Wow.. we have some exciting new. And it’s not about our latest proj.. well, not exactly.

The Access Fund Land Conservation Campaign is helping the RRGCC save $10,000

Today we’re happy to announce that the Access Fund is providing the RRGCC short-term financing to restructure the current seller-financed loan on the Pendergrass-Murray Recreational Preserve. That’s a long way of saying the Access Fund is helping the RRGCC save nearly $10,000 dollars in interest payments by loaning us, via the Access Fund’s Land Conservation Campaign, $65,000 at 2.5%.

Needless to say, we’re excited on a number of levels, not the least of which is that we’re again working with the Access Fund, which has been there for the RRGCC from the start.

There’s still a lot of work to be done.. but today is a good day to dig in again and get going.

Read on past the break for the full PR announcement.

Access Fund – RRGCC Press Release (pdf)

Access Fund to Refinance Pendergrass-Murray Loan, Saving Red River Gorge Climbers’ Coalition Thousands

Boulder, CO, June 7, 2010 — The Access Fund, the national advocacy organization that keeps U.S. climbing areas open and conserves the climbing environment, announced today that it will provide Red River Gorge Climbers’ Coalition with short-term financing to pay off the current seller-financed loan on the Pendergrass-Murray Recreational Preserve in Kentucky’s Red River Gorge.

The Pendergrass-Murray Recreational Preserve is a classic Red River Gorge destination, hosting more than 500 climbs, ranging from 5.4 to 5.14c, and new climbs constantly being discovered and developed. The steep, beautiful sandstone walls are overhanging and pocketed and offer technical, dynamic, and endurance climbing. The property hosts several hundred climbers each weekend, with the three parking lots often reaching capacity by noon.

A $65,000 loan will be supplied by the new Access Fund Land Conservation Campaign, arevolving loan program that provides local climbing organizations with the funds and expertise needed to act quickly to save threatened climbing areas. The Red River Gorge Climbers’ Coalition purchased the property in January of 2004, making it the largest direct land acquisition to date by rock climbers.

Through aggressive fundraising and two grants from the Access Fund, the Red River Gorge Climbers’ Coalition has paid down a significant portion of the original loan. By refinancing the remainder of the loan under the Access Fund’s new program, the Coalition will save approximately $10,000 in interest and fees that can be invested in other projects that benefit the Red River Gorge climbing community. The refinance will also eliminate the risk of losing the property to a private third-party, since a missed annual payment under the previous seller-financed loan would have returned the property to the seller and the funds raised by climbers would have been lost.

The refinance deal will set aside approximately $15,000 for land management costs of the Pendergrass-Murray property, as well as funds to allow RRGCC to pursue more climbing areas in the region.

This is the fifth Access Fund Land Conservation Campaign project, with active loans totaling over $200,000. Of these funds, $17,000 has been paid back, returning funds to the revolving loan program to be invested into other climbing conservation efforts by local climbing organizations and the Access Fund.

About the Red River Gorge Climbers’ Coalition

The Red River Gorge Climbers Coalition works to ensure open, public access to quality outdoor rock climbing opportunities in and around Red River Gorge, Kentucky. The Red River Gorge Climbers’ Coalition works to encourage the conservation of the natural environment on publicly managed and privately owned land by protecting, promoting, and ensuring responsible climbing.

About the Access Fund

Founded in 1991, the Access Fund is the national advocacy organization that keeps climbing areas open and conserves the climbing environment. The Access Fund supports and represents over 2.3 million climbers nationwide in all forms of climbing: rock climbing, ice climbing, mountaineering, and bouldering. Five core programs support the mission on national and local levels: climbing management policy, stewardship and conservation, local support and mobilization, land acquisition and protection, and education.

For more information, visit www.accessfund.org.

Wolverine Publishing and Ray Ellington’s iPhone Guidebook App to the Red River Gorge guidebook is on iTunes. As if you need any more reason to pick it up, fifty cents from each full version of the app will be donated to the RRGCC. The app works on the iPhone and iPod touch and helps improve your image and karma at the same time! Ok, maybe not really, but you’ll have to admit it’s pretty slick and with some of the cash going to help save the climbs it documents, can you really pass it up? It’s also available in a free Lite version showcasing Roadside and Drive-By Crags. Check out the video below for a full run-through for a preview of some of the things the app can do.

The RRGCC April 17 meeting. We didn't get quite this close..

Another meeting down, another docket of business together, another set of cookies, stickie buns, and brownies put away.. Yep, the April 17th meeting of the RRGCC is all but history with one of our larger crowds in hand, likely due to some of the spring’s best weather to date.

If you missed this one, have no fear – there’s one tentatively scheduled for July 24. Check back again (or subscribe to our feed) to find out the details. In the meantime, read over the proceedings from this last meeting to stay up with the current happenings and updates.

Read more after the break..

The meeting started with introductions to the Moore’s, the very welcoming owners of the white house on Bald Rock Fork Road. With some recent events, they’ve come to own most of the land near the top of the hill to the Southern Region. Having noticed the number of climbers that come by (and the number that need a hand getting up the difficult hill to the Southern Region), they came to the RRGCC to discuss options regarding parking near the top of the hill. The RRGCC and the Moore’s will be coordinating the best solutions for both parties and look forward to working together in the future.

The RRGCC is doing a partnership with Leave No Trace (LNT) again this year.  The USFS is working with the LNT organization to work on a new program LNT is running, the Leave No Trace Hot Spots. The RRGCC will also be looking into the possibility of bringing a trainer course or scheduling a visit from the Traveling Trainers sometime this year.

Bill Strachan, the Executive Director who has committed a lot of time and energy to working with the USFS, informed the group that the Limits of Acceptable Change (LAC) was approved. It’s been a long process and this helps bring the RRGCC and the USFS closer to working together on using and maintaining crags on Forest Service land. However, more work still needs to be done and Bill and the RRGCC still needs to draft a climbing management plan (CMP).  This plan must be approved both by the RRGCC and the USFS.  Bill explained that to improve “system trails”, which are official, published trails, such as the trails that start to Military and Left Flank, the climbing community needs to contact the USFS for permission to address the trails.  ”User trails”, such as those to Phantasia, cannot be improved or maintained until the climbing management plan is approved and published.  The CMP will likely be drafted by the end of summer and approved by the RRGCC BOD at the September meeting.   At that point, it will be submitted to the USFS.

Josephine gave a brief recap of the Red River Reunion, which was put on by Miguel’s Pizza.  By the end of the night, Miguel’s had helped the RRGCC pull in over $2,900!  Rick Bost helped to organize and run the climbing competition at Torrent Falls.  In the future, we’ll be working harder to get the word out about the climbing competitions. As it was, more than twenty people competed and most of them walked away with some pretty handy prizes. It was also proposed that we have a raffle and silent auction at Rocktoberfest.

The Managers, Mike Driskell and JR Goodwin

Mike Driskell gave a brief recap of the Roadside trail day.  In addition to the improvements, he and JR Goodwin expressed concern about the dilapidated state of the slab wall base. One option he presented involved building a retaining wall and a fence similar to what is currently in place at Animal Crackers Wall in Muir Valley. He also discussed building a split rail fence to keep the general population from spreading down the hill.  Since any actions would need to be coordinated with the land owners, no action was taken at this time.  Mike is planning another trail day for Roadside in the spring of 2011. Later, Mike showed off some signs that he’d made for around the area. Keep an eye out for some nice looking signs and remember to thank Mike for the efforts.

Matt Tackett of Red River Outdoors discussed the mountain bike trail building on the PMRP.  Thanks to several weeks of hard work, Matt mentioned that the trails are really coming along nicely. Every third Saturday he and a small crew are doing a small trail day to work on the trails and hey’re currently working 70 to 80 hours per month. Matt Tackett has written a grant to fund the trail building and that grant is currently pending approval. Should the grant by approved, Matt will be more strongly promoting the trail days and the trail building effort.

JR Goodwin, racked with the guilt of having yet another birthday, volunteered his big day to host a trail day on May 15, likely at Dark Side.  Also, JR and Mike Driskell are asking that the RRGCC website have a place for people to “report bad trails” and Yasmeen Fowler and Paul Vidal were volunteered to implement this feature. Matt Tackett also suggested doing a trail building clinic for people that are interested in building trails.  IMBA has a great program and Tackett suggested imitating it. Eastern Kentucky University has environmental impact programming and the RRGCC may try to reach out to this group to see how we can work together.

Earlier in the meeting, the community was informed of a climbing accident that occurred at the Dark Side. Details were fuzzy but, having been on the scene, JR was able to give a slightly more complete picture. One thing that JR explained was that Lee County could use assistance with regard to preparation for climbing accident rescues. For example, they are in need of  wheeled rescue litter and directions and descriptions of the crag locations. Rick Bost promised to research the cost of the litter and the RRGCC will strongly consider purchasing it for them. Another effort that would go a long way to improving the situation would be to establish better communication with the Lee County Search and Rescue (SAR) with possibly an appointed RRGCC liaison.

The RRGCC Credit Card. Sign up and help the RRGCC earn $50!

With the mortgage still the top priority, the topic of fundraising spurred plenty of ideas. Rick Bost further explained the new RRGCC credit card.  After the first purchase, the RRGCC gets $50 and 0.3% of all purchases after that. Josephine Neff asked that the RRGCC purchase logo items for sale. Specifically, she suggested a coffee mug, flask, and beer koozie and the Board agreed to get back to Josephine with a vote with two weeks. Bill also suggested leveraging large donations to use as incentives for matching donation drives.

For Rocktoberfest, the RRGCC is working to host the event at the same location as last year. As for managing the waste, Mike Driskell asked that we promote aluminum can usage so that we can recycle them for income at Rocktoberfest. Mike Driskell volunteered to talk with the Beer Trailer about putting up signs encouraging aluminum can use. Also, Joe Haynes suggested outreach programs at the school systems, something the RRGCC has tried to incorporate with past Rocktoberfests. JR proposed giving a day of guided climbing for students who get a certain GPA. Tackett suggested we do a scholarship for local residents for U-Climb. In support of Rocktoberfest and other events, Josephine will be working to get a few vinyl signs that says “RRGCC” of some sort.

Thanks for reading over things.. If you’d like to get more involved, we’d love the support. Just let us know and we’ll get you plugged in. If cash or credit card is your prefered donation currency, we’re happy to accept that as well.

We look forward to seeing you at the next meeting.

A big thank you to Red River Outdoors and all who participated in 2009′s Climbers that Care event this past Saturday. During the day, much trail work was completed at Torrent Falls, where (thanks to Dr. Bob), we all had a place to gather around a fire in the evening.

Thanks to Wes Allen for the video..  a more detailed wrap-up to come..

JATD 09 from Wes Allen on Vimeo.

The route-setters and event coordinators address the competitors to clear up the rules of the comp. Photos: Laura Caporizzo

U of Pitt Raises More Than $1100 to Support the RRGCC

This February, the University of Pittsburgh held a climbing competition to benefit the RRGCC. They’re generosity can’t be understatated, especially when their efforts generated more than $1100 for the Coalition’s annual mission to raise $30,000 for the PMRP mortgage. 

On February 21st, 2009, climbers filled Trees Hall at the University of Pittsburgh’s climbing gym for the final competition in a series of competitions with surrounding universities. For the past several years during the spring semester, Pitt’s climbing wall has been part of this circuit of competitions known as the University Bouldering Series (UBS). This year, the schools that took part in the UBS were: Kent State University, The University of Akron, Youngstown State University, West Virginia University, University of Pittsburgh, and Slippery Rock University. The UBS is not limited to climbers from these participating schools, nor is it limited to student climbers. Competitors at Pitt’s comp were not only from the schools participating in the UBS; some climbers were also representing Carnegie Mellon University, University of Pennsylvania, and the Pittsburgh climbing community, along with many other climbing communities. The past two seasons, Pitt has decided to donate all of the proceeds from its bouldering competition to a worthy cause. Last year, Pitt donated their proceeds to Conservacion Patagonica, a cause “dedicated to the protection and restoration of wildland ecosystems and biodiversity in Patagonia.” This year, because several of the event coordinators love and cherish the climbing in the Red River Gorge, it was decided to donate the proceeds to the Red River Gorge Climbers Coalition (RRGCC).

On the day of the comp, competitors started to roll in at 10am and registration lasted until about 11:15am. After registration, all of the climbers were gathered, the rules of the competition were reviewed, and climbing started around 11:30am. The climbers were given 4 hours, until 3:30pm, to climb as many of 66 brand new problems that they could get their hands on.These 66 new problems were set over the 3 days prior to the event by dedicated staff and volunteer setters. Routes were graded based on difficulty, on a scale ranging from 50 to 500 points. The scores of the individual climbers were calculated from the sum of each climber’s 5 best scores. If a climber sent a route on their

After the comp, the WVU crew posed in front of the wall. Photo: Liz Stout collection

1^st go, they were awarded 100% of the points; on their 2^nd go, they were awarded 95.5% of the points; and on their 3^rd attempt or beyond, they were awarded 90.5% of the points. The event drew a crowd of 66 competitors and raised $1,125, all of which was donated to the RRGCC. At the end of the competition, score sheets were turned in to be totaled up. First place in the men’s advanced category went to Matt Caporizzo, of the University of Pennsylvania, with a score of 2144.5 points. Dan Proudfoot from West Virginia University came in a close second, with 2112.3 points. Josh Wilson from Slippery Rock University was able to steal third place with a score of 1841.9 points. First place women’s advanced was taken by Maggie Hamill, a graduate student at West Virginia University, with a score of 1451.4 points. Second place went to Jame Buck, from the University of Pittsburgh, scoring1115.2points. And last but not least, third place women’s advanced went to Helen Moinova, representing an Ohio climbing community, with 1107 points.

A special thanks goes out to all of the sponsors of the event: the Red River Gorge Climbers Coalition, Sterling Ropes, Black Diamond, Redwood Creek Winery, Mountain Hardware, Metolius, Rock Candy Holds, Outdoor Research, and Exkursion Outfitters. The event could not have been such a great success without the support and generosity of these sponsors!

Again, many, many thanks from the Board of Directors, supporters of the RRGCC, and the climbing community as a whole!

[Show as slideshow]

(If your university or organization would like to do something similar, please contact us.)

Ben and Laura will be sorely missed, and never forgotten.

A memorial service is planned at the base of Whiteout in Emerald City (part of Lady Slipper) at the Red River Gorge on Friday, November 7 from 3-5pm. Miguel’s will be closed during this time.

Benjamin E. Strohmeier of Hebron, KY, and Laura Fletcher of Brownsburg, IN. They were both 18. A memorial is planned for Friday from 3-5pm at the base of Whiteout at Emerald City.