This page is organized in reverse chronological order to keep the most recent activity at the top.

Conrad Anker and Jimmy Chin

Conrad Anker and Jimmy Chin came to the Zack Scott Theater to talk about their high altitude adventures. This was a special event sponsored by Whole Earth Provision Co., The North Face and Backwoods.

Speed Climbing Comp - New Wall

The Central Texas Mountaineers held our second speed climbing competition at the Barton Creek Greenbelt. We had 16 climbers and another dozen or so spectators.

The winners received $50 gift cards from either REI or Whole Earth Provision. This was a fundraiser for the Austin Area Food Bank and we collected 51 cans of food and $15 for the food bank.

18th Annual Granite Gripper

The CTCC held another successful and fun Granite Gripper out at Enchanted Rock State Natural Area. It was another big turnout with over 100 climbers in attendance. Thanks to everyone who came out to enjoy the day and support the park.

National Trails Day

The Central Texas Mountaineers participated in the National Trails Day with more work on the stone stairs to the right of Guides Wall at Gus Fruh Park. For this project, 20 volunteers worked 60 volunteer-hours to build these much neeed steps and brush-off the old trail to reduce erosion on the hillside.

There was a post work day picnic at Zilker Park to thank the 350 volunteers that showed up to help develop trails all along the greenbelt.

Workin' on the stone stairs.

Speed Climbing Comp - Seismic Wall

The Central Texas Mountaineers held our first speed climbing competition at the Barton Creek Greenbelt. We had 19 climbers and another 20-30 spectators.

The winners received $50 gift cards from REI. This was a fundraiser for the Austin Area Food Bank and we collected about 75 cans of food and $121 for the food bank.

Clean Sweep Day

The Central Texas Mountaineers participated in the Keep Austin Beautiful Clean Sweep Day with a clean-up project at the St. David's Georgetown Hospital climbing wall. We had a great turn-out, including several volunteers from the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts. For this project, 20 volunteers worked 40 volunteer-hours to clean-up the climbing areas, paint the kiosk, and clear debris deposited by previous flooding. Thanks to REI of Round Rock for their support of the event with the donation of a gift card, given away at the end of the event to one of the volunteers.

The hospital has been very cooperative to allow us to continue to climb on their property and this clean-up was a good-faith effort on our part to continue a good relationship with them. We have investigated the possibility of the Georgetown Parks & Rec Dept. purchasing the land to preserve it as a park, but they are currently not interested in pursuing this purchase. The parks dept. did not rule it out as a possible future acquisition and encouraged us to contact them again periodically as their plans and funding develop.

Note:
You must sign a liability waiver before climbing at the Georgetown Sanctuary.
Please download and sign a waiver and deposit it at the kiosk at the trailhead.

See the newspaper article in The Sun, the Williamson County newspaper.

Our volunteers.

Hauling out debris & trash.

Painting the kiosk. Note: Waivers can be found at the kiosk.

It's My Park Day

The Central Texas Mountaineers participated in the Austin Park Foundation's It's My Park Day once again this year with a trail project at Gus Fruh park. For this project, 13 volunteers worked 56 volunteer-hours to build a stone staircase up the right side of Guide Wall.

Volunteers at Guide Wall in Gus Fruh Park.

Moving some big rocks with ancient Egyptian techniques.

Mt. Bonnell Clean-up

The Central Texas Mountaineers joined Keep Austin Beautiful once again this year to clean-up the cliff sides of Mt. Bonnell. This was the second year that CTM has been involved in this clean-up effort. For this work day, 10 CTM volunteers rappelled down the side of the mountain to collect cans, bottles and other litter tossed by visitors to this scenic overlook. Also, big thanks to the Omega Phi Alpha sorority for the help from 19 of their members. We collected 51 bags of trash and worked a total of 41 volunteer hours. Thanks to KAB for the supplies and the following volunteers for their efforts:

Rappelling down the mountain side to pick up trash.

Our brave volunteers after a hard day's work.

18th Trail Project at Reimers North Shore

At the request of Travis County Parks, the RRCC met with Mike Brewster and reviewed possible trail and lookout locations in the main part of Reimers.

John Hogge, Tommy Blackwell, Luke Bowman and Evan Jackson, accompanied Mike Brewster along the existing rim trail from the main parking area in Reimers.

We were able to point out the danger of continuing to have such a rim trail and point out good locations for lookouts that are not above popular climbing area. Mike Brewster took GPS coordinates and photographs.

His information will be forwarded to the planners for use in determining the final locations of trail and lookouts. We fell we have good representation with Mike.

Toward the end of the Hand Beyond wall we noticed recent rock fall had damaged one of the anchors of "Yet Another S. A. Route" and that large rocks were hanging precariously over the climb. With permission from Mike, we trundled the loose rock and then in a regular course of RRCC business we removed the damaged anchor and installed a new one.

Trail projects will continue every Saturday until the work is complete.
Contact Gary Ellis for more information.

17th Trail Project at Reimers North Shore

Newley approved routes were installed.

Trail projects will continue every Saturday until the work is complete.
Contact Gary Ellis for more information.

360 Bridge Clean-up

The Central Texas Mountaineers joined Keep Austin Beautiful again this year to clean-up the cliff side of the 360 bridge. This was the third year that CTM has been involved in this clean-up effort. For this work day, 13 volunteers rappelled down the side of the cliff to collect cans, bottles and other litter tossed by visitors to this scenic overlook. We collected over 50 bags of trash and worked a total of 39 volunteer hours. Thanks to KAB for the supplies and the following volunteers for their efforts:

Cliff view before the clean-up.

CTM volunteers collecting the trash.

A total of 55 bags of trash collected.

The next CTM clean-up day will be at Mt. Bonnell on Saturday, Feb. 28th.
Contact Gary Ellis for more information.

16th Trail Project at Reimers North Shore

CTM Outing to Camp Eagle

Some members of the Central Texas Mountaineers hit the road to check-out Camp Eagle, near Junction, TX. It was a cold weekend, but we did manage to climb one day at the main wall. Many thanks to Scott & Ann for their generous hospitality during our visit there. I'll post some photos soon.

15th Trail Project at Reimers North Shore

14th Trail Project at Reimers North Shore

Accounting of bolted routes so far:
The North Shore area now has 60 routes, including 27 old routes put up before Reimers became a Travis County park and 33 new routes bolted in 2008 & 2009.
We've used approximately 200 bolts (about 7 bolts per route, including 2 for anchors). Upon checking the inventory of remaining hardware, we probably have enough for 7-10 more routes.

Trail projects will continue every Saturday until the work is complete.
Contact Gary Ellis for more information.

13th Trail Project at Reimers North Shore

This was trundling day for the remaining climbing walls of Phase 2 & 3. Eric and Ky started at the far end of the wall, while Tommy, Evan, and Gary worked from the start of Phase 2. The two groups eventually met in the middle to ensure that every part of the wall between them was inspected and all loose rock was sent down. The highlight was kicking over a free standing flake, about 6 feet tall and wide at the far end of Phase 3. It only took two people to push this estimated 4 ton rock off of it's perch and down to ground below. All of the trundling for this climbing area is now complete and there were 13 volunteers for this outing, contributing 52 man-hours of work.

Trail projects will continue every Saturday until the work is complete.
Contact Gary Ellis for more information.

12th Trail Project at Reimers North Shore