In 2021, Front Range Crags shined a little bit brighter due to the Boulder Climbing Community ( BCC) and its volunteers.
The BCC continued to expand their impact by advocating for climbers in Rocky Mountain National Park, Eldorado Canyon State Park, Clear Creek Canyon, Flagstaff Mountain, and beyond, via our newly inaugurated advocacy committee; ensuring climbers maintained access to their favorite crags and were represented in future decisions.
The BCC continued to ensure that local climbers had access to wag bags and porta-potties to keep human waste out of the watershed and preserve the environment.
With the help of our outreach volunteers we doubled membership again in 2021.
There were also a huge number of firsts in 2021 for us at the BCC!
We trained over 40 new rebolting volunteers via our rebolting clinics. By training volunteers we increase our impact by a huge factor: if each volunteer replaces a few routes, that results in hundreds of routes that will be updated and safer. In fact, these newly trained volunteers helped us replace 500 bolts this year!
Say that again “500 bolts in 2021!”This is a huge achievement for the community, not only this year, but in future years; newly minted volunteers will continue to increase our impact as BCC grows.
The BCC installed 13 gym kiosks to close the stewardship gap between the gym and crags.
Our trail program also broke barriers this year. After years in the works, the BCC, in partnership with the Arapaho and Roosevelt District of the United States Forest Service (USFS), added nearly every climber approach trail in Boulder Canyon to the USFS trails systems map. That’s over 5 miles of trails! This trail designation allows the BCC to increase the scope and scale of the work we can do in Boulder Canyon in the future. This is a huge deal and we are thrilled for what this means for the future stewardship of Boulder Canyon.
Our trail crew (FRCS) constructed 3,500 linear feet of trail and installed 578 stone steps in 2021. With over 5,000 volunteer hours, our trail crew built trails at Avalon, Castle Rock Overlook, Der Zerkle, Upper Dream Canyon, Cathedral Spires, and the Royal Arch Trail. Building trails uphill is hard work. In order to build a sustainable trail through steep and exposed environments, the trail crew relies heavily on the use of stone structures. Building with stone is one of the most technically difficult forms of trail building, from quarrying and splitting stone, using highline rigging systems, to the actual construction methods of stone building. Our trail crew possesses the knowledge and experience that very few trail programs have.this experience is part of the reason our partnership with USFS thrives. The BCC is thrilled to be stewarding some of the best crags in the country. But the ongoing support of the community is needed.
Help us meet our fundraising goals for the year by making a donation today.