Calling of the Rock, Kurt Smith

This week Clint and Dawson sat down with Kurt Smith. Kurt Smith grew up in Lake Tahoe and first faced off with Yosemite’s big walls and rock climbs in 1980. 41 years and thousands of routes later, his accomplishments include three years of competing on the National and World Cup circuit, with wins at the Nationals, twelfth place at the World Cup in 1992, plus a top-20 ranking. He has spent 4 decades opening up new routes in Yosemite, Joshua Tree, Clear Creek Canyon, Rifle, El Potrero Chico, Mexico and other popular climbing areas, with a mission to create “the best lines regardless of the grade.” With over 500 First Ascents under his belt he is not slowing down in his quest for new lines.

But the apogee of his involvement with climbing may be his affiliation and work with the Access Fund (www.accessfund.org) over the years, and his Kickin’ Access Tours. Rock & Ice Magazine named the Kickin Access Tour number 7 of the "Top 10 Most Important Climbing Events of 2001." Kurt spent 6 years crisscrossing the country to throw these climber access events, raising over $100,000 and signing up over 3000 members for the Access Fund. Due to Kurt's huge success in his fundraising efforts for the AF, he was elected to the AF's Board of Directors in 2001, on which he served a 3-year term.

Kurt has called the New River Gorge, WV home for the last 16 years and is the owner of Top Gun Sales. This sales agency is proud to represent Sterling Rope, Evolv, Nemo Equipment, BioLite, Wild Country and Salewa. His territory covers the South East and the Great Lakes and has three amazing employees in Chaz Warren, Wes Napier and Jay Peery. His greatest achievement is being a dad with his 6 year old son, Milo and wife Pei Lee Ren!

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