Yosemite Climbing Association Organizes Yosemite Facelift

For the 2nd year in a row, The Yosemite Climbing Association organized the Yosemite Facelift, a weeklong effort to cleanup the trash and debris that accumulates during the summer season at Yosemite National Park.

The event draws hundreds of volunteers throughout the week leading up to National Public Lands Day. Volunteers are given trash bags, litter sticks, and saftey vests and are challenges to gather as much trash as possible. Many schools groups were out along with climbers from the infamous Camp 4 as well as hundreds of other Yosemite enthusiasts.

In all, the Yosemite Facelift had 1157 volunteers of all ages during the five-day cleanup totaling 9,256 volunteer hours. The Facelift raised $166,978.00 in revenue for Yosemite National
Park.

The Yosemite Facelift ended up with over 25,000 lbs. of trash and everything that could be
recycled was. 77 miles of roadway were cleaned up along with over 40 miles of trails. Campgrounds and lodging areas were also cleaned. Other special projects included were the removal of 10 power and phone poles at the old Cascade Housing area, trash and cable route poles below the South Face of Half Dome, and graffiti removal in the Gunsight and Lower Falls
Amphitheater.

About 400 people attended the reception following the cleanup enjoying the free food and beverages. A large raffle followed rewarding the Facelift participants.

While on the National Public Lands Day Tour, I was lucky enough to stop by a few of the weeklong events, including the seamless registration processes in the morning and the film festival in the evening in El Portal, CA just outside Yosimete. It was there, that I was able to present Yosemite Facelift organizer and overall great guy, a $1,000 grant to help offset his costs of organizing this wonderful weeklong cleanup event.

I had a wonderful time visiting one of our National Park's crown jewels and hope to come back again soon. While there, I had an opportunity to hike up to the (dry) Yellowstone Falls. I was amazed at the litter I picked up along the trail.