By Aidan Mortensen | KOAL News
As the trees change into their fall hues, signaling the beginning of fall, so too does it signal the start of climbing season. A premier destination for climbers across the globe sits right in Emery County, as each year the Joe’s Valley Fest attracts both new and returning climbers to the Castle Country on Oct. 2 through Oct. 5.
Julie Janus, executive coordinator of Joe’s Valley Climbing and Community, joined the KOAL newsroom to preview the upcoming festival and discuss uniting the community with climbers.
“I’ve been coming here for decades just to climb, and we have people come from all over the world, all over the country, just to climb the boulders that are here in Emery County in surrounding areas,” explained Janus of the appeal of climbing in the Castle Country.
Examining the goal of the nonprofit aspect of the event, Janus stated,” We are Joe’s Valley Climbing and Community that runs the festival every year. We’re also offering year-round programs, such as getting some of the Emery and Carbon County youth out climbing. We have offered summer camps this year and provide year-round trail maintenance, among other services. It ties into our overall mission of trying to bring climbers and locals together because we all love the great outdoors that we have here. We want to bring everybody together and look at how we can help enhance the local economy, build community, drive sustainability, and mainly have fun.”
In recent years, the push for youth involvement has paid dividends, resulting in a significant growth in the number of young climbers interested in the sport. “We’re really trying to ramp up our summer camp programs, keep them low cost and affordable for everybody, and just get kids out there that may not have much chance to get to try climbing or even just to get them outdoors. Some kids love just looking for lizards, others love climbing, and some kids simply enjoy being outside and spending their days there. That’s really been our focus over the last year: building our youth programs for the summer camp and then expanding them into year-round programming. That’s part of what the fest helps us with.”
Turning to the itinerary for the festival. Janus discussed opening day on Thursday, Oct. 2, which begins with a service project. “We’re really excited about this year’s event. We just nailed it down. We’re going to be repainting some of the pavilion structures over in Orangeville City Park.”
She added,” That’s always a popular event. The climbers love to come out and participate in that. It’s the first opportunity to start talking with some of the folks that are local and that are utilizing those spaces.”
Day two of the event features food trucks and a vendor fair in addition to the bouldering, but also a chance for climbers to try their hand at one of the Castle Country’s favorite pastimes – rodeo. “It’s a rodeo, but it’s a climber rodeo. We have climbers riding steers, which to us is a big deal. I know it’s something that all the 12-year-olds do around here, but for us, it’s a big deal. The climbers are psyched, and it’s fun for everybody to watch just because it’s a little bit different take on rodeo.”
Saturday, Oct. 4, follows much of the same formula, but also features an opportunity drawing for prizes. Previewing the prizes, Janus shared, “There’s a ton of Yeti coolers. There are also organic bouldering pads, which are going to be geared more toward our climber folks obviously. However, there is also a lot of outdoor gear, including down jackets, waterproof jackets, backpacks and coolers. I encourage everybody to come out and join in that. Anybody can participate and buy tickets.”
Closing out the festival on Sunday, Oct. 5, the climbers again give back to the community, hosting a service day from 9 a.m. to noon. “, We really encourage folks to show up between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m., grab some food ranch doughnuts, some cup of Joe’s coffee, and we’ll talk to our stewardship team that’s there, our Joe’s Valley Coalition. And then we break off into different projects. We have a group of folks in town going back to Castle Dale doing trash cleanup, making sure we leave things cleaner than when we came in.”
She added,” We also go out and do a trail maintenance project, which will be out in Cottonwood Canyon this year. So folks can show up just for the coffee and doughnuts, talk to us, and if they want to join one of our stewardship projects, we’d love to have them.”
Closing our conversation, Janus stated,” Super excited to share what’s coming up with the Joe’s Valley Fest and hope folks will make it out. We can’t wait to see everybody in town in Orangeville and Castle Dale this coming weekend, Oct. 2 through Oct. 5.”
For more information and to purchase tickets, visit JoesValley.org or follow the festival on Facebook.
