Last week the Access Fund announced a partnership with the Carolina Climbers Coalition to purchase the Rumbling Bald West Side Boulders in North Carolina. The Access Fund is providing a loan of $72,000 to finance 90% of the price of the 6.12-acre bouldering area, keeping the boulders from being closed to climbers and developed.

This is just another great example of the wonderful work that the Access Fund does to keep climbing areas open so that the 1.6-million climbers in the United States can continue having fun on the rocks. What's amazing is that the Access Fund does all this great work for us climbers, yet less than 1% of American climbers are members. That means 99% of the nation's climbers are taking a free ride.

This year the Access Fund is offering the best stocking stuffer for every climber on your list. For various donations, your climber gets a one-year Access Fund membership along with lots of booty from corporate sponsors including prAna, Clif Bar, Globe Pequot Press, Omega Pacific, and Rock & Ice. Every gift purchase keeps our precious climbing areas open with 83 cents for every dollar donated to the Access Fund going to fulfill their mission. That's a pretty good deal.

If you're part of that 99% of climbers taking a free ride, pony up a few bucks for Christmas. Who knows, the next climbing area the Access Fund helps save may be in your backyard.

Visit the Access Fund Store

The temperature dipped to -4 degrees Fahrenheit last night and an inch of snow covered the ground this morning. That was in Colorado Springs, but in the mountains above town, including 14,115-foot Pikes Peak, our local skyscraper, a lot more snow fell yesterday.

If you're going to hike or climb in the mountains in winter, it's a good idea to carry a set of traction aids or spikes to attach to the bottoms of your boots on icy trails. The ice cleats are especially useful in places with regular freeze-thaw cycles, with snow turning to ice after melting. They'll keep you from slip sliding away or falling on your rump and they're ideal for trekking to an ice climb, hiking up snow-covered trails, and when wearing crampons would be overkill. The cleats are also great for city sidewalks in places like Minneapolis, Bismark, and Edmonton.

These traction devices, made by a variety of outdoor companies including Yaktrax, Kathoola, and Icetrekkers, make an ideal Christmas gift. If you don't have a pair or are looking for a gift for the climber in your life, then put it on the Santa list--after all, Mr. Claus wears them on those slick rooftops!

Buy traction spikes for boots and sneakers:

Kahtoola Lots of ice cleats for every boot. I recommend the Microspikes as the best ice traction system.

Yaktrax Choose from a wide variety of traction cleats with good prices.

STABIlicers Ice cleats for shoes and boots to keep you stable.

Photograph above: Susan Paul uses ice cleats to climb Colorado mountains in winter. Photograph courtesy Doug Hatfield.

Lia Grippo, who runs a small home-based day-care program in Santa Barbara, California, took some of her charges climbing a few months ago on June 15 up what has been variously called a "bluff," "hill," and "beach cliff" above Arroyo Burro Beach in Santa Barbara. The Los Angeles Times ran an article about the climb on November 29. Accompanying the article was a photo of 36-year-old Ms. Grippo on what appears to be a rocky slab, which has been described as 85 to 125 feet high.

Cheryl, in a comment posted on Free Range Kids, describes the cliff: "The cliffs there are indeed extremely dangerous, and no one, adult or child, has any business climbing them. They are straight up and down and very unstable. They are not rock, but soft dirt that gives way easily. It is also not soft sand directly below, but hard sand with many jagged outcroppings of sedimentary rock and scattered large driftwood. Arroyo Burro is not the gentle sandy area one normally associates with SoCal-not a sandy 'play area' but a rugged, scenic coastal area with rocky tidepools."

On the first day of Grippo's summer Wild Roots Nature Education Program, she and her assistant had ten kids on the beach. After a morning crab search, the group had a snack and then her seven-year-old son and his six-year-old buddy, who Grippo calls "two remarkably skilled climbers" on her website (hmmmm, if two little kids are that good, then what is Chris Sharma?), started climbing the "hill." Three other younger children followed including her four-year-old son. She called the young ones down but her younger son froze. The children were all barefoot and one was naked.

On Free Range Kids "Outrage of the Week" section, Grippo wrote, "I stopped them by saying, 'That's high enough,' when I saw they had reached the point where they would not be able to come down by themselves if they were to continue. The three younger ones (ages 4, 5, & 5) stopped and began to climb down. By this time, a group of people had gathered to watch. My 4-year-old son slid a little down the hill on his bottom. I was right below him to catch him should he continue to slide." A lifeguard helped the boy back to the ground. The other two boys climbed to the cliff-top, where the lifeguard guided them down a side trail to the base.

One of the bystanders alerted the police, who in turn brought the Department of Social Services in to investigate the incident. The DSS suspended her child-care license on July 7 for conduct "inimical to the health, welfare, morals or safety" of the children. Lia Grippo and her supporters, however, believe that this is just another example of the Nanny State taking away our freedoms. Grippo told the Santa Barbara Independent, "I think that there is a growing trend toward risk aversion in our society that has really gone over the edge. We live in a time that both our children and ourselves must be as safe as possible, rather than as safe as necessary."

Climbing is dangerous. Anyone who has climbed for very long knows the risks of climbing, especially without a rope and equipment. While Ms. Grippo's program sounds wonderful and a great learning and growing experience for children, climbing and scrambling up cliffs and steep "hills" is dangerous and lethal. The consequences of falling is usually severe injury or death.

Every experienced climber knows that the "death zone" begins 30 feet off the ground--if you fall, you're going to probably die. If you're an adult, you can rightly assume those risks and climb without safety equipment. If you're a child, especially in the care of a licensed child-care professional, you just can't climb wherever you want. My sons Ian and Brett, who are adults now, began climbing at age 3 but they always wore helmets and used climbing equipment as children. Their safety was my burden and responsibility.

Perhaps Ms. Grippo will show some remorse and shoulder the blame for the loss of her license by admitting her lack of responsibility for the safety of her charges. Maybe a few climbing lessons will help her better understand the consequences of falling and grasp the meaning of the old climbing adage--It's not the fall that hurts, it's the landing!

Read more:

Lia Grippo's website Seedlings

Lia Grippo's explanation at Free Range Kids

Photograph above: The kids climbed soft rock cliffs like these at Arroyo Burro Beach. Photograph courtesy Santa Barbara County Parks.

A caver died early Thanksgiving morning after being stuck upside down for 28 hours in a tight passageway in Nutty Putty Cave in Utah. John Jones, a 26-year-old medical student at the University of Virginia and a Utah native, was exploring the 1,355-foot-long and 145-foot-deep cave, which consists of many narrow tunnels, passages, and small rooms, along with 11 other family members and friends when he tried to squirm through an L-shaped corridor called Bob's Push about 700 feet underground. He became stuck head first in the 18-inch-wide by 10-inch-high crevice and was unable to move since his body blocked the entire passage.

Nutty Putty Cave, a limestone cave on the west side of Utah Lake about 70 miles southwest of Salt Lake City, is a popular beginner's cave. Climb-Utah.com says, "The cave is a lot of fun and will be enjoyed by anyone seeking a little adventure." Access to the cave is limited by a reservations system operated by the Timpanagos Grotto, a chapter of the National Speleological Society, allowing only experienced cavers inside the cave. The entrance is barred by a locked gate.

View a map of Nutty Putty Cave. The accident happened at Bob's Push in the The Birth Canal area. Also note the warning: "Do not squeeze into anything that you might not be able to squeeze out of."

Michael Leavitt, the cave access manager, says the group was experienced and was granted one of six daily permits. "They've never been to Nutty Putty before, but they toured many harder caves in the Logan area that required vertical climbing skills," Leavitt told media. "They were qualified, John was qualified. I'm sure he went into this passage hoping it was going to open up into one of the larger rooms."

After Mr. Jones was stuck, cave rescuers were called to free the 6-foot, 190-pound man. The rescue team, which numbered as many as 50 people, placed bolt anchors in the cave roof for a pulley system, attached ropes to him, and used power tools to widen the tunnel. They were able to raise him 12 feet and give him food and water before the rock that one of the pulley bolts was placed in broke, causing the anchor to fail, and dropped him tightly back into the hole. His physical condition then worsened as he had difficulty breathing and drifted in and out of consciousness. Rescuers sang songs to him to keep his spirits up.

John Jones' brother Spencer Jones of San Francisco told the Associated Press, "We all were very optimistic and hopeful. But it became increasingly clear last night after he got re-stuck that there weren't very many options left. We thought he was in the clear and then when we got the news that he had slipped again. That's when we started to get scared."

Early Thursday morning, John Jones died in Nutty Putty Cave. His funeral is planned for Saturday in Stansbury Park, Utah. He leaves behind a pregnant wife and eight-month-old daughter. Our condolences to his friends and family on this tragedy.

This is not the first time that someone has become stuck and had to be rescued in Nutty Putty Cave. In July 1999, two teenagers were rescued after being stuck in a narrow passage called The Birth Canal 120 feet below the surface for 10 hours. Another two cavers were pulled from the Bob's Push area during Thanksgiving week in 2004. John Jones is the cave's first fatality.

The Deseret News reports that the cave will be closed permanently to avoid future accidents and rescues and because Nutty Putty Cave is now the tomb of John Jones. Spencer Cannon, spokesman for the Utah County Sheriff, says that after consultation with cavers and the search and rescue group, "There will be no future efforts to remove the body because of where it's located and the danger of accessing the area. The risk is too high." The family plans to create a memorial to John at the cave entrance and to set up a fund to promote safe caving.

Photographs above: Top: A search and rescue caver squirms through a narrow passage in Nutty Putty Cave near the location of John Jones accident. Bottom: One of the bolts that anchored the pulley system to pull John Jones out of his wedged position. Photographs courtesy Utah County Sheriff Department.