COOL STUFF: ASCA Lights Up Half Dome

I’ve always said that my good buddy Chris McNamara is one of the smartest and most impressive human beings that I know, both as an athlete but also as a business person and a community leader. In addition to being the mastermind behind Supertopo, a popular community website and guidebook-publishing business, he is also the founder of the American Safe Climbing Association, a nonprofit organization that helps keep America’s best climbing routes as safe as they were when they were first established. The ASCA has, to date, replaced over 14,000 old bolts, mostly in Yosemite but also at other areas around the country. The fact that we continue to get enjoy some of the oldest, most historic rock climbs in the U.S. and experience them at their original danger level is thanks to the thousands of hours of work by the dedicated ASCA climbers.

Recently, Megan Sullivan, Chris’s girlfriend, reached out to me to help on a brilliant project that she dreamed up to drum up awareness and support for the ASCA. Her idea was to hang lanterns on all the bolts that the ASCA has replaced on Half Dome, and create a time lapse of the installation.

I was immediately struck by what a cool idea it was to light up perhaps the most iconic symbol in North America, and illustrate just how important the ASCA is to keeping our favorite routes in good shape.

As much as I wanted to join and help with the time-lapse, unfortunately I was in Ireland, en route to Japan. I really wanted to be there for my friends, but there was no way I could rush home to help. So it goes. Hats off to Chris and Megan for pulling off this video with such skill and expediency!

Check out this cool video, share it with your friends, and most important, give back to the ASCA with a tax-deductible donation to help keep climbing areas in America safe for us all.