This week we're introducing you to Bill, who is one-half of the Climber Stewards Team. Throughout the Summer and beginning of Fall, make sure to catch them in the mornings for climber coffee chats! Here's where they will be:

NRAC, the New River National Park Service, and the Summersville Lake US Army Corps of Engineers have teamed up with the Access Fund to bring two stewards, Ryan and Bill, to the New River Gorge area for the 2022 season. The program launched the weekend of May 6-8th and since then, the stewards have been busy holding climbing coffees and crag chats.

This week, we're introducing you to Ryan!

NRAC: Why did you want to become a Climber Steward here at the New?

Ryan: I heard about this opportunity and got excited about the prospect of being a voice for this place that is so dear to my heart. I hope to get others to care about this area and start thinking about what impacts their actions have. I've traveled all over the US climbing and I've seen the impacts that more and more climbers can have on these unique ecosystems and I got excited about the prospect of being able to help this area.

NRAC: What's something you hope to be able to educate climbers through the Climber Steward Program this year?

Ryan: I hope to get others to care about this area and start thinking about what impacts their actions have. I'd love to get people to take responsibility and ownership for their actions and the conditions and health of our climbing spaces. 

NRAC: What's your favorite climb here at the New?

Ryan: Puppy chow. What a wild and unique pitch that is one of the best anywhere. I'll take a lap on this mega pitch anytime I'm at the lower meadow. 

NRAC: What's your favorite crag snack?

Ryan: Gummy bears all day, every day. Cold pizza is a close second.

Thanks Ryan!
​[Edited for length and clarity]

TL;DR (A summary):
The route climbing and bouldering along the section of Meadow River and Glade Creek, often called “the Southside,” is owned and managed by three entities: The Heartwood Forest Land Group (TFG), Nuttall LLC (Nuttalls), and Fayette County.
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Climbers have never had explicit permission to climb on either TFG or Nuttall land. After ATV accidents along the Meadow River rail grade near the Southside in the early summer of 2021, and with continued trespassing by climbers, the landowners have formally asked that climbers and other recreationists cease further use of this land.

NRAC is actively communicating with landowners to gain formalized access to the climbing on both sides of the Meadow, stretching from Nallen to US Route 19, including the Southside climbing areas. NRAC asks climbers to NOT climb any routes or boulders in this area. We also ask that climbers avoid the use of the rail grade from Nallen to Glade Creek. While this is public land managed by Fayette County, it is surrounded by private property, does not access any currently open cliffs or boulders, and motorized vehicles are prohibited.


Background:
The New River Gorge is lined with cliffs and littered with boulders, however it is not the only river corridor with these gifts. This region includes two other rivers: the Gauley River and the Meadow River.

​While established climbing along the Gauley is sporadic below the Summersville Dam, the Meadow River holds several large, well-established crags and boulder clusters. The route climbing guide book for the region documents much of the established roped climbing, including the highly popular Lower Meadow as well as the currently closed Southside areas, while the bouldering guide showcases the high concentration Meadow Top boulders. Unfortunately, while much of the climbing in the New River Gorge is on public land, the tracts along the Meadow River are almost entirely privately owned. Climbers have historically been a small, low-impact user group to the area, but this is no longer the case and the climbing community has to respectfully navigate private land owners and their wishes.

Another growing outdoor recreation user group is motorized off-roaders. The Meadow River rail grade through the Southside gained popularity for riders over the last few years as it provided miles of scenic, uninterrupted, and previously unregulated access to the Meadow and Gauley rivers. In the early summer of 2021, there were multiple off-road motorized vehicle accidents, including fatalities. This prompted a meeting of the primary land owners through this area of rail grade. To avoid further trespassing and potential accidents with associated liability, the land owners formally closed their land to all user groups. To be clear, climbers never had permission to use most of the Southside and have always been trespassing. Now that climbing access to the Southside has closed, NRAC and the Access Fund are pursuing formal agreements to allow future use.

For the time being, please do not climb at any of the Meadow River South Side crags downstream of Glade Creek. And please do not drive on the rail grade at all, regardless of location. You can still access the rail trail upstream of Glade Creek, but NOT by motorized vehicle.

Access to the South Side of the Meadow River has been tenuous at best for some time. For years now, climbers have occasionally faced locked gates and adamant land managers, but access has always opened back up, often for long periods of uninterrupted time. Nevertheless, access has never been entirely legal; regulations have only been unenforced. Now, land owners, the NPS and WVDNR have made decisions to shut down access due to the irresponsible actions of a small number of ATV riders. To be clear, this is not just a prohibition on driving the rail trail. The South Side of the Meadow downstream of Glade Creek is closed to all recreation. We recognize that the vast majority of off-roaders on the rail trail have been responsible resource users. This is a case of a few bad actors tipping a formerly balanced scale. We applaud efforts to shut down the erratic, occasionally violent, behavior of a few irresponsible people—but we want to draw a distinction between them and the rest of us.

For more than a year, NRAC and the Access Fund have been engaged in dialogue with the owners and managers of the land on which Glade Creek and many of the South Side crags lie. We were pretty optimistic about the future of access there, but we are unsure what that looks like right now. Our hope is to eventually regain legal access to these cliffs via Propps Ridge Rd. and the Glade Creek rail trail. We hope to also secure land near the bottom of the trail for a parking area, but we are doubtful that it will ever again be acceptable to drive on the riverside rail trail.

Discussions like those underway between climbers and land managers tend to be long and delicate. Adding further confusion to the situation is the involvement of multiple agencies. Please be patient while we try to work this out. We’ll try to keep you updated on the regular.

We are all stewards of land once explored and occupied by Moneton and Tutelo tribes, as well as many others now long lost to history. Respect for them must be present in everything we do. ​

We have awarded our first ever Diversity in Guiding Grants to Andre Hoyos (@and_hoyos) and Maria Nuñèz-Olivér (@the_minotaur_). We wish you two the best!

In partnership with Kai and Connie Lightner's Climbing for Change, Appalachian Mountain Guides and New River Mountain Guides, we created this grant to help BIPOC climbers into leadership positions in the climbing community. Our board of directors unanimously approved funding for this initiative near the end of 2020, applications closed on June June 1, and now it’s a reality. The grant covers travel expenses, a small amount of gear and all necessary AMGA membership fees for two recipients. Appalachian Mountain Guides generously donated two slots in its SPI course and test. Both Appalachian Mountain Guides AND New River Mountain Guides also donated two follow/training days to help awardees practice for the exam.

We are all stewards of land once explored and occupied by Moneton and Tutelo tribes, as well as many others now long lost to history. Respect for them must be present in everything we do. 

After months of work…we are happy--thrilled actually—to announce our partnership with Kai and Connie Lightner's Climbing for Change and Appalachian Mountain Guides to create the Diversity in Guiding Grant! Our board of directors unanimously approved funding for this initiative near the end of 2020, and now it’s a reality. It is our sincerest hope that this will help put BIPOC climbers into positions of leadership in our climbing community. There are two slots available in 2021, and applications are open right meow.

This grant will cover travel expenses, a small amount of gear and all necessary AMGA membership fees for two recipients—and Appalachian Mountain Guides is generously donating two slots in its SPI course and test (dates are flexible). There are some additional details about to which to be aware; check the above link for more.

In other news, we DO plan to hold (Not) Work Week in May of this year, though the exact service project and specific protocols for Covid safety have yet to take shape. Warm up your volunteer hands and stay tuned, because some barely walkable track through the woods somewhere in or around the NRG is gonna get world-class makeover--and we’re gonna need your help to do it.

We are all stewards of land once explored and occupied by Moneton and Tutelo tribes, as well as many others now long lost to history. Respect for them must be present in everything we do. ​

2020 has been a difficult year, and it ain’t over yet. Little of what we celebrated came easy. There have been frustrating discussions and times of loneliness. Volunteers have put in hundreds of hours of hard, physical labor. There have been times when hope seemed in short supply, and times when we left literal blood, sweat and tears on the ground.

Nevertheless, we’re climbers; challenges make us better and stronger. What could easily have become our worst year ever is shaping up to be our finest moment—and it’s because you, the climbers of the New River Gorge, steadfastly refused to let us walk winding paths alone.

Not everything we wanted to accomplish in 2020 has come to fruition (yet). But today, here’s what we’re celebrating.

1. Two days ago, the Board voted unanimously to partner with and support Kai and Connie Lightner’s organization, Climbing 4 Change. Kai and Connie are long-time NRG climbers, so we’ve got a foundational relationship already in place—and we’re excited to take that to another level. Aside from some sleeve up-rolling and ongoing work, that support includes a donation of $2800 ostensibly for guiding scholarships or similar programs. But we want to stress that the exact use of those funds will be largely up to C4C, with us backing their play. We hope with this partnership, we can take concrete action in support of diversity in NRG climbing.

2. The Rocktober Fundraiser was a rip-roaring success—and in a year in which virtually all of our normal funding avenues shut down, it was sorely needed! In the end, we expanded our number of recurring donors from five to 105 and secured a $5000 one-time match. We gave away a ton of hats, and in the process, built a fundraising foundation that will keep us replacing bad bolts, building trails, securing access and advocating for climbers--all of you—way into the future.

3. Back in September, the Board approved a process by which potentially offensive route names could be addressed. It is true that some of those route names were borderline. It is also true that some of them had unambiguously racist, misogynist or homophobic tones. In all, there were 92 routes flagged. The committee decided against any action on 22. An additional 15 are in Volume 1, and not under any especially pressing time constraints. The process for the remaining 55 is heavily weighted toward working with first ascencionists, who have in the vast majority of cases responded with maturity and with grace. We’re happy to report that of those 55 names, 51 have changed. There are four more yet to address.

​4. In the midst of the Rocktober Fundraiser, we undertook perhaps the most ambitious service project in our history to install a steel staircase and rescue a failing shoreline at Summersville Lake. You can watch a short video about it here. Thanks to the tireless work of volunteers who came out to help, we also put a cherry on top of a long and fruitful relationship between climbers and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at Summersville Lake. It is our hope that together, we’ll be able to increase opportunities for legal climbing at the premier DWS location in America.

5. Expect to see a lot more activity in terms of anchors, bolts and ways in which you can help us literally save climbers' lives. The Anchor Committee replaced hundreds of them in 2020, it's just getting warmed up!

Interestingly, none of the above represent the end of any particular path. All of them lead to more twists and turns. We are honored to be able to continue to move forward with you.

​We are all stewards of land once explored and occupied by Moneton and Tutelo tribes, as well as many others now long lost to history. Respect for them must be present in everything we do. 

October was a very busy month.

First, our Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee has been scrambling to get as much done as possible before Volume 2 of New River Rock goes fully to press. This includes helping Wolverine Publishing address route names and compile as much diverse photo representation as possible. We've also submitted ad art for an ancestral lands message and are wrapping up a diversity and inclusion statement to include in the book's introductory sections.

Our Rocktober Fundraiser was also a huge success thanks to all of you! We raised more that $1650 per month in recurring donations, plus another $4000+ in one-time donations. And in the process, we qualified for a one-time $5000 match from a local family of climbers. In short, Rocktober 2020 was the most successful fundraiser we've had since the days of the New River Rendezvous. Remember those? 

Of course, it helped that we undertook a couple of giant service projects with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at Summersville Lake, both of which gave us no shortage of things to talk about. During the course of the work, a number of questions have popped up on Facebook and Instagram regarding the relationship between climbers and the Corps. Indeed, some people seemed surprised there was a relationship at all, let alone a good one. We hope the above video will help explain things a little. It is our hope that this video will advance a discussion of climbing issues on Corps land at the regional and national level, as well, so that one day...maybe...we can regain legal DWS privileges. Big shout-outs to everybody who lent a hand out there!

We are all stewards of land once explored and occupied by Moneton and Tutelo tribes, as well as many others now long lost to history. Respect for them must be present in everything we do. 

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Bad News: With regard to Rocktober-Fundraiser hats...we’ve run out of blue pom-pom beanies. We’ll be contacting sustaining donors who asked for blue beanies with options.

Good News: The reason we’ve run out of blue beanies is that we (meaning all of us, you included) have straight crushed our fundraising goal for the month of October. Seriously, five days in and our goal for the month is toast. We were hoping to increase our total monthly recurring donations to $500, and we currently stand at $649.

More Bad News: SO, we’re raising the goal.

More Good News: AND, the local family who offered a $2000 match if we could make it to $500/month in sustaining donations? They’ve upper their match to $5000 if we can hit $1500/month! Can you help?

Still More Good News: The Summersville stairs are complete. We know some of you are very fond of the ladder. And why not? It’s quirky and epitomizes an era. But, when we came to the Army Corps with the money you raised in Dylan Hague’s memory specifically for Summersville projects, one of the things they expressed interest in was a way to improve access for potential rescues. These stairs do that.

Work will also begin very soon on the Orange Oswald Seawall—we’ll keep you posted.

We are all stewards of land once explored and occupied by Moneton and Tutelo tribes, as well as many others now long lost to history. Respect for them must be present in everything we do.