OUR PASSION
No one loves our climbing landscapes and the experiences they offer quite the same way that climbers do. But we must be willing and committed to fight for them. Not just for access, but for the integrity of these amazing places.
As our sport continues to grow in popularity, overcrowding is stressing these outdoor landscapes beyond their ability to recover naturally. This not only threatens access, but it degrades the climbing areas that we hold so dear.
Today, 1 in 5 climbing areas in the United States is threatened by an access issue—whether its private land lost to development, public land managers over-regulating climbing, or climber impacts degrading the environment, the list of threats is long and constantly evolving.
But they can be managed. At Access Fund, we are on a mission to protect climbing access and the integrity of America’s outdoor climbing areas.
Now, make a decision to help. Commit to protecting the places you love to climb.
Commit to The Pact from Access Fund on Vimeo.
OUR APPROACH
Threats to climbing access come in many forms—private climbing areas put up for sale, land managers over-regulating climbing, user impacts degrading the climbing environment, landowners fearful of liability, the list goes on. Our approach to protecting climbing areas is as multifaceted as the threats.
CLIMBING POLICY & ADVOCACY
The vast majority of our climbing areas are located on public lands. Every day, land managers use their legal authority to regulate climbing—often times without the experience or knowledge to make informed decisions. Imagine how chaotic that could be if there wasn’t an advocacy organization there to represent climbers’ interests. Thankfully, you don’t have to. Learn More
LAND ACQUISITION & PROTECTION
Sometimes the only way to save a threatened climbing area [...]
Our Mission
The National Park Foundation, in partnership with the National Park Service, enriches America’s national parks and programs through private support, safeguarding our heritage and inspiring generations of national park enthusiasts.
Our Story
Chartered by Congress in 1967, the National Park Foundation is founded on a legacy that began more than a century ago, when private citizens from all walks of life took action to establish and protect our national parks. Today, the National Park Foundation carries on that tradition as the only national charitable nonprofit whose sole mission is to directly support the National Park Service. Read our Congressional Charter »
Our Values
The National Park Foundation is founded on core values that reflect an unwavering commitment and connection to our national parks.
Philanthropy: We believe private resources are critical to embracing America’s national parks, monuments, historic places, and programs.
Stewardship: We believe the national parks are treasured resources and that all Americans have a responsibility to understand, protect, and care for them.
Outreach: We believe that by engaging people across all ages, races, and backgrounds that we will create the next generation of park supporters.
Partnership: We value quality relationships and partnerships that best multiply direct, positive impacts to the National Park Service.
Commitment to the National Park Service: We are dedicated to working jointly with the National Park Service, advancing mutually beneficial relationships built on trust, collaboration, and a shared vision for our national parks.
Vitality: We make innovative investments and support activities that build a financially and perennially strong Foundation (NPF).
Accountability: We place a premium on carefully measuring and clearly communicating how our resources are being invested to support the NPF mission.
Our Work
As the only national nonprofit partner to the National Park Service, the National Park [...]
About Yosemite Conservancy
Thanks to your support, we provide grants to Yosemite National Park based on the highest-priority needs of the park. Your dedication has funded the restoration of the trail to Lower Yosemite Fall, electronic bear-monitoring equipment to keep bears safe, life-changing youth programs and so much more.
What We Do
Your gifts to Yosemite Conservancy fund projects and programs that are essential to Yosemite’s future:
Trails, Wildlife and Habitat: We fund trail and habitat restoration projects, wildlife-protection programs, scientific research and more to preserve and protect Yosemite’s natural wonders and enrich the visitor experience
Youth in Yosemite Programs: Thanks to your support, these programs transform the lives of youth of all ages, while youth help transform the park
There are many ways to get involved:
Join us in providing for the future of Yosemite. Make a gift to Yosemite Conservancy today. Your gifts help fund important projects in the park, while also giving you access to discounts on programs, accommodations and invitations to special events.
Explore Yosemite with our Outdoor Adventures. Experienced naturalist guides lead a variety of tours, including day hikes, backpacking trips, photography workshops and bird-watching tours.
Capture the beauty of Yosemite in an art workshop, or enjoy a live theater performance to uncover Yosemite’s history and little-known stories.
Volunteer with Yosemite Conservancy to develop an even deeper connection to the park, while sharing your passion with others.
Shop in Conservancy bookstores or in our online store, and proceeds go back into essential park projects.
Yosemite Conservancy’s Mission
Providing for Yosemite’s future is our passion. We inspire people to support projects and programs that preserve and protect Yosemite National Park’s resources and enrich the visitor experience.
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Benjamin Rueck is a pro-climber based out of Grand Junction, Colorado. Growing up in the rural farming community in Western Colorado there was a strong connection for exploration and being outdoors. He began climbing at 17 after his brother introduced him to the world of climbing and has been exploring the possibilities and limits of rock ever since.
Steph’s resume of climbing achievements spans 25 years. She was the first woman to free climb the Salathe Wall on El Capitan, and the second woman to free climb El Cap in under 24 hours. She has established first ascents around the world, of difficult rock climbs and high altitude mountains from Yosemite to the Karakorum.
Few climbers practice the high risk style of free solo climbing, using no ropes or protective gear. Steph is the most accomplished female free soloist in the world and is also one of world’s top wingsuit base jumpers. She is one of just a few people in the world, and the only woman, combining free solo climbing with base jumping.
From an unusual start as a classically trained pianist with a Master’s degree in literature, Steph chose to leave law school in order to pursue climbing full time. She has become one of the most successful professional climbers in the world.
Steph has written two memoirs, High Infatuation and Learning to Fly, and curates a blog at stephdavis.co with a focus on community, health and wellness, simple living and travel. She owns and operates Climb2Fly Productions in Moab, Utah, a climbing and base jumping stunt company.
SEE MORE VIDEOS OF STEPH DAVIS
Timmy O’Neill traded a berth with his six Philadelphia siblings at the age of 19 for a bus ticket out west. Along the way, he discovered climbing, mountain biking, and adventuring worldwide and currently makes his home in Boulder, CO.
He is a founder of Paradox Sports, a national organization dedicated to improving people’s lives by creating physical adaptive sports communities built to inspire.
When not hosting global events and sharing his unquenched enthusiasm for life through music and comedy, he contributes ophthalmic surgical care to communities in need in Asia and Africa through Cure Blindness.
Jeremy Jones is widely regarded as one of the best big mountain snowboarders in the world. Ten times voted “Best Big Mountain Rider of the Year” by Snowboarder Magazine and starring in over fifty snowboard movies worldwide, including the award winning 2012's "Further" 2010’s “Deeper”. Jeremy was featured in both The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times in 2013 as well as being a National Geographic "Adventurer of the Year" nominee. ESPN ranked him #12 in their "50 Most Influential People in Action Sports".
Jeremy is the founder and CEO of Jones Snowboards and also founded Protect Our Winters – a non-profit formed to unite the winter sports community against climate change.
Jeremy has appeared frequently in worldwide media including CNN, Outside Magazine and TV, Men's Journal, ESPN, Fox News, NBC, MTV and National Geographic.
FOLLOW ME DOWN (feature documentary) from Ross Cairns on Vimeo.
AS AN ILLUSTRATOR, STORY TELLER, FILM DIRECTOR, AND EXPLORATORY ROCK CLIMBER, JEREMY COLLINS' REPERTOIRE IS VAST.
Artist: Jeremy’s illustrative art has been featured in more than 150 climbing magazines and in numerous how-to books. Outdoor and adventure brands have used his imagery for product lines and even in the design of a line of climbing shoes. He also creates beautiful watercolor maps that have graced the cover and pages of National Geographic Magazine. His map and clothing brand, Meridian Line™ is available online and in numerous retail locations including many US National Parks.
Activist: Jeremy has helped raise thousands of dollars for various causes and non-profits including pediatric brain cancer research, The Access Fund, American Alpine Club, Habitat for Humanity, Causecentric, and Water.org. He currently volunteers for the American Alpine Club, Cliff Drive Corridor Management Committee, and Rios Libres, He has also donated his time and talents in Venezuela, where he and his team delivered solar power to a small village. Jeremy later returned to that village to lead creative art projects with the children.
Filmmaker: Through his partnership with ThreeHouse Studios, his illustrative work is brought to life through animation and live action footage. Together, they create soulful short award-winning films exploring the intersection of adventure and life. His film/stage production “The Wolf & The Medallion” won the Banff Center’s Creative Excellence Award, and 5 Point Film Festivals Best of The Fest.
Climber: On the rock Jeremy has pioneered more than 300 new routes in the United States. He has climbed extensively internationally with notable first ascents in Argentina, Venezuela, Canada, and China. See his recent book and film “DRAWN- The Art of Ascent” in which he tells stories from the four directions [...]
Born and raised in the city of sin, Libby attempts to counter the notion that everything that happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. Once freed from the confines of university, Libby moved to the Bay Area to work as a pediatric cardiac nurse and the coincidental proximity to Yosemite led to a rekindling of a childhood obsession with rock climbing and a new love of slacklining / highlining.
Eventually she transferred her medical and rock climbing skills to a position on Yosemite’s Search and Rescue Team. While living and working there, Libby developed a need for speed and completed several El Cap in a Day ascents as well as the El Cap/Half Dome link up. She currently holds the women’s speed record for the Nose of El Capitan with Mayan Smith-Gobat.
In between her summers spent working on Yosemite’s Search and Rescue Team, Libby began to travel the world, both for sport and for nursing. She has put up new routes in Chile, Mexico and Thailand while also climbing in established local’s from Tasmania to Europe. Working and volunteering for the Novick Cardiac Alliance, Libby was able to mix her desire to explore and her passion for pediatric cardiac nursing in countries such as Urkaine, Ecuador, Libya, Iraq, Kyrgyzstan and the Dominican Republic.
Mayan’s passion for climbing and the mountains runs deep. Born at the foot of New Zealand’s highest mountain, Mayan’s early childhood was spent living in the outdoors. “At age 16, I was unable to ignore the lure of the mountain and began alpine climbing, which soon developed into a fascination with rock climbing and skiing,” says Mayan. After leaving school, she dedicated herself to skiing, until 2002, when an extreme skiing accident left Mayan with a broken jaw and two broken feet. This caused Mayan to turn her boundless energy toward climbing exclusively – She never looked back!
Since 2001 Mayan has dedicated herself to climbing, both in competition climbing and outdoors. She quickly became one of NZ's best climbers and began to expand her horizons, traveling to many international climbing destinations and becoming the first Kiwi woman to climb 5.14b/8c. Her focus soon shifted from bouldering and competition climbing to longer routes, traditional climbing and big walls.
Now Mayan is best known for achievements in Yosemite Valley, where she became the second woman to free climb the Salathe Wall 5.13b/8a+ (1000m) and brining the female speed record on the Nose (1000m) down to 4.43 hours. Mayan's main motivation combines travel and culture with her love to push her limits in the vertical world - exploring remote places and developing new routes on large aesthetic rock faces.
Heidi Wirtz, aka "Heidi Almighty", is one of the country’s few premier female adventure climbers. She has been climbing for over twenty years letting her passion for adventure and exploration lead her to places such as Nepal, Morocco, Jordan, Siberia, Tasmania, Czech Republic, Eastern Europe, Pakistan, South America, Canada (just to name a few) where she has pioneered new routes up unclimbed big walls and mountains and pushed the limits of female exploration. She is known in the United Sates as "Heidi Almighty" for her bold and technical climbing as well as for her speed ascents in Yosemite Valley.
Heidi is also well known for her philanthropic work as well as for her passion for yoga. She is co-founder of Girls Education International (GEI), an organization that helps bring education to women and girls in under served areas throughout the world. Heidi is also co-founder of Earth Play Retreat, an adventure/yoga retreat service that empowers people to find their true potential and build a deeper more meaningful relationship with nature and others.
To join Heidi on an adventure or to find out more about GEI visit: www.earthplayretreats.com & www.girlsed.org
Emily Harrington is a professional rock climber and adventurer who has been a prominent and leading figure in the climbing community since she was a teenager. Her early years were defined by her successes on the USA Climbing Team on the national and world competition circuit, including 5 US National Sport Climbing Championships and 2 North American Championships.
Emily’s true passion lies with outdoor climbing and exploring the mountains. Since shifting her focus from competition, Emily has completed numerous first female ascents of 5.14 sport routes, free climbed Yosemite’s iconic El Capitan, summited Everest, and has been on expeditions all over the world attempting big wall free climbs and high altitude peaks in Nepal, China, Myanmar, Crimea, and Morocco.
Emily currently resides in Squaw Valley, California where she focuses on training for climbing. She also strives to become a complete all-around mountain athlete through trail running and skiing.
Letting Go from Evolv Climbing on Vimeo.
Hans Florine knows speed. He is a speed climber, professional speaker, author and thought leader in speed and efficiency. Hans has repeatedly set and broken one of the most coveted speed records in the world: The Nose of El Capitan, a 2,900-foot monolith in Yosemite Valley. In 2012, Hans, alongside climbing partner Alex Honnold, took the record again in 2 hours and 23 minutes, lowering the previous record by a full 13 minutes. He also holds numerous speed records in Yosemite National Park and all over the globe.
Hans won the first International Speed Climbing Championships in 1991 and has held the U.S. National title eleven times. He won gold at the ESPN X-Games three years in a row.
As a speaker, Hans challenges audiences to rethink what “speed” really means. Through impassioned storytelling, he shares his experiences as a record-breaking speed climber. He applies his knowledge to real-world scenarios through motivational topics that touch on competing to win, increased focus for faster action and the use of accountability partners for goal achievement.
Hans presents keynotes and seminars at tradeshows, conferences, colleges and universities, non-profit organizations and company events worldwide. He has worked and presented with a variety of organizations, including: Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company, Life Technologies, The Association for Outdoor Recreation and Education (AORE), Wachovia Bank, Young Presidents’ Organization, Vail Resorts Real Estate Group, PMG Lending, Touchstone Climbing Incorporated and Outward Bound.
He is the author of “Speed is Power,” an audio program full of ideas, examples, and tools to utilize the fundamentals of speed in business and life. Hans is also the co-author of “Speed Climbing,” now in its second edition and producer of the award-winning documentary, “Wall Rats.”
He has been featured [...]
Cedar Wright is a Professional Climber and Filmmaker living in Boulder Colorado. As a member of The North Face Team, Cedar has traveled the world establishing adventurous and daring first ascents, often documenting these exploits through his writing and cinematography.
Cedar is a National Geographic Explorer, a Contributing Editor at Climbing Magazine, and has won numerous awards for his films, including the popular Sufferfest franchise, which he also stars in along with good his friend Alex Honnold. Cedar is a humble and approachable person known for his goofy sense of humor, and infectious lust for life, and is always game for an outrageous adventure.
While studying English and Creative Writing in Northern California, Cedar fell in love with rock climbing, and soon after graduation he moved into his truck (he now lives in a house) and began following his climbing dreams full time. For over 5 years Cedar was a member of the Yosemite Search and Rescue Team, and when he wasn't hanging out of a helicopter he was climbing his ass off. He got pretty good at it.
Today, Cedar is one of the most recognized professional climbers in the United States, and continues push himself as a climber and creative. Cedar has climbed El Capitan free in a day, established traditional 5.13 first ascents in Yosemite and Indian Creek, and pioneered difficult new Alpine Rock Routes in places like Pakistan, the Bugaboos, and Alaska. He continues to be a driven, passionate and prolific climber and story teller.
YOSEMITE IN A DAY from Cedar Wright on Vimeo.
Paragliding My Home Town, Tollhouse Rock 4-8-15 The Fledgling Leaves the Nest! from Cedar [...]
Alex Honnold is a professional adventure rock climber whose audacious free-solo ascents of America’s biggest cliffs have made him one of the most recognized and followed climbers in the world. A gifted but hard-working athlete, Honnold is distinguished for his uncanny ability to control his fear while scaling cliffs of dizzyingly heights without a rope to protect him if he falls. His humble, self-effacing attitude toward such extreme risk has earned him the nickname Alex “No Big Deal” Honnold.
This Sacramento, California-native’s most celebrated achievements include the first and only free-solos of the Moonlight Buttress (5.12d, 1,200 feet) in Zion National Park, Utah, and the Northwest Face (5.12a) of Half Dome (2,200 feet), Yosemite, California. In 2012 he achieved Yosemite’s first “Triple Solo”: climbing, in succession, the National Park’s three largest faces—Mt. Watkins, Half Dome and El Capitan—alone, and in under 24 hours. Whether climbing with a rope or without, Honnold believes climbing is a fantastic vehicle for adventure, an opportunity to seek out those high-test moments with uncertain outcomes in which you’re forced to push through to survive.
Though Honnold often downplays his achievements, his rope-less climbs have attracted the attention of broad and stunned audience. He has been profiled by 60 Minutes and the New York Times, featured on the cover of National Geographic, appeared in international television commercials and starred in numerous adventure films including the Emmy nominated “Alone on the Wall.” Honnold is sponsored by The North Face, Black Diamond, La Sportiva, and Goal Zero. He is the founder of the Honnold Foundation, an environmental non-profit. And to this day, he maintains his simple “dirtbag-climber” existence, living out of his van and traveling the world in search of [...]
Los Angeles native, DJ, writer, photographer, and decade long incline oriented skateboarder. Born in Downtown and raised amongst the rolling expanse of the Santa Monica mountains. Originally use to surf waves, but eventually grew limbs, began walking on dry land, now he surfs the mountain roads of the world. Founded and operates "The Gel Lab", which functions as a skate and music related creative outfit that produces original content and hosts events across the greater Los Angeles area.
"Skateboarding to me is a bit more akin to meditation than sport. It helps me maintain perspective on what truly matters in this world, allows me a brief reprieve from all the static of the constant struggle. When I step onto the board, I step into the present moment. In that time it is only me and the relationship with what's beneath my feet. What the skateboard has done is allow me a means by which to establish a better connection with my inner self, and through this process of learning, truly begin to push the boundaries of what I had originally never thought possible".
Adrian Ballinger is a world class mountaineer, business leader, and professional speaker. As founder and head guide of the internationally acclaimed Alpenglow Expeditions, Adrian envisioned a more holistic climbing experience for his clients than the status quo. This vision, with a focus on small groups and client education, continues to change the way big mountains are climbed. What started in 2004 with three trips on one continent with one lead guide has grown into a thriving company running 30 trips annually on 5 continents with six lead guides. In 10 years, Alpenglow has helped more than 100 clients successfully summit Everest, Lhotse (the 4th tallest mountain in world), Manaslu (8th tallest), and Cho Oyu (6th tallest).
How was Alpenglow able to expand to 10 times its size in 10 years all while setting new industry standards and expectations? Adrian believes running a business is a lot like climbing a mountain and attributes his extensive mountaineering experiences to his company’s success. In his forthcoming book, “Why Everest Matters – Lessons Learned from the Roof of the World,” Adrian explains essential business concepts such as leadership, teamwork, and risk management from a climber’s perspective. Adrian’s inspiring stories from the amazing places he’s traveled embolden audiences to integrate these important concepts into their own lives and businesses.
As a professional athlete first and foremost, Adrian is the only American who has skied two 8,000 meter peaks, was the first person to ski Manaslu, the 8th tallest mountain in the world, and in 2011 became the first person to summit three 8,000 meter peaks in only 3 weeks (Everest twice and Lhotse once). He is the only American guide to have both AMGA/IFMGA guide’s certifications [...]
