Home › News › First steps of Access PanAm

First steps of Access PanAm

Access PanAm's inaugural meeting was held August 12 -16th, in Squamish, British Columbia. Seven countries participated: US ACCESS FUND, Canadian Access Societies, UIAA Access Commission, Spanish Mountaineering and Climbing Federation, as well as several climbers from Colombia, Honduras and Peru.
 
 

According to Armando Menocal the aim of this meeting has been reached: "We accomplished our objective of bringing together a core of access activists, who in the end unanimously agreed to form an access organization to be called Access PanAm / Acceso PanAm. We created a steering committee of a dozen climbers from Latin America, the U.S., and Spain”.
The mission of this new group will be to keep climbing areas open and protect the mountain environment. In fact, Acces PanAm will help in the creation and support of local, regional and national organizations of climbers throughout all the Latin America, as well as in search of adapted solutions.
Access PanAm also initiated its first campaign: to save one of Latin America's most important rock climbing sites, Cochamó. Situated in Chilean Patagonia and legally unprotected, Cochamó is at risk of being damed and flooded. Public utilities are considering the construction of several hydraulic dams there. One of the residents of the Cochamó valley, Peter Seeliger, an initiator of the Access PanAm, will be one of those leading the campaign.
 

 

For more information : www.accesspanam.com