About the Festival:
Our festival is all about celebrating the community of climbing. When we come together at City Park and Wild Iris each year for traditions old and new, it’s a reminder of just how awesome this global climbing community is. We can celebrate our differences and similarities, strengths and struggles, and be reminded that we all share a common love.
Our festival is unique because it is the longest-running climbers’ festival in the world and has stayed true to its grassroots origins. The ICF was started by Todd Skinner and a handful of Lander locals in 1994 to celebrate the community of climbing. Volker Schöffl was here from Germany that year and is the reason for the original “International” label! The festival grew and began giving back in more ways to the central Wyoming community. It officially became a non-profit organization in 2014 – the Central Wyoming Climbers’ Alliance (CWCA). Local re-bolting efforts, the Bolt and Anchor Replacement Fund (BARF), were also rolled into this organization. We’re in the process of rebranding as WyoClimbers but are all one and the same: the ICF, CWCA, BARF…
WyoClimbers’ three-fold mission is to protect, educate, and celebrate climbing in central Wyoming. The festival is our main revenue source, and we use it to support regional youth climbing programs, public lands and recreation advocacy, environmental stewardship, and climbing outreach activities. We have a board of about a dozen climbers that span the cross-section of Lander’s climbing community and one Executive Director/Festival Director. This year we are lucky to have added an Assistant Festival Director position, too, which was super helpful in juggling all the tasks that go into planning this event.
