BURST
Protest flags might be banned from El Capitan, but there’s no shortage of places to hang them—especially if you recycle.
A year and a half ago, on June 17, 2024, four climbers in Yosemite captured the attention of El Cap enthusiasts everywhere when they flew a “Stop the Genocide” banner on the granite monolith about 1,500 feet above the ground.
Yesterday, that same banner appeared 789 miles away in Clear Creek Canyon near Denver, Colorado.
Eight climbers, led by Denver-based schoolteacher Parker Schiffer, hung the 25-by-10-foot banner for two hours at The Canal Zone, a roadside crag in Clear Creek Canyon just outside the city of Golden. Between 10:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m., the banner stretched across three popular sport routes: Walking with a Ghost (5.11b/c), Ivy League (5.10a), and Panama Red (5.10-).
“A good demonstration inconveniences people a bit,” says Schiffer. The Jewish American schoolteacher says that he was inspired by the photos he saw online of the 2024 El Cap protesters, led by pro climber Miranda Oakley. “There’s this effort to speak up, to remind people that this is ongoing,” he says. “For a climber to do that in a very visible place was really creative.”
A few months ago, Schiffer reached out to Oakley, who is half Palestinian, and asked to borrow the giant banner. Both climbers are members of Climbers for Palestine, an international group of activists that ran a “Climb the Wall” fundraiser in May to protest Israel’s actions on the Gaza strip, which both the International Association of Genocide Scholars and an independent United Nations inquiry have confirmed as a genocide. Throughout the one-month event, the group raised $95,938 for the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, Middle East Children’s Alliance, and Wadi Climbing.
The main goal of the protest in Clear Creek Canyon, Schiffer says, was not to raise money, but awareness. “There are a lot of folks thinking that with the ceasefire, the genocide is over,” he explains. “The lowest-hanging fruit that we can hope for is that our banner helped start a conversation.”
“Sport is political”
The October 9 ceasefire, signed by Israel and Hamas, promised to mitigate the ongoing famine in Gaza, stipulating that Israel would allow 600 aid trucks per day to feed the Gazan people. But by November 6, Israel had only allowed in 28% of those trucks. The past two years have seen far more than just famine: In response to Hamas killing 1,195 people in Israel on October 7, 2023, Israeli forces have killed more than 68,000 Palestinians, including 10,000 women and 20,000 children, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
As part of Climbers for Palestine, Schiffer believes that the International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC) should respond to the ongoing genocide by banning Israeli athletes, just like the organization banned Russian and Belarusian athletes following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. He also urges Americans to call their representatives and demand an immediate arms embargo to Israel.
While hanging flags and banners from cliffs has become an increasingly popular way for climbers to raise awareness about certain issues, it’s also seen backlash from the land managers where these displays occur. After the most recent El Cap banner protest in May 2025, Yosemite banned large flags, then fired an involved employee. Many supported the no-flag rule, saying that mountains and cliffs should not be used as community message boards.
But Schiffer disagrees. “Sport is political,” he says. “We know that because we saw sport helping to end Apartheid in South Africa. We see it currently with the Olympics and the IFSC banning Russia … Climbing is no different.”
He adds that he enjoys the “immense privilege” of being able to climb and not think about politics—something his friends in Ramallah, a city in the West Bank, do not share. As a Denver resident, Schiffer can reach Clear Creek Canyon in 40 minutes on evenings and weekends. “Our friends in Palestine live even closer to their crag, but it can take them three times longer to get there because they’re going through military checkpoints. Then there are settlers there, the IDF there, and maybe Israeli climbers there who will call the IDF,” he says. If they get to climb at all, it will certainly not be without a reminder of the occupation.
Schiffer has no plans to organize a cross-country tour for the banner. However, if other climbers want to borrow it and display it to their communities, he says he would be “thrilled” to pass it along.
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