The Access Fund-Jeep Conservation Team is rolling into town and they need your help!

TRAIL WORK - Fri 5/11 - Sat 5/12

• Mid Atlantic Climbers and the Access Fund-Jeep Conservation Team will be at Northwest Branch Stream Valley Park in Silver Spring, MD focusing on specific trail improvements. We are looking for a small group of dedicated volunteers to assist on Friday, May 11th and Saturday, May 12th. RSVP with This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it for one or both days.

OPEN HOUSE Sunday 5/13/12 2pm

• Hang out with other climbers and the Access Fund-Jeep Conservation Team members as they discuss their work at Northwest Branch and across the United States. Don't forget to bring your climbing shoes, NWB has great boulder problems from V0- up to Vhard!

Join us, along with other climbers around the country, for the second annual Baltimore/DC area Climbing for Cancer event TOMORROW Saturday, April 28th! Since we all know that climbers love to eat and if we're burning calories all morning (for a great cause of course!), what better way to reward our efforts than with a little something sweet? We'd like to invite our volunteers and participants to bring in their dessert of choice for a friendly bake-off competition! The winner will receive a cool prize (how about day passes, climbing swag & international fame?!)

Golden, CO-The American Alpine Club (AAC) is pleased to announce that it will begin construction on a new climbers' campground at the New River Gorge in 2012. The planned facility is a landmark, the first major addition to Club-operated lodging facilities in 40 years.

The campground will reside in Fayetteville, West Virginia, on a 40-acre parcel chosen by local climbers and the New River Alliance of Climbers. The land is adjacent to National Park land and within walking distance of rock climbing at the New River Gorge. In autumn 2010 the AAC purchased the property, which was successfully re-zoned for a campground earlier this month by local authorities.

Car campers and walk-in campers will be welcome at the new AAC campground. Structures will include a community gathering room, shower house, and a cabin to accommodate a permanent camp host. There will be no accommodation for RVs. The campground will be developed in phases and, depending on demand, at final build-out will have up to 60 campsites. If progress allows, the AAC hopes to have primitive camping available for climbers before the end of the year.  

The fellas out west in the glorious climbing mecca of Boulder, Colorado that bring us the weekly climbing-centric talk radio show, just posted a link to Chris Warner's guest appearance on Climbtalk . Plug your headphones in, turn up the volume and tune in to learn a little bit about the history of Earth Treks, the quirks of the sport and the awesome community that we have here in Maryland. 

Listen to Chris' segment on Climbtalk here: http://climbtalk.com/2012-04-21/climbtalk-4132012/ 

"After being closed for almost twenty years, Safe Harbor “South” was reopened to climbing in November 2011. With no facilities within walking distance, and limited space between the cliffline and railroad bed, a restroom facility is in dire need.

The Safe Harbor Climbers Coalition (SHCC) needs our help to raise money for a portable toilet, information kiosk, and signage at the trailhead. SHCC is working with Conestoga Township to install permanent parking and facilities as a second phase of this project. With climbing popularity on the rise at the newly reopened crag, improvements and education are critical to reduce user impacts and build positive community relations that may lead to opening Safe Harbor “North” in the future.

The Access Fund awarded SHCC a $1,500 grant through the Access Fund Climbing Preservation Grant Program to kickstart the fundraising efforts. We hope you can join us in supporting this important climbing area."

-The Access Fund