An accident shut down my home crag. Access Fund and the Texas Climbers Coalition came together to open it back up.
Brian Tickle here—Access Fund’s national acquisitions director. In my role, I’m always on the lookout for threatened climbing areas to purchase and protect. Since 1990, we’ve helped save nearly 100 areas through loans, grants, and by sharing our unique land acquisition expertise. This work is personal because I know how quickly a community can lose access to a beloved crag.
In 2015, a climbing accident prompted the owners of Medicine Wall to take drastic measures and close the crag to the public. They stripped all of the hardware from the wall and local climbers lost a beloved climbing resource.
In response to this closure, Access Fund and the Texas Climbers Coalition (TCC) shifted our efforts to protect Med Wall into high gear. The development company that owned the property recognized its recreational and conservation value, and we were able to work with them to protect it. Today, Med Wall is officially owned by TCC with a conservation easement held by Access Fund—protecting this important urban crag in perpetuity.
When a privately owned climbing area goes up for sale, developers flush with cash are ready—but so are we. With your support, we can scale up our work to:
Engage more than 120 local climbing organizations around the country as the first and best line of defense against issues that threaten sustainable climbing access.
Provide the grants, loans, and technical support that local climbing organizations need to purchase, protect, and conserve privately owned climbing landscapes.
Buy the next threatened climbing area and save it from development—maybe even one in your backyard.
Joint membership LCOs like TCC are able to take quick action on projects like this because of support from climbers like you. When you join Access Fund and your LCO as a joint member, part of your membership directly supports local bolt replacement, trail work, parking lots, and much more right in your backyard.
Today, Medicine Wall receives nearly 12,000 annual visits from climbers and non-climbers, alike. We aren’t naive enough to think it’s a destination on par with Yosemite, Indian Creek, or the Red River Gorge, but it’s San Antonio’s backyard crag and it brings our community together. And we couldn’t have done it without your support.
Make a gift today so that we’re ready to save other threatened crags, and Black Diamond will instantly match your donation. It’s the easiest way to double your contribution to protecting and conserving climbing landscapes.
See you out there,
Brian Tickle
National Acquisitions Director, San Antonio, Texas