Each year, Access Fund’s Climbing Advocate Awards recognize the stewards, conservationists, community organizers, and advocates who bind the climbing community together. These awards are our chance—as a climbing advocacy movement—to honor some of the individuals and organizations who stand out for their exceptional commitment to building communities, stewarding climbing areas, and fighting for sustainable and equal access for all. Read on and meet the outstanding recipients of our 2024 Climbing Advocate Awards.
Jereme Ransick - Conservation & Community Collaboration Award
Jereme has volunteered for the Red River Gorge Climbers Coalition for over a decade. He built relationships with private individuals, businesses, and organizations to ensure attainable access to climbing throughout the Red River Gorge geographic area while maintaining the current levels of access. Jereme’s hard work and relationship-building led to the opening of the new Cliffview Recreational Preserve. Jereme not only negotiated a climbing easement to create access but facilitated the development of over 100 routes. Jereme was the driving force behind the historic Ashland acquisition that protected over 700 acres of land, creating the Cave Fork Recreational Preserve, as well as expanding the PMRP and MFRP. The acquisition included a drastic amount of work negotiating with not only the seller and multiple buyers but also private funders and federal grant sources, in addition to reviewing extremely complex title work and environmental assessments.
Molly Mundy - Community Collaboration & Leadership Award
Molly has served the New Hampshire climbing community through her role on the board of Friends of the Ledges (FOTL) for the last few years. Her advocacy spans from leadership of cliff cleanup days—often the first to swing the pickaxe and last to put it down—to representing FOTL at fundraisers, festivals, and on the sharp end, to leading several committees responsible for fostering community stewardship and inclusivity. Most recently, and ongoing, Molly has tirelessly worked with local climbing guides, businesses, and commerce chambers to maintain access to a hugely historic and popular ice climbing location, Frankenstein Cliffs. As a part of this access project, Molly has been working with other community members to organize and distribute a survey for an economic impact study conducted by researchers at Vermont State University on ice climbing in the Mount Washington Valley. Additionally, Molly has bravely, and with kindness and grace, educated our growing community on the nuances of climbing in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, where often the work of an advocate is in balancing the history, ethics, and changing nature of rock climbing.
John Miller - Conservation & Land Manager Collaboration Award
During John’s presidency of the Upper Peninsula Climbers’ Coalition, Slugg’s Bluff was acquired by the LCO and is Michigan’s only climber-owned crag. John also works to expand UPCC’s impact by finding funding through successfully applying for numerous grants, part of which was used to cover the Access Fund Conservation Team at Silver Mountain. John is growing fund equity from $300 to $40,000 and increasing UPCC membership from 0 to over 130 supporters. John’s work extends to community outreach as the co-organizer of Slug Fest and Michigan’s Ice Fest, and he travels across the region to promote UPCC and Access Fund at climbing gyms. He has undertaken rebolting efforts and installed lower-off hardware at most Upper Peninsula crags. John's efforts also led the UPCC into a cost-share agreement that formally acknowledged climbing as an appropriate use at Silver Mountain and helped the UPCC obtain formal permission to climb at numerous other crags, which was a departure from the previous "don't ask, don't tell" approach.
Anneliese Steel - Policy & Leadership Award
Anneliese founded the Fix CRUS Coalition to lead efforts in improving Colorado’s recreational use statute. She worked to find funding for the project, source community partners, and ultimately led the Fix CRUS team to a successful outcome. Anneliese’s efforts resulted in legislative changes that provided stronger protections for private landowners who allow recreation on their property, ensuring sustainable access to climbing areas across the state. Additionally, she supported Outdoor Alliance in advocating for the EXPLORE Act, helping to rally support from associated nonprofits for this critical piece of legislation. Anneliese’s experience in rallying community support for policies that create sustainable access has had an impact across Colorado and the country.
Kate Hanes - Stewardship & Leadership Award
For years, Kate has been a dedicated leader in climbing stewardship, serving as a role model in caring for climbing areas. In 2019, she worked with the Access Fund Conservation Team, hosting Adopt a Crag events nationwide and supporting LCOs in their stewardship efforts. Kate started at SCC in 2021 to lead the organization's stewardship efforts. In that time, she has personally led more than 150 trail days and helped to coordinate dozens more. Kate spearheaded trail and infrastructure development at two SCC-purchased crags—Woodcock Cove and the Citadel Boulders. Kate has fearlessly led the Trail Daze of Summer stewardship series for SCC and personally helped take care of just about every crag in the region. She also started an annual Stewardship Workshop series, the Trail Skillz Workshop, to create more leaders in the community to help with Trail Daze of Summer and beyond. Kate has served as SCC's Interim Executive Director for the past six months, helping the organization through a time of transition while continuing to rack up access and stewardship wins.
Bill Ohran - Mentorship & Bolt Replacement Award
Bill has been a part of the Southern Utah Climbers Alliance since its inception, attending BLM meetings in Utah and Nevada for decades, inspired by a deep love and commitment to maintaining routes in southern Utah and surrounding areas. If you have ever climbed one of Bill‘s routes, you know how much detail, heart, and pure inspiration he puts into each one. Bill grew up in Provo, Utah, where he was introduced to climbing in a recreation class in high school. Bill is a true visionary and was one of the first to see the potential of climbing on seemingly impossible conglomerate cobbles in Maple Canyon (hence the Pipe Dream Cave). Bill was one of the first to sink bolts into Maple Canyon, Virgin River Gorge, American Fork, Zion, and the San Rafael Swell. Bill continues to use his skills to maintain his favorite climbing areas and to teach people how to climb. He understands inclusion in its totality and works to create climbing opportunities for a variety of climbers.
Dave Van Brocklin - Stewardship & Community Organizer Award
Dave’s stoke for his job and his passion for stewardship and the natural world is tangible, and he is an absolute role model for any trail steward. He has led countless volunteer groups with unlimited psych and has undoubtedly inspired many. After Hurricane Helene devastated the Western Carolina area, without a second to spare, Dave was out with crews cleaning up. With his car stocked with chainsaws, he volunteered days of his time to help the local communities and people. Dave is an absolutely amazing human being with a heart of gold, and he works tirelessly to support the Carolina Climbers Coalition.
Evan Wisheropp - Leadership & Bolt Replacement Award
Evan founded the Northwest California Climbers Coalition to help steward and protect climbing in the region. Evan also bolted many crags, added many routes, and wrote the guidebook for the area. In addition, Evan has spent time replacing old bolts and anchors that were rusting due to salt water, which resurrected whole crags (e.g., Promontory). Evan even removed bolts from a sacred site (Natural Bridge) with support from the local Yurok and Karuk tribes. He is a thoughtful advocate promoting access across Northern California.
Farjad Shafighi - Equal Access & Community Organizer Award
Farjad created a minority-led rock climbing community, Sends With Friends, in the Maryland-DC-Virginia area that brings together climbers from diverse cultural backgrounds and nationalities to foster a supportive space where everyone finds a sense of belonging. Sends With Friends is committed to making rock climbing accessible by reducing historical barriers to entry for migrants, refugees, expats, and locals. Farjad organizes multiple outdoor climbing trips each year to help community members progress together in their climbing journey while growing as mindful stewards of the landscapes and climbing crags they cherish. He has navigated many challenges with empathy, grace, and kindness. He is truly an asset to so many people in and out of the climbing community he has created.
Erik Murdock - Menocal Lifetime Achievement Award
Erik was awarded for his years of leadership and engagement on federal climbing management policies, and envisioning and championing the Protecting America's Rock Climbing Act, which passed through Congress as part of the EXPLORE Act. This new law mandates fair and consistent guidance for climbing on federal Wilderness lands while protecting existing routes and future exploration, conserving Wilderness, and ensuring the climbing community has a say in future climbing management policies. Erik has been leading national-level climbing management discussions for more than two decades and guided the Access Fund policy team and advocates across the country in taking action to push this across the finish line. Erik's dedication will impact access to wilderness climbing for generations to come.
Jason Keith - Menocal Lifetime Achievement Award
Jason was awarded the Menocal Lifetime Achievement Award for advising the Access Fund policy team on climbing management, the development of the Protecting America's Rock Climbing Act (PARC), and strategies for ensuring its passage as part of the EXPLORE Act. Jason worked for and has more recently consulted Access Fund for nearly two and a half decades on a wide range of policy issues. His deep understanding, expert advice and long term commitment to the climbing community through the Access Fund and AMGA has led to numerous wins, with EXPLORE being one of the most significant policy victories for climbers, ever. His range of knowledge—from forest planning to public lands policy to climbing management and the inner workings of Capitol Hill—is irreplaceable.
Central New Hampshire Climbers’ Association - Land Conservation Award
In 2024, the Central New Hampshire Climbers’ Association (CNHCA) partnered with Access Fund to purchase a key parcel of land in Thornton, New Hampshire, to provide access to the popular Merriam Woods crag. Merriam Woods (sometimes known as Russell Crags) is one of the most recently developed crags in New Hampshire. Climbing Magazine even compared it to the iconic Rumney in terms of its potential for high-quality climbing and its natural setting. The acquisition encompassed five acres of land that abuts the White Mountain National Forest and Merriam Woods—conservation land owned and managed by the town of Woodstock, New Hampshire. Access to the crags around Woodstock has been a historical challenge. In the spring of 2023, discussions were underway between local climbers and the Woodstock Conservation Commission regarding the imperiled climbing access to Merriam Woods. One of the key concerns raised by local residents was the need for sufficient parking along the road to the crag. CNHCA approached a nearby landowner who agreed to sell the property to them for a parking lot, leading to a huge access win for Northeast climbers.
Hogan Lovells - Corporate Responsibility Award
Hogan Lovells, an international law firm, has represented Access Fund since 2017 when the first Trump administration reduced the size of Bears Ears National Monument by about 85% thereby threatening a world-class climbing landscape and the Antiquities Act, a bedrock conservation law. Since then, Hogan Lovells has generously represented Access Fund in the extended, ongoing fight to protect Indian Creek climbing and Bears Ears National Monument. In 2024, Hogan Lovells stepped up for the climbing community again to work on Access Fund’s comments regarding the US Forest Service and National Park Service 2023 proposal to prohibit fixed anchors. The stellar comments were influential to the National Park Service decision to rescind their proposal in December, 2024. Hogan Lovells’ efforts on behalf of Access Fund are significant to the protection of sustainable climbing access, the conservation of climbing landscapes, and the preservation of America’s rich climbing legacy.