About Us

A Brief History of The Southern Sierra Climbers’ Association
by Patrick Paul

Almost ten years ago it seemed like The U.S. Forest Service, The National Parks Service, and The
Beaurea of Land Management were conspiring to eliminate or severely curtail rock climbing all over
the United States. Hueco Tanks, Texas, what was then Joshua Tree National Monument, California,
City of Rocks, Idaho, Devil’s Tower in Wyoming and many other climbing areas and wilderness
areas were in danger of being closed. These areas were “battle grounds” for the Access Fund, the
national group that spun off from the American Alpine Club to focus on preserving climbing access in
the U.S. Climbing regulation seemed inevitable and the future of unimpeded climbing seemed
unclear.
E.C. Joe had called and told me about a meeting that was being held at the local Forest Service
office in Porterville, California. “They” wanted to talk about climbing. The one thing that I took
home from that meeting was that the officials of the Forest Service were interested in three things:
bolts, liability, and environmental impact and they were ill informed or freaked out about all of them.
An idea began to creep out of the few brain cells that I still had left after living in altered states
throughout the sixties, seventies, and eighties. I was starting to visualize a world where climbers had
be licensed to use a drill and put bolts in rock, a world where climbers had to have proof of
experience and proof of insurance to go along with signing their waiver as they entered the forest to
go climbing. I began to visualize a unified regulatory system where all public recreational lands were
called National Parks and everyone who worked there carried a gun and went by the title of
“Ranger.” I thought it was time for local climbers to form a group, establish a relationship with local
land managers, and begin to have a say in what happened to climbers and climbing in the southern
Sierra.
I think I called Eddie Joe and Rene Ardesch. They called several other local climbers such as Bruce
“Slick” Watts, David Hickey and Art deGode. I called my buddies Mike Roberts, Ron Carson and
others. It seems like a lot of us had the same idea but I just happened to be the first one to get on
the phone. Several of us got together at Rene’s house and began to talk about forming a proactive
climber’s advocacy group that would work with the local land managers. The Southern Sierra
Climbers’ Association was born.
It’s like Dirty Harry’s “In all this confusion, I can’t remember if I fired six shots or seven, but you
gotta ask yourself punk; ‘Do you feel lucky?’” I can’t really remember the exact year of that first
meeting any more. I think it was 1995 when we got together for the first time and it turned out to be
a really good meeting. We discussed the formation of a grass roots organization that would function
like the Access Fund, but of course on a local level. I had already visualized a name: The Southern
Sierra Climbers’ Association, or the SSCA for short. Some of the members were a little wierded out
by the “SS” part of the initials and we debated about whether people would associate the letters with
the Nazi SS. I seemed to be able to convince people to stick with the name and we were off. But
that was a foreshadowing of how our organization would live and operate for the rest of its life.
We were a bunch of staunchly independent individuals. Everyone had good ideas, strong opinions,
and specific notions about what ought to be done and how to do it. We debated, hashed, struggled,
and negotiated everything and we got things done anyway. We created a mission statement, some
bylaws, a logo, and a few traditions like our annual slideshow at the Ponderosa Lodge near The
Needles, in what is now, thanks to President Bill Clinton, Sequoia National Monument. George Bush
senior had already saved the redwoods, but now Bill had to do it too. We also “elected” club
officials. I was elected the first president, Bruce Watts was the first Secretary, David Hickey’s wife,
Jane Ellis, was the first Treasurer, Michal Reed created the first newsletter, and it seemed like
everyone was a board member.
Our very first project was the creation of signs for Dome Rock informing people of the dangers of
throwing rocks and asking them not to do it. On two different occasions we did cleanups at Moro
Rock in the Sequoia National Park. We were assisted by numerous volunteers and removed literally
tons of junk from the base of the rock. We did a cleanup and rebolting at Tollhouse Rock above
Tollhouse east of Fresno. We discussed other projects and did pull some of them off.
I was president for three years and then Rene Ardesch was elected and served his three-year term.
During Rene’s tenure as president we installed a permanent toilet at The Needles. We had already
spent a couple of years putting toilets at both The Needles and Dome Rock, but people were getting
tired of that and the perma-potty was the last of our efforts at containing crap. Rene was the
catalyst for establishing our relationship with the American Safe Climbing Association and we did
several rebolting projects at various crags including, Dome Rock, The Needles, Tollhouse, Fresno
Dome and others. Our current president is Matt Schutz and his first project with the SSCA was a
very successful trail building effort at The Hermit Spire just north of The Needles.
Our yearly fundraising slideshow has been the centerpiece event for our little group and we have had
some great presenters. Our first was Greg Epperson, the man whose style has been the paradigm for
modern climbing photography. Next we had Richard Leversee, “Mr. Big,” a gregarious and prolific
climber reminiscent of Layton Kor. We also had Randy Leavitt, noted climber and now big wave
surfer, Corey Rich, and other slideshow presenters as well. But two of the most important
slideshow have been put on Eddie Joe, a local climbing legend and creator of the longest and most
challenging back country route in the contiguous United States on Tehipite Dome, in Kings Canyon
National Park, and Herb Laeger, also a legendary climbing figure in southern California, and a
nationally known caver and explorer. Every show has been unique, entertaining and wonderful, but
perhaps Herb’s show was the most unusual because he only showed one climbing picture and then
he took us into the underworld of caving.
In our brief history as a climber advocacy group we have evolved from a strictly service oriented
group to a group of friends and climbers who not only support the climbing environment of the
Southern Sierra, but also climber and boulder together, and get together to have fun and socialize.
Many of the members have decided that we should play and climb together as well as do a little
something to maintain the climbing environment. The new era of natural resource management will
bring new challenges, though I am confident that if we are proactively engaging the decision makers
we can keep the Southern Sierra tradition alive. Yes, we have occasional disagreements, and
differences of opinion. We have different interests and agendas that we think are important and we
continue to change and grow as group, but we are still here after almost ten years and still finding our
way.