To date, no formal study has been done to determine the actual number of climbers in the United States, but the industry estimates that 650,000 Americans call themselves technical climbers, and millions more have tried the sport. Advertisers, film makers and television producers have adopted climbing as a pervasive image. As journalists, you are increasingly likely to write or produce reports on climbing. As the climbing industry, we want you to get the story right. Climbing is a risk-intensive sport, and thus draws fire from some quarters.
Climbers also face new limits on access to cliffs on public and private lands.
It is important that the media report accurately what climbing is and how it is practiced, so we don't lose our ability to climb because of misperceptions about our sport.