First annual bouldering festival at Joe’s

By PATSY STODDARD Editor

A new event was introduced in Emery County over Thanksgiving weekend. The Joes Valley bouldering Festival was held at the Castle Dale Recreation Center and on the boulders near the Wilberg Mine site.
Adriana Chimaras was the festival coordinator and she is a boulder climber from Salt Lake City. She is also a coordinator for the Salt Lake Climbers Alliance. More than 100 people both locals and climbers participated in this weekend of bouldering and activities. The events were arranged for climbers and Emery County residents to become better acquainted with another recreational activity that is available here.
They invited anyone interested to come out and learn how to climb the boulders in Cottonwood Canyon and other sites around Joes Valley.
Jared Anderson a local climber from Orangeville took his family along with several other climbers Saturday morning to the Wilberg Mine climbing area for some fun. Jared has been an avid boulder climber for more than 20 years.
Chimaras said the Cowboy Games on Friday at the Blue Sage indoor arena were a hoot. Several local cowboys brought their horses and pulled the climbers in the hide race. You could hear the climbers yelling, faster-faster and their grip on the rope was expert due to their ability to hold onto boulders.
A movie Western Gold about climbing in the west was shown in the Orangeville Old Fire House.
Demonstrations of climbing safety and equipment were held at the Castle Dale Recreation Center. Contests of climbing strength, agility and endurance were participated in by several of the climbers.
There were several dinners during the festival and a session at the Museum of the San Rafael where they boulderers learned about the history of Emery County.
Emery County Economic Development Director Jordan Leonard said we are focusing on boulder climbers on this side of the county to let them know that they are part of the team.
Leonard said the bouldering festival was put together in about three months and next year’s event will have more planning, but he was well pleased with the inaugural event. “There were 40-50 climbers that participated and there were approximately 100 people at the Cowboy games event. There were concerts with local bands. The museum event which taught the history of this area was attended by 50-60 people. About half the boulderers that came to the festival hadn’t visited the county before. We tried to educate them to the fact that we have coal mines and power plants and great air here. Even with these industries we have a very nice environment for recreation. One item they said they needed was showers. A business opportunity exists for someone who wants to put in showers for the boulderers. They do use the Aquatic Center, but it has limited hours.
“One event they had at the recreation center was where they stacked milk crates and then climbed them to see how many they could climb. It was fun. They did many strength and agility games. This is a real economic development tool for our area. These are smart educated people who like to recreate. We can look to them for more than just recreational opportunities. They can bring economic development and ideas to our area. We hope to get them onboard to promote our area. We hope they can educate people how important our area and energy development really is. At the history presentation they were told our power plant powers 1.3 million homes.
“Social media is used to promote the bouldering festival and word of mouth travels fast among the boulderers. They want to come to our area and we need to make them welcome. People from around the country attended the bouldering festival. We had two people from Canada, people from Colorado and Florida. The climbers are a tight knit group,” said Leonard.
Leonard said Joe’s Valley is ranked in the top five in the world and in the top three in the United States. With this time of acclaim, it needs to be capitalized and built upon for the good of the county. Leonard would also like to take the boulderers on a tour of the county so they could see some other sites for bouldering, some on the desert.
Other events at the festival included yoga in the park and a discussion of living in a van and traveling the country bouldering which was held at Food Ranch.
Local restaurants were part of the event as Fatty’s donated pizza for breakfast Saturday and the Garden Café donated breakfast Friday.
At the recreation center, Meagan Wilberg had on display a stuffed bob cat from the San Rafael Museum and LaMar Guymon from the Travel Council had a display and a movie of things to see and do in Emery County. Cox Lodging representatives were handing out brochures to the boulderers. The Salt Lake Climbers Alliance had a booth to let the public know that the Alliance does more than just climbing. They are interested in helping clean-up areas and other volunteer events. They have been involved in several clean-up events in the Joe’s Valley area.
They are also active in the process which the Bureau of Land Management is engaging in to develop a campground with restrooms for the boulderers.