The Southeastern Climbers Coalition - Message #2 from "the Office"

Over this past week in Florida, I thought I would take the time to catch everyone up on some current happenings with the SCC. The SCC's achievements for 2010 continue to grow and I think we are looking at a great spring and summer season. So take a read and ponder the laws of physics. Will see you out and about.

"New Wave Hookers" at Red Rocks during the AF Summit

Hello Southeastern Culture of Awesome Cliffline and Boulder Scaling,

I hope all is well for each of you and yours as I write from my hotel room in Orlando, FL drinking coffee from what has come to be my favorite piece of entertainment on this business trip. Maybe it is the engineer in me, but a coffee machine that puts in new grounds, pulls the coffee fresh, and then cleans the grounds, ready for the next caffeine Valdez shot, is simply cooler than anything else I have seen. And there is a glass panel so you can watch it all happen. I suggest everyone write their congressman and request one of these in every building across the Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia region. Then on second thought, I do not want our local java joints put out of business. They would because this thing is that mind boggling…at least to me.

But whatever. On to climbing. I think I can safely state that our winter season probably made the Southeast feel more like the Northwest due to the amount of consistent downpour. It was also the coldest since the winter storm of 2000. I’ve tried explaining this to my friends out west as they couldn’t understand why someone from Alabama would be raving about the cold of the South. I’ll put it like this, when you are climbing ice in Alabama, and high quality ice, something is up that is causing barometer needles to spin. I’d like to say to that I heard of a lot of FA’s went up this season. Big props to those who got out, swung the tools, and stein pulled a locker placement. And regardless of the consistent air saturation, lots of a great bouldering sessions went down, especially on the competitions’ side. Triple Crown was incredible (and raised a ton of money for organizations). Chandler Mountain Challenge pulled in competitors. HP Rocks did exactly what’s name indicated. But now the weather has turned great for ropes, and from what I can tell, sendage is occurring all across the Southeast. Climbers are stoked. Windows are rolled down and the music is blasting at full volume. Time to breakout the Chacos again.

So far, the SCC has had a great year. Already this Spring, we had our largest trail day turnout at Sandrock with 140+ volunteers. Considering that the average volunteer put in 5 hours during the trail day; that equates to 700 volunteer hours. Incredible. This was definitely due to our Sandrock Representative Michael Cox’s leadership in pulling together such a great event. Another great day of trailwork was held at Boat Rock. This is of no surprise to me as Atlanta climbers always go the extra step to ensure that this boulderfield is upkept. Props as always to ATL. And speaking of ATL, Adrenaline Gym took first in the Access Fund Teamworks initiative this past year with ATL’s Urban Core coming in third and TBA from Chattanooga taking fourth. Oh yeah, this is the second year in a row that the South dominated the Teamworks initiative. Kids participating in trail days their first time climbing outside? Yeah. I think it is cool too. To top off the news so far this year, the SCC was able to donate $1000 back to the Carolina Climbers Coalition (CCC) to assist in their acquisition of the Rumbling Bald Boulders. This was an incredible achievement for the CCC, and we wish them the best of luck in the future. As a point of interest, this purchase was made possible due to the new Access Fund’s Land Conservation Campaign.

For more information on the Land Conservation Campaign, please check out:
http://www.accessfund.org/site/c.tmL5KhNWLrH/b.5305449/k.F702/The_Story.htm

As the SCC has also been a benefactor for this initiative by the Access Fund, the LCC is quickly becoming one of the greatest success stories in our Golden Age of Access.

For the rest of this Spring, the SCC has several events that you can participate in. At the end of this month, we will be hosting the Laurel/Snow Adopt – A – Crag Trail Day in Tennessee…a two day event for that matter. Atlanta will be cranking up the speakers once again with the Dirty South Climbers Film Festival on May 7th. And for those of you interesting in attending a Board Meeting, please feel free to join myself and rest of the SCC Board at my house in Huntsville, Al on the evening of May 15th. If all works out, there may be a trail day at Yellow Bluff right beforehand. Finally, to round off the spring and head into summer, there will be a trail day at Sunset Park in Chattanooga. Chuck Weber has done a great job over the past couple of trail days at Sunset, and I’m confident that this one will be just as good, if not better.

Just a reminder that trail work does not have to only occur on trail days. All it takes is to pick up a little trash as you walk around you crag. Take a plastic bag and encourage others to do the same as well. The best type of trail day is a quick two hour cleanup. Why? Because climbers have taken the time to pick up along the way. Picking up a few cigarette butts, cans, and wrappers here or there may not seem like a big deal. But if many climbers take the time to do so, the effect on the crag is very evident. Activism is not something that just happens at a trail day or a fundraiser. Climbing activism and access orientation occurs every time we go to the crag, rope up, or throw down the pad the crag. Make access your priority, right along with projects.

In other news, and on a closing note, I was invited to attend the Access Fund’s Summit for Public Land Relations at Red Rocks, NV and provide a briefing on building organizational strength to other Local Climbing Organizations (LCOs) from across the country. This was probably one of the most incredible events that I have ever attended that related to access. I had the pleasure of meeting some of the most hard working climber activists from across the country. It was definitely a great opportunity to interact and listen to the challenges they face with their crags. It is very motivating to listen to climbers who didn’t take a closure as the alpha and omega of their access, but worked in a creative manner to do what was needed to ensure that access was regained and retained for the outgoing years. What was also interesting was to listening to other climbers who knew of what was going on in the Southeast in terms of access. Our challenges and our ability to work as a community has, in some ways, become a model for how to “get things done.” These continuing struggles and achievements are becoming well known throughout the country.

I anticipate that climber eyes will be turning towards the South again in the near future.

Enjoy the rest of the Spring. Send your projects. Get ready for the Summer.

Cheers.

Paul Morley
SCC President