Madison Long
Life Editor
Daniel Prior’s mind flashes through the past week of procedures, medical interventions, and surgery prep, hands flexing out of muscle memory to reach for a scalpel. He’s perched on a stable stepstool, arms reaching up, up, up, until his fingers slot into a calloused crevice.
‘Holy crap, I need to be stronger,’ the 38-year-old thinks as he snaps back to reality, hoisting himself up the landscape of dark grey basalt rocks. Their sandpaper texture is indenting red marks across his skin, barely noticeable beyond his white, tight-gripped knuckles.
He can only barely make out the encouraging chants and glittered cheeks of his top rope belayer, Jessica DeHart, as his heart pounds in his ears. Prior rakes his body up in one last push, placing his palms flat on the cliff top.
“Yes!” He shouts, shoulders relaxing and Toothless wings flapping gently as DeHart lowers him down, her matching Lightfury wings catching the light.
After seeing an event poster, Prior and DeHart sparked up their climb by purchasing matching costumes, applying glitter, and driving down to Ross Park in Pocatello for the September 13th, 2025, Pocatello Pump.
“I wanted something that was going to get me outdoors, keep me physically active, allow me to see cool new places, and challenge me,” says Prior, a climber from Boise. “All those things climbing is great for.”
Started in 1981, the Pocatello Pump remains the longest-standing climbing competition in America, with 230 community and ISU-affiliated climbers coming out at 9 a.m. this month for the climb.
With 10 different categories based on age, skill, competitiveness, and endurance, participants harness in and face the multitude of scored climbs, with the added help of their belayer to keep the rope sturdy. Competitors in the morning climbed Ross Park Sunny Side for 90-minute heats, and afternoon climbers took on Ross Park Shady Shade for 60-minute heats.
At 5 p.m., awards commenced with all winners given a mug provided by local community potter and once director of ISU’s craft shop, Phil Jenkins. Additional prizes were given to each contestant afterwards in a draw-to-win raffle.
For some climbers, like retired ISU Professor of Ecology & Science Education, Rosemary Smith, the Pocatello Pump is a friendly entry into the rope climbing world.
“We joke with some other climbers about a ‘hometown advantage,’ but at the end of the day, they’re all our friends,” says Smith. “There’s some I may only see one day a year at the pump, maybe they come down from Logan or McCall, and they climb with us. When I first started in 1999, people would bring their little kids, and now those people bring their kids, it’s a whole generation and really a life-long sport.”
For ISU students like Chaye Johnson, the Pocatello Pump provides more than just an opportunity to climb.
Competition entry fees, which range from $40 to $50, operate as a fundraiser for ISU’s Terry Kranning Memorial Climbers Scholarship. The $500 scholarship can be awarded to any Sophomore, Junior, Senior, or Graduate students in any major who have climbed in the Pocatello Pump in the last year. Other requirements include a minimum 2.75 GPA and financial need.
“I think it’s easier than it looks,” says Johnson, a Dietitian and Nutrition major. “Once you actually get on the wall and get outside, you realize that the crevices aren’t as small as you thought and that it’s not as hard as it looks from on the ground.”
As this is her first climbing competition, Johnson is excited to train for next year and get reacquainted with the sport.
Preparation for the 2026 Pump is already underway, with Justin Dayley and his team contacting sponsors and training employees.
And while the competition results are available online, Dayley, the Director of ISU’s Outdoor Adventure Center, suggests focusing on the climbers’ scholarship, applying and supporting the winners.
“That’s not relevant to us,” says Dayley. “For someone to just sit and focus on who won, it downplays our festival atmosphere. We’re more focused on ‘what did you win in the raffle,’ ‘did you have a good time,’ ‘are you coming back next year?’”
