The buzz started in Lander’s City Park Thursday as vans, trucks, and trailers full of climbers packed into the shade under the Cottonwood Trees in the back of the park.
Early Thursday events were a cleanup trail day in Sinks Canyon to install a new climbing informational plaque on the Killer Cave trail and to clean up invasive thistle plants on the sunny hillside. Further into the mountains Wind River Climbing Guides hosted a youth clinic for young festival goers to be able to learn from climbing guides on real limestone at Wild Iris on Limestone Mountain.
Art vendors began to set up tents along Main Street to sell their goods at the Art Crawl from 4-6. Festival goers picked up their tickets at Wild Iris Mountain Sports and cruised up and down Main Street where over 30 local and traveling artists had goods ranging from ceramics, to clothing, to photos and paintings.
As the sun began to set the climbers fest shuffled from Main Street onto the patio at the Gannett Grill for the opening party featuring the annual pull-up competition. As the crowd roared, participants in the men’s, women’s, and kid’s divisions tried their hardest to bust out as many pull-ups as possible in one go, winning ropes, chalk bags, hats, and crag bags for their efforts.
The festival continues on tonight in City Park with the Dyno Comp and Film Festival from 4:30 until around 10 this evening. The Dyno Comp features eight climbers in each men’s, women’s, and kid’s division who qualified earlier today in city park by using a large set of climbing holds on a manufactured wall in the park to see how high they could touch on the wall. Prizes and bragging rights will be rewarded somewhere between five and six when the comp wraps up.
The film festival features five short films based around different characters, adventures, and places in the climbing world including one from Lander local Nate Liles titled WyoClimbers: Rebolting for the Future & Respecting the Wild. The festival will also premiere a film about three professional climbers and their adventure in Chile’s Cochamó Valley titled For the Love.
Saturday’s big events are the Fremont Toyota Limestone Rodeo climbing competition early in the morning at Wild Iris, atop South Pass, and the keynote speakers Timmy O’neil and Marcus Garcia from 7-9 pm. The trade fair is from 2-8 pm. in City Park and features booths from artists vendors, sponsors, and plenty of chances to win free swag.