ECOLOGY
No matter what your interests, putting something back is important. If you have time to participate in the fun part then you have time to do some of the work. If you ride mountain bikes then volunteer for a trail maintenance crew, if you climb then show up for one of the many clean-ups or trail days. If you really don't have the time then monetary support can be just as important as physical participation.
Maintaining our resource
Many climbing areas are suffering from old or improperly placed anchors. These little ticking time bombs are all accidents waiting to happen. With the influx of many inexperienced climbers of late, the potential for a catastrophe is high. The Southeastern Climbers Coalition has formed a group to help maintain permanent anchors at many crags around the South. If you have the time and skill we can use all the help we can get. We even provide training and materials for volunteers.
The above section of cliff line is located at the old Army night rappel lanes on Yonah Mountain in Northeast Georgia. The Rangers have used this area for training since the 1940's. As the years have passed and anchors degraded they added more bolts. In a 35 foot expanse of rock there were over 118 anchors. After a meeting with the Sergeant in charge of anchors for the Army we came to an understanding about how to improve the situation. This section now retains 24 of the original bolts, enough for the army to still have six lanes while still maintaining their four bolts per rope rule. At present we have removed over 200 substandard anchors and replaced 10. Our surveys have earmarked over 100 more unsafe anchors to be removed from this one mountain.
ADOPT-A-CRAG
The second Tuesday of September is National Crag Day. To celebrate this event the Access Fund along with the Southeastern Climbers Coalition and other climbing activist groups sponsor trail maintenance, anchor maintenance, and clean-ups at climbing areas from coast to coast. After a day of hard work I like to feed my crews a hot meal and everybody gets a decent prize. Check out www.seclimbers.org if you want to help out.
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BOY SCOUTS
The Boy Scouts is one of the finest organizations out there. It provides a forum for boys to learn team work, overcoming challenges and other things that cannot be gotten from any other one source. From first aid to bicycling, shooting, camping, woodworking, public service and many more diverse skills the boys learn many important things that will help carry them through life. I have been teaching climbing and other curriculums for so long that I have seen many kids grow up. It is strange when you see a certain kid three or four times a year for several years. They seem to grow up in spurts and they can have such different attitudes from year to year. If
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