Cyndie Bransford
Cyndie Bransford has been one of Joshua Tree’s most influential climbers. Her dialogue with the National Park on behalf of climbing laid the foundation for today’s climbing policy. In the late 1980’s and early 90’s, climbers and government officials everywhere were struggling to create solutions that made everyone happy. Cyndie spent hours on the phone, wrote letters, and attended meetings trying to establish a fair, realistic and workable climbing policy at the world’s most popular climbing area.
Cyndie earned her qualifications to represent local climbers. She’s done over 1000 routes in the Park. She also has climbed in most states in the country, as well as Europe and Australia, so she was familiar with all sorts of climbs, climbing areas, and situations at many different crags.
Not a natural athlete, but very intelligent and determined, Cyndie became an accomplished and well-traveled climber the hard way, through lots of hard work, blood, patience and tears.
Bransford was an inspiration to many because she showed that if you put forth the proper desire and effort, you could achieve your goals and have some incredible climbing experiences. During the 1980’s,she was probably one of the most well traveled climbers anywhere, having climbed almost every free day she had for nearly a decade. Her impressive tick list is a tribute to her spirit of adventure. It is difficult to find an area Cyndie hasn’t sampled.
Cyndie was a taskmaster and goal setter and a fanatical route ticker. She was constantly working on her “list”. Her goal was to climb every starred route in Vogel’s book rated 5.10a and under. This list is over 800 strong, and includes routes in every corner of the park. After many years and long treks, Cyndie achieved this lofty goal, an accomplishment she shares with no one, other than maybe Alan Bartlett. Not to rest on her laurels, she then set about to climb every 5.10a in Vogel’s SoCal Select, which took her to many different SoCal crags. She eventually reached her goal. Anyone who climbed during the 1980’s in Joshua Tree knew Cyndie and her white Toyota 4 Runner. Her knowledge of climbing, especially here in JTree, and her tough stands with government agencies, have been a great service to Joshua Tree climbing. Her work with the Access Fund and her work at the National level have earned her top awards and recognition.