Board of Directors

The Coalition of American Canyoneers board members serve two-year terms, and elections are held for board positions each July. CAC held its first formal board election in July of 2012.

Tyler Goodfellow

I started canyoneering in southern Nevada on my thirteenth birthday and have been hooked on exploring technical drainages ever since. As the years passed, my love for canyoneering took me to become a professional guide in southern Utah, an advocate for sustainable bolt replacement projects, and a seeker of new canyon descents all over the desert southwest. I believe that the canyons themselves need advocates in our human world. Working with the CAC board and membership is an exciting opportunity to be proactive in preserving the canyon experience for future generations.

Sonny Lawrence

I started canyoneering when inserted at the top of a canyon by helicopter in the early 1970’s to search for a lost hiker. As a retired psychiatrist, I am able to experience canyons around the globe. I continue to participate in volunteer mountain search and rescue as a member of the Cave and Technical Rescue Team, adding to the technical aspect of the sport via backyard gear and technique testing.

Rich Rudow

I live in Arizona and found my first technical canyon in 1998 while pushing a Grand Canyon route further than I probably should have. After 500 days below the rim finding slot canyons, an inevitable run in with the NPS convinced me that the Canyoneering community must be more proactive and involved if we’re to keep these places open.

Willie Hunt

I’ve been an avid adventurer all my life, exploring woods, bayous, and storm sewers as a kid in Houston, TX. When I moved to Indiana, I got seriously into cycling, caving, rock climbing, and soon after mountaineering in the early 1990’s. When I moved to California around 2000, I enjoyed easy access to big mountains, world class rock climbs, and canyons which were new to me at the time. I did a few canyons here and there, but in March 2017, I got into canyoneering in a major way and found that SoCal has so many fun canyons. And some 400 canyon runs later, I’m still loving it, even more!

Over the years, I’ve helped out many cleanups, trail building & maintenance, access issues, teaching proper techniques and conservation. Being good stewards is critical to maintaining access, whether on public or private land. I’ve seen far too many awesome places closed to the public when the users could have done much better to keep them open. I’m honored to serve the CAC to help keep canyons open and well-kept for all to enjoy.

Cam Davenport

Hi, my name is Cam. Canyoneering changed my whole world. It took going to the guts of the earth to find some of the most spectacular scenery ever to be had and adventures greater than a mind could imagine. Not only was canyoneering beautiful, challenging and fun, I met my whole world on the Colorado Plateau. Some of the greatest people on earth, a bunch of misfits all together for the love of exploring into the depths of the earth. Protecting these canyons and the people that go through them are my priority and goals when joining the Coalition of American Canyoneers.

Dean Brooks

I was introduced to canyoneering in 2009. I’ve descended canyons in six different countries and six US states. I have three children, all competent canyoneers that have traveled the world with my wife and I to descend canyons. In addition to my family, I have introduced dozens of others to canyoneering and enjoy sharing my passion for the sport with newcomers.

In 2023, I joined my second month-long, canyoneering focused winter descent of Grand Canyon, as a boat captain and participant in over thirty canyon explorations, many of them “first descents”. Recently, I’ve led disadvantaged teens from challenging urban environments into slot canyons in my work with a non-profit outreach program in my home town of Boulder, Utah. I spent seven years as a canyoneering focused volunteer for Capitol Reef National Park and four years on the board of directors for Grand Staircase-Escalante Partners. I am well trained and highly experienced in the use of modern retrievable anchors, including toggles (Fiddlestick, etc), sand anchors and water anchors, and I advocate for leave no trace techniques wherever possible.

Ira Lewis

In 2004, I descended my first canyon in California’s San Gabriel Mountains, which sparked a passion for the sport. Pursuing local canyons on weekends and far-flung canyons for vacations from work has introduced me to canyon communities in 17 countries and all of the western United States. I was lucky to have started out learning from some of the bigger names in our American canyon sport history.

I authored the current canyoning guidebook for Colorado and have continued to explore new routes in Colorado, bringing a large percentage of the beta for Colorado’s canyons (wet and dry) to ropewiki.com. For the last 15 years, my home base has been in Colorado, which allows me to make annual spring and fall trips to southeast Utah for dry slot canyons as well.

CAC Advisory Panel

The advisory board is made up of past board members who continue to contribute their expertise to the Coalition of American Canyoneers.

Steve Ramras (Ram)

As a devoted parent of two skilled canyoneers, I am committed to conserving and protecting access to canyon country for future generations. My particular interest is in mainstreaming new “leave-no-trace” tools and techniques. I am very grateful for a life rich with friends and adventures and sees my efforts with CAC as a way to repay this good fortune via community service.

Alane Urban

I began in the sport of canyoneering in 2009. While I always loved adventure, keeping active and enjoying outdoor sports such as biking (mountain and road biked around the US and the world), running and hiking, I never had much technical experience. While the idea always intrigued me and I read all the great books and articles on mountaineering, I never tried anything like it until meeting this great group of people who called themselves canyoneers. After the first trip, I was hooked. Hooked on the community of people, the beauty of the environment, the teamwork and problem solving that goes into the sport and the self-discovery that ensues as part of this activity.

I want to help keep our sport of Canyoneering open to us forever. The mission of the CAC of Conservation, Access, Education and Safety is necessary for this goal.

Mike Zampino

Growing up in Arizona, I fell in love with the outdoors early on and immediately learned the importance of promoting LNT ethics. I took up climbing in 1990. A few years later I discovered slot canyons and was immediately hooked. However, it took me two decades to discover technical canyoneering and that I could combine my rope skills with my love for slot canyons. This opened up a whole new world to explore, which I have done extensively in Arizona, Utah and Colorado.

I have 3 daughters, one of which has also taken up the sport under my watchful eye. With the tremendous growth canyoneering has seen in the last five years, I realize the importance of the CAC and its ability to help protect this fragile environment and at the same time make sure we retain access to these unique and special places.

Rick Demarest

I’ve been wandering in the Utah and Arizona deserts since 1985. First, on Colorado River trips through the Grand Canyon and then exploring the canyonlands southern Utah. Fascinated by “what’s up there?”, I eventually found my way to technical canyoneering.

As the owner of a rafting company, I’ve been involved with land managers and rangers for the NPS, BLM, and USFS. Having seen river regulations imposed in a few areas without any public input, it’s clear that as canyoneering continues to grow access regulations will follow. It has happened in Zion and is in progress in the Grand Canyon, Arches and southern California. Most of my work with CAC is on the tech side – the website, editing, and creating graphics for presentations.

Jason Bowman

I have been a climber and backpacker since a very young age which led to me joining a volunteer mountain rescue team in Arizona in 2007. I quickly became very active in the regional and national mountain rescue community and was introduced by fellow rescuers to canyoneering. Since then I have descended countless canyons all around the western U.S. and Canada and made canyoneering my primary outdoor pursuit. I frequently attend canyon rendezvous, have participated in several canyon clean-up projects, and regularly teach canyoneering awareness courses to several mountain rescue teams.

In 2016 I moved to Oregon to accept a full time career in search and rescue. I feel that my extensive background in both volunteer and paid SAR has given me a unique perspective on working with land managers and promoting safety, both key to the CAC’s mission.

Documents

The Coalition of American Canyoneers is organized as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation in the State of Arizona.
Organizational Documents