Carolina Climbers Coalition

Since 1995, the Carolina Climbers Coalition has grown and expanded. Today the CCC is a 501c3 nonprofit corporation. We still hold onto the motto, preserving protecting and expanding you climbing opportunities, but that has taken new meaning. In 2005 Sean Cobourn, then president, and Jon Myers got wind of the opportunity to purchase one of the largest cliffs in the Southeast, Laurel Knob. With overwhelming community and industry support, the CCC made an offer to purchase the cliff.

The purchase of Laurel Knob transformed the the CCC from grassroots organization to landowners, land managers and advocates. This change allows us to be part of a growing movement of organizations that are truly preserving and expanding your climbing opportunities. We continue to work with local, state and federal organizations to help preserve and protect our climbing privileges.

The board of the CCC is composed of 12 volunteer members. Five prospective officers are appointed by current officers and board member and elected to positions during the fall meeting every other year. Area representatives serve as liasons between the communities, land managers and the officers of the board. In addition, the Board has a subcommittee known as the Laurel Knob New Route Committee that are appointed by the board. We host two annual public meetings per year.

We hope you will support this cause through your continued support of the CCC.

 

A Brief History of the CCC 

The Carolina Climber's Coalition was established January 16, 1995 with the purposes of preserving the natural environment, promoting safe climbing practices and preserving climber's access to climbing areas in North and South carolina.

Bill Webster, the first Chair for the CCC answered the most common question from climbers in the Carolinas during the summer of 1995: "What exactly is the Carolina Climber's Coalition?"

"The Coalition was created as a result of a rumor that spread throughout North Carolina in 1994. Climbers mistakenly thought that state parks would be closed to climbing as the result of a fatality at Crowder's Mountain. State park officials and climbers met in Charlotte and determined that a park closure was not planned and that a coalition would best serve the interests of both climbers and park officials. In January 1995 almost 100 area climbers voted unanimously to create the coalition to help preserve climbing access in the Carolinas."

About the Website
The site was initiated by Randy Franklin during the summer of 2000. He wished to bring to the climbing community of the Carolinas an online repository of information contributed by climbers for all climbers. By using the Internet, this forum allows for the quick and easy publishing of many persons' opinions in an almost instantaneous amount of time. Randy is active in development of the website and is very open to suggestions and persons willing to contribute information they may think benefitial to other climbers of the Carolinas.

The older website was designed around a message board that offers climbers a forum to have discussions centering on any number of topics they may think of interest to the climbing community.

This website would not have been possible without the help of Craig Davis, who did the graphics and helped with debugging scripts; Adam Attarian, who supplied the logo and domain name and Dr. Emil Briggs, who offered the server on which the website runs.

In the early fall of 2004, a meeting made up of some of the more involved CCC members resulted in the re-structuring of the Coalition. Many felt that we as a group were too loose, and in order to function as a serious advocacy group in the eyes of land managers and our peers, the attendees agreed to move the CCC forward. One result is the website you see today, created by Brandon Calloway. Bigger, broader, and a storehouse of information for everyone from the visiting climber to active local climbers. The goal is that this website will keep all climbers informed of what's abreast, and maybe learn some new things in the process. We hope you enjoy this site!

Website Content Disclaimer
The views expressed herein reflect the views of individuals in the climbing community and not the CCC, except where noted explicitly. All posts to this website are moderated. It may take a few hours for your submission to appear on the site. Personal attacks and blantantly derogatory language are not permitted and will not be posted, or deleted if they are posted. This is not a spray-board.