West Virginia here we come!
Once a year, our good partners at Access Fund corral dozens of Local Climbing Organizations (LCOs) from across the nation to network, learn from one another, and grow toward our shared ambitions of acquiring, protecting, expanding, and conserving access to our valuable climbing resources.
This year was KAYA’s second in attendance. After last years’ conference was held in Tucson, Arizona, Access Fund opted to switch coasts to the New River Gorge, West Virginia. Our staff member Eric Jerome lives in downtown Fayetteville and is a volunteer for their LCO and co-host, the New River Alliance of Climbers (NRAC). Andrew Redlawsk made the drive down from the Boston area to join Eric for a weekend of connecting with existing partners of KAYA’s and learning from the thought leaders of climbing access.
In this quick blog, we will share some of our experiences and learnings from this awesome event!
Session 1: Climber Education
After a quick breakfast, we split out into breakout groups to get to know one another and share our interests for the weekend. After getting to know some great folks from Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, North Carolina, and another nearby states, we moved to our first session–Climber Education.
Climber education is hugely important to us in our roles at KAYA, so both Andrew and I (Eric) attended this session hosted by NRG Climbing Stewards Meghan and Alex, Tara Taylor, the Marketing Director of the Red River Gorge Climbing Coalition, Madi Walsh, Access Fund’s Digital Marketing and Membership Director, and Jackie Ham, Access Fund’s Social Media and Membership Manager.
The presenters did an excellent job outlining best-practices for social media marketing, including some pointers for story-telling, gaming the dreaded algorithm, and making engaging content. The climbing stewards provided great pointers on how to best communicate with climbers at the crag, who may not be engaging in the best stewardship practices, in a way that is friendly and won’t create defensiveness.
It was that many LCOs share the struggle of reaching climbers. It can be hard to rise above the noise created on social media, and fewer and fewer people are reading their email inboxes these days. This is a huge reason why we make our network available for any LCO who wishes to help promote their fundraiser, trail day, or access alert to our community of climbers in their area. Similarly, we have more impact together than apart, and some organizations like the Washington Climbers Coalition have found success in scheduling recurring collaborative posts with KAYA on the ‘gram.
We came away from the session with some actionables for our own fundraising and community activation efforts, and have even successfully employed some of them since!
Session 2: Insurance for LCOs
The second session was a little less “fun,” but no less important. Climbing organizations nationwide have been facing new challenges when it comes to insuring events. I experienced this first hand during the organization of NRAC’s first-ever Pirate’s Cove Plunder bouldering competition this past spring. Essentially, more and more insurance providers are including exemptions for rock climbing activity–essentially barring climbing organizations from getting coverage for climbing related events. Yep. You heard that right.
This session was outlining the current state of this phenomena and brainstorming solutions moving forward. In our case, I was able to find a work-around by partnering with a non-climbing but similarly outdoor-minded organization, Active Southern West Virginia. Active’s gracious and last-minute willingness to co-host the event and take on the liability enabled us to proceed as planned. We hosted 170 competitors and raised over $5k for the organization!
I raised my hand during the session to share this tidbit with other LCOs who may be facing the same problem, and it seemed as though this solution was novel and therefor of value! At NRAC, we plan to again co-host with Active this coming year for the second PCP and a second new not-yet-announced event!
Session 3: Landowner Relations & Private Land Solutions
After some tacos, we reconvened to hear from the New River Gorge bouldering guidebook author on KAYA, Aaron Schnieder. He presented on the complex nature of land solutions in the NRG region, and particularly highlighted the ever-changing status of the Meadow River, the region’s highest-density and most contested climbing area.
It’s a long journey, but the future is bright for the climbing in these areas.
Session 4: Data Collection for Crag Stewardship
This session, presented by Access Fund’s Stewardship and Education Director, Andrea Hassler, was particularly interesting for us. Andrea presented on the various mapping software they have been using the collect and communicate access and sustainability needs to their stewardship field-teams. Essentially, the problem they are trying to solve is: How can climbers, climbing organizations, Access Fund, and trail teams all gain visibility into things like eroding landings, downed trees, or dangerous areas? Andrea outlined their current systems and ideas for how to roll it out more broadly for use by LCOs nationwide.
Years ago, when Andrea was working full-time at the Southeast Climbers Coalition, we had partnered together to help create tooling to enable fundraising and community engagement during Covid. Her presentation got us thinking critically about ways in which we can improve our own internal reporting features to become even more valuable to climbing organizations, both small and large.
Day 2: Needles Eye Park
The second day we ditched the conference hall and once again split up. Andrew and I decided to visit Needleseye Park, a recently opened climbing access WIN 10 minutes south of Fayetteville. After a multi-year process, the city was eventually successful in purchasing the land, and has converted what was once an under loved dumping ground into a fabulous multi-use public park. In addition to over 300 boulder problems, the city also paved way for a stellar system of mountain bike trails and a killer disc golf course. Daniel Dunn, the Eastern Regional Director & Policy Analyst for Access Fund and Aaron Schnieder toured the crew through the recently developed crag.
Aaron had challenged himself to complete the Needleseye bouldering guidebook in time for this event, so it was super neat to be able to use is it in the field and identify dozens of problems which are otherwise inaccessible.
Aaron, Andrew, myself, and a few other attendees stuck around afterward to climb on some of the best boulders in the area. The crew worked Japanese Denim (V7) while, of course, Aaron scrubbed and dubbed yet another new line.
Happy Hour and Wrap Up!
Everyone was pretty tired and looking forward to some refreshments at Bridge Brew. It was a great opportunity to showcase some of the great new features we have been working on for access and sustainability. Speaking to climbing organizations with so many specific use-cases, needs, and challenges really helped us get a better picture of how we can continue shaping our product with their goals in mind.
Huge thanks to Access Fund and NRAC for hosting the event! We can’t wait to see you there next year. All the great photos are from Karen Lane!
If you’re an LCO who wants to explore how KAYA can help your cause, learn more on our website here!
