For the eighth year in a row, the Town Pump, a weekly bouldering series held every Tuesday evening at Jackson’s Teton Boulder Park, successfully concluded another season.
From May 31 – Aug. 13, hundreds of climbers participated in the series—but the 2022 Pump almost didn’t happen.
This spring, like many businesses and organizations in the Valley, Teton County/Jackson Parks and Recreation lacked the staffing to run it.
When alerted of Parks and Rec’s struggles, The Teton Climbers’ Coalition arranged a meeting, and the two organizations hammered out an arrangement to run the series through the summer.
Parks and Rec retained TCC board member and stewardship director Chris Owen to oversee the Pump. Owen has extensive experience with both the event and the Boulder Park, having set the boulder problems at the Park for years.
TCC founder and board chair Christian Beckwith, who coordinated the Boulder Park’s development and who started the Pump in 2015, quickly reached out to past sponsors. The response was immediate.
As it has since the event’s inception, Teton Mountaineering served as the Pump’s presenting sponsor, providing prizes to all participants. Stio soon joined as co-sponsor, clothing participants with official t-shirts. Black Diamond and The American Alpine Club‘s Grand Teton Climbers Ranch enlivened the series by tabling every event and providing participants with prizes in person. Local climber Justin Tatosian, who participated in the series throughout the summer, also sponsored it with his engineering company JTec. CAMP, Smith, La Sportiva, Petzl and Sterling all contributed prizes.
From late May through the third week of August, Owen organized Pumps every Tuesday evening. As is to be expected with outdoor events, three Pumps were cancelled due to weather; the rest went off without a hitch. To keep each event fresh for participants, Owen also served as the Pump’s primary route-setter, setting more than 230 new problems over the course of the summer.
In addition, Exum and Arc’Teryx hosted four clinics over the course of the summer, instructing climbers in skillsets critical to the safe pursuit of their sport.
Discussions between Parks and Rec and the TCC regarding the 2023 summer series are currently underway, with the shared objective of building on this year’s success.