YOSEMITE (KMJ) — A proposal more than 25 years in the making has taken a big step forward. President of Yosemite Climbing Association Ken Yager has been working towards building a climbing museum in the National Park since 1992 and this month received a letter of intent.
The all-important correspondence means the parties involved in making it happen can come together to discuss how to turn the dream into a reality.
“Over the years I’ve been collecting this stuff. I probably have about 10,000 items now,” explained Yager.
“With the two recent movies, with Free Solo winning an Oscar for best documentary and The Dawn Wall coming out, which is another excellent climbing movie, those have got climbing to the forefront and climbing has gotten more and more popular and now climbing is going to be in the Olympics.”
“I believe the timing is right.”
Items stored by Yager for display in the museum date back more than 140 years (he described his collection as “pretty amazing”). However, he warned plenty of work still remains before a museum can open up.
“But this is the closest that I’ve been in 27 years. I’ve been trying to push this through and push it through and I’ve gotten really close several times, but this is the first time we’ve gotten a letter of intent. So at least we all intend to move forward,” said Yager.
“I think it’ll happen – and it’s overdue.”
Hear the report from KMJ’s Dominic McAndrew as it aired:
