

The Great American Outdoors Act gets a look

You may recall back in early March (what feels like a lifetime ago) when the President called on Congress to fund public lands, kicking off a bi-partisan package called The Great American Outdoors Act (GAOA). The bill includes all sorts of good things that we, and out partners at the Outdoor Alliance, have been advocating for. Things like permanent funding for the LWCF and addressing maintenance backlogs on public lands through the Restore our Parks Act. Congress is rightly focused on addressing the coronavirus response but at some point in the future, they’ll turn their attention to infrastructure bills like GAOA to help the country rebuild. In the meantime, you can learn more about GAOA and write your lawmakers in support of the package. Expect to hear more from us on this package soon.

The 50th Anniversary of Earth Day is around the corner

While the typical celebrations and rallies for Earth Day won't be happening in person this year, many organizations are bringing their efforts online. Check out the Digital Earth Day events happening all over the globe! The first earth day in 1970 was propagated due to poor air and water quality across the country (not to mention that some rivers were literally on fire!). Due to the incredible advocacy of people at all levels of government, our nation has made incredible strides in environmental conservation. Take a moment to celebrate our progress as environmental advocates on April 22.

Photo Credit: Amelia Howe

AAC and Access Fund Set Sights on Capitol Hill

June 18, 2019, Golden, CO—The AAC and Access Fund (AF) are making another big ascent of Capitol Hill on September 18– 20, 2019 to discuss policy issues that impact the climbing community with those who hold the keys to our public lands. “Climb the Hill” event participants will receive training in Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) as they prepare to present a comprehensive and equitable narrative around access to our climbing areas. They will speak to lawmakers about how public lands issues impact not just climbers, but all people and communities.

“We head to D.C. this fall to continue the discussion with our elected officials to let them know that we want our public lands to be protected, and that the ‘we’ includes women, POC, adaptive, indigenous and queer climbers,” says Shelma Jun, Flash Foxy founder and AF board member. Together, the climbing community will also advocate for reforms to energy development and leasing, improvement of recreation access, the protection of recreation and conservation land designations, and action on climate change.

The two organizations are tapping a wide delegation of renowned professional climbers and advocates including Alex Honnold, Tommy Caldwell, Conrad Anker, Majka Burhardt, and leaders from Brown Girls Climb, Brothers of Climbing, Flash Foxy, Adaptive Climbing Group, Latino Outdoors, Natives Outdoors, American Mountain Guide Association, The Mountaineers, and many other local climbing organizations and companies.

“I am excited to attend Climb the Hill because I believe the nation’s public lands are best protected by a diverse representation. As a rock climber, a woman of color, and advocate, it's important to me to steward public lands because they have such a positive effect in my life and I want to pay it forward. Supporting, protecting, and addressing issues our public lands affects all communities and I am looking forward to attending this year and speak on behalf of Latino Outdoors, Access Fund, and American Alpine Club,” says Maricela Rosales of Latino Outdoors.

“Public lands are a much bigger issue right now than they have been in the past… protecting our public lands is a very easy way to minimize our harm, because when you open up public lands to exploitation, that is now no longer a pristine, wild place. You can’t take your grandkids there someday, because there’s a freaking open coal mine or something. I just went down a dark path, and now I’m sad,” said Alex Honnold in an interview with ROAM at last year’s AAC Annual Benefit dinner.

Together, these groups will tackle important issues and hopefully, keep Honnold and the rest of us from being sad. If you've got some policy chops or a background in JEDI issues, we could use you in D.C. With strong voices and a stubborn inability to surrender our public lands, we won't give up on the beautiful, wild places in which we find sanctuary. If you’re interested in participating, you can apply here. We look forward to hearing from you!

Learn more about Climb the Hill: www.climbthehill.org

Joe Neguse Meets the Climbing Community: Public Lands & Climate Change Focus of Conversation

April 20, 2019. Estes Park, CO.

Leading up to Earth Day, Congressman Joe Neguse made the trek to Estes Park to participate in a stewardship event at the Beaver Meadows Visitor Center in Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP). Neguse represents Colorado's second congressional district which includes famous climbing destinations like the RMNP, Eldorado Canyon State Park and Boulder Canyon, to name a few. It's no wonder then that the climbing community makes up a significant portion of the Congressman’s constituency. Of the 23,000 Outdoor Alliance members that live in Colorado, 8,000 of them live within the District 2 boundaries alone. Suffice to say, Congressman Neguse, or Joe as he told me to call him, represents a lot of us climbers, paddlers, mountain bikers and skiers here in the Front Range

Neguse is in his freshman year in Congress and he's already introduced 10 pieces of legislation, most of it bipartisan, which is more than any other first year congressman or congresswoman. The Colorado Outdoor Recreation & Economy (CORE) Act in particular is something that the climbing community can get behind. If passed, it would protect 400,000 acres of land throughout Colorado and hundreds of climbing routes, mountaineering objectives and ski descents state wide. So, when Neguse was planning to do a stewardship project and town hall address, the climbing community jumped on the opportunity to catch up with him. A team from the AAC and the Access Fund spent the morning seeding and mulching in the Park and then got time with Neguse afterwards, to speak about the climbing and outdoors community. The human-powered representatives were:

  • Me, Taylor Luneau, Policy Manager, American Alpine Club

  • Jamie Logan, American Alpine Club Board member and first ascensionist

  • Tom Hornbein and his wife, Kathy, First ascent of the West Ridge of Everest

  • Chris Schulte, Pro Climber

  • Quinn Brett, NPS Climbing Ranger and public speaker

  • Hilary Harris, Evo rock climbing gym owner

  • Aaron Clark, Policy Director, International Mountain Bike Association

  • Dustin Dyer, Kent Mountain Adventure Company, Owner

  • Chris Winter, Executive Director, Access Fund

  • Erik Murdock, Policy Director, Access Fund

The conversation focused on public lands, the outdoor recreation economy, recreation access and infrastructure, conservation funding, and climate change. When prompted about the CORE Act, Neguse replied, "we feel like the wind is at our back and we've got a real shot at getting this bill through the House of Representatives and, hopefully, put the pressure on the folks in the upper chamber to get this thing done, and that's exciting." Neguse pointed out how important it was to hear from the climbing community, which gives he and his staff a more complete understanding of the impact of the bill. When asked how the climbing community can advocate for the CORE Act, Neguse pointed to three things:

Keep up the groundswell of grassroots momentum around the CORE Act.
Writing letters to the editor for example, provide the public and their elected leaders salient points on how legislation of this sort is good for the next generation of climbers.

Share your ideas!
There are lots of opportunities that the legislature could pursue and they want to hear from you on which to prioritize. Write or call your elected leaders.

Keep up the activism.
The work of the outdoor community is part of the solution to forestalling attacks to nationally iconic places like our monuments, forests and parks. Keep at it!

I was especially encouraged by Neguse’s willingness to listen; his engagement and openness with the climbing community and his receptivity to our suggestions. Neguse even offered to come climbing with us soon! Neguse pointed out the important role that the outdoor community plays in advocating for environmental legislation and in tackling the major issues of our era such as climate change. Neguse didn’t need to be prompted on the issue stating, “our work on climate change will be the defining work that we do in the coming years.”

Hearing all of this, Tom Hornbein notably stated "you're facing your own Everest right now - so go for it!"

We will Tom.

Taylor Luneau,
AAC Policy Manager


A big thanks is owed to Erik Murdoch of Access Fund for his leadership in pulling together this lunch meeting, engaging the Congressman’s office and getting all of these awesome climbers at the table. Thanks Erik!