Fest Volunteers Develop New Bouldering Area, Clean Emery County

Every year, we wrap up the Joe’s Valley Fest with a service day, led by the Joe’s Valley Coalition. As the Fest grew and more attendees were willing to donate their time, we decided to split our service day into an at-the-boulders project, as well as an in-town project, in the hopes of giving back to our favorite climbing areas, plus the local towns that host traveling climbers.

This year, close to 40 volunteers met at Food Ranch for coffee, donuts, and service day planning. 24 of those volunteers rode out to Roan's Canyon with our Joe's Valley Coalition. Roan’s Canyon is a new bouldering area that Steven Jeffery has been developing up Right Fork. It has nearly 50 new problems, most of which are under V7. The one thing missing was dedicated trails to the boulders, which could sustain future generations of climbers. Luckily, the crew dedicated four hours to shoveling dirt, lifting rock, and building a network of trails around Roan’s Canyon.

On top of that, about a dozen volunteers spent their time in Emery County, filling trash bags with litter on the side of the road. There was about 1 entirely full garbage big full of litter per volunteer, leaving the roads cleaner than our Fest attendees found them.

Want to get involved in future projects? Consider supporting our Joe’s Valley Coalition!