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Greg Barnes, Director
Director and driving force of the ASCA since 2000, Greg's
resume reads like a corporate dream: "Graduated Phi Beta
Kappa from Reed College... awarded a National Science Foundation
Graduate Research Fellowship in Biochemistry ...Masters in
Biological Sciences from Stanford University." There
might be a few other people with Greg Barnes' credentials,
but the rest don't leave their high-paying engineering/math-science
jobs long enough to get in much rock climbing. Greg lives
in his truck, on the rock, and spends about as much time climbing
as is humanly possible. While employed at his local climbing
gym during college, Greg attended a rebolting clinic held
by Chris McNamara. He never looked back. To date Greg has
personally replaced over 1200 bolts, mostly on free climbs,
in dozens of areas throughout California and Nevada. He has
also put up over 100 first ascents in Yosemite, Tuolumne and
many other areas. In addition to his work with the ASCA, Greg
works as a guidebook author for Supertopo, concentrating on
Tuolumne, Red Rocks, and Yosemite Valley free climbs.
email: greg@safeclimbing.org |
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Chris
McNamara, Founder and President
Chris was inspired to clean up Yosemite climbs after reading
reports from Swiss climber Aischan Rupp who replaced aging
anchor bolts as well as removed old webbing and unnecessary
bolts while repeating several El Cap testpieces in the mid
1990s. After dropping out of Princeton in 1997, Chris' parents
hoped he'd focus his voracious energy toward something that
might eventually pay his rent. Undeterred, Chris, Erik Sloan,
and a couple close friends started a volunteer movement to
rid Yosemite of dangerously old climbing bolts. The group
quickly squandered their meager savings on bolts, bolthole
filling epoxy and Little Debbie's snackcakes. And their efforts
were barely a blip in the ocean of rusty bolts in historic
Yosemite. So in 1998 Chris formed the ASCA to create a resource
that would gather donations for motivated rebolters. Newsletters
went out and donations trickled in.
When a trail-running injury sidelined him from the big stone,
Chris poured his passion for climbing into writing an updated
guidebook of the Yosemite big wall climbs he had been living
on. SuperTopo LLC was born. Chris soon joined the Access Fund
board, was interviewed on national radio programs, was featured
in magazines and newspapers, and won an award from the American
Alpine Club. He even moved out of his parent's house for a
couple years. His SuperTopo schedule (eight guides published;
eight more in the works) keeps Chris off multi-day climbs
these days, but he continues to replace old bolts at climbing
areas around California and help Greg coordinate ASCA activities.
In addition to the ASCA, Chris volunteers prolifically. Currently
he is a board member of both the Yosemite Institute and the
Galen Rowell Award Fund. Chris credits his parents with instilling
him with a strong sense of gratitude toward life. He currently
lives in Mill Valley, California..."always psyched!"
email: chris@supertopo.com |
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Jeremy,
Secretary
Jeremy Sugerman, along with Ruth Bender, is the fundraising
force at the ASCA. In an organization run by mostly non-business
minded climbers, Jeremy shows us how to get it done both in
and out of the office. He’s like a fire hose of energy
in a world of low-flow lawn sprinklers. Don’t be fooled
by his day job as a lawyer with a downtown SF office, Jeremy
takes more climbing trips to more exotic places than most
“accomplished” climbers. Over Thai food, Jeremy
once uttered perhaps the most classic litigious line: “More
cases equals more justice. I just hate the idea of people
walking around with unclaimed redress.”
email: sugerman@gkhs.com |
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Ruth
Bender
Climb 4 Yosemite organizer
Ruth, along with Jeremy Sugerman, is the driving
force behind Climb 4 Yosemite, an annual climb-a-thon fundraiser
that supports trail projects in Yosemite Valley and the ASCA. |
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Dave
Buchanan
Web site editor
Dave led the rebolting effort at Mickey's Beach and
is now helping keep this web site fresh. He has also helped
rebolt at Pinnacles. Dave is also known in select circles
under his alter-ego pseudonym Hardman Knott, where he spends
far too much time posting on internet climbing forums--in
beautiful weather--when he could (and should) be out climbing
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Mike
Ousley
Creative and rebolting
Mike's design company, Ousley
Creative, has generously developed the ASCA logo, newsletter,
and many other creative projects. Mike has also rebolted on
Yosemite Big Walls and Tahquitz.
email: admin@ousleycreative.com |
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David
Safanda
Web design and C4y t-shirts
David's design company, David
Safanda Design Solutions, developed this web site, the
Climb 4 Yosemite t-shirts, and countless other ASCA banner
ads, t-shirts and more. David has a Masters in Fine Arts and
is sought after by large companies for web design, logos,
and branding. He is also a significant contributor to SuperTopo.
email: david@safanda.com |
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ASCA History
In the summer of 1997 on an ascent of Zenyatta Mondatta on El
Capitan, Chris McNamara and Jason "Singer" Smith began
experimenting with bolt replacement. The anchors on this and most
big walls often had as many as eight bad bolts and no good ones.
That summer Chris and Singer, joined by Erik Sloan, set out to replace
some of the bad bolts and remove the excess ones in order to make
the anchors safer and reduce the total number of bolts.
Ten El Capitan routes and a couple hundred replaced bolts later,
Chris, a fresh college dropout, was broke from buying bolts. It
became clear that help from the climbing community was needed and
that's when things got a little more official. In 1998 Steve Sutton
gave permission to name the bolting effort the American Safe Climbing
Assn. (Steve had tried starting a rebolting organization under the
same name years earlier). With the help of Access Fund founder Armando
Menocal the ASCA became a non-profit 501c3 corporation. With a little
more vision, fundraising, and organization the ASCA began a mission
to replace as many bolts in the United States as possible and to
reduce the environmental and visual impacts of anchors.
In 1999, Chris held the first ASCA rebolting clinic, It drew a
meager turnout of exactly one climber. Fortunately, that one person
would become the most motivated rebolter the world has ever known:
Greg Barnes. Greg, seized by the rebolting bug, expanded the ASCA's
activities outside of Yosemite and hasn't stopped since. In 2000,
Greg became the Director of the ASCA and established a strong ASCA
presence in Tuolumne Meadows, Red Rocks, Joshua Tree, the Southern
Sierra, and other areas. To date Greg has replaced over 1,200 bolts
and has rallied support from many other locals. Meanwhile, Erik
Sloan and numerous locals have continued a massive rebolting effort
on Yosemite big walls. The ASCA has now replaced almost 5,000 bolts
in more than 25 climbing areas. Hundreds of people have contributed
time, money, and gear.
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