ABSTRACT: There's an explosion of interest in
climbing these days, with thousands of people now
using climbing gyms as a way to get exercise. Many
new climbers are heading outdoors to test their
skills on some of California's real rocks. But the
influx of new climbers has had a widespread impact on
natural resources and many of the managers of
California's parks and wilderness areas are talking
about limits.
TRANSCRIPT:
Host: David Wright
Subject: Mountain Climbing
There's an explosion of interest these days in
climbing, with thousands of people now using climbing
gyms as a way to exercise. Many of these new indoor
climbers are heading out for the mountains to test
their skills on the surfaces of some of California's
real rocks, but they are leaving a different sort of
trail behind and California park stewards are now
pushing for new regulations. Robin White reports.
Traditionally, rock-climbing used to be a quiet and
contemplative sport. All you needed was rope and a
cliff and some pitons to attach yourself to it.
These days there is another tool. The cordless
electric drill came onto the market in 1976 and has
transformed climbing. Climbers used to follow crack
systems in rock faces because cracks provided secure
hand and foot holds. They also gave climbers a place
to attach removable devices which would hold them on
the rock. Now with drills, climbers can put up bolts
and go virtually anywhere on the rock face.
Mark Fincher, Climbing Ranger in the Yosemite Valley,
approaches the bottom of one of Yosemite's three
thousand foot cliffs and points out the original
climbing spot.
These were the original two climbs, at these areas in
those two cracks there, and they were fairly popular.
They got a fair amount of use. You know this area
was still denuded of vegetation before all these
other climbs went in, but it didn't extend too far.
That whole area was still vegetated. Then in the
space of about three years all of these other climbs
went in - probably forty new climbs all went in.
Virtually all bolt protected.
And Fincher points out the results. Hundreds of
small bolts pepper the cliff. There are white
patches left by chalk which climbers use to dry
sweaty palms. There is erosion and there is trash.
Brightly colored nylon slings left by climbers sixty
feet up on the rock. It is all the result relatively
new style of climbing call "sport-climbing".
Developed in gyms, sport-climbing emphasizes short
routes and variety.
In the Owens River Gorge, a private area east of the
Sierra Nevada, there are a thousand short routes in
a mile. Climbing routes this dense are a growing
concern to wilderness managers.
Jerry Stokes, Assistant Director for Wilderness with
the U.S. Forest Service in Washington D.C., said it
goes back to fundamentals of wilderness management.
With each issue that arises, we have to go back and
revisit the Wilderness Act initially to see if this
activity fits within what Congress intended that
wilderness be managed for.
The 1964 Wilderness Act was written before the advent
of sport-climbing, but it bans most kinds of
mechanized activity in wilderness areas. Two years
ago the Forest Service used the Act to propose a ban
on U-Bolts in the wilderness. The proposal set off a
landslide of criticism from climbers.
At Pinnacles National Monument in central California,
Sam Davidson stands on the ground feeding a rope to
his partner who is clipping in to bolts placed by
previous climbers.
Sounds dubious. (tap tap tap)
What's he doing there? He's tapping on the rock?
He's testing the rock quality. The quality of a
certain hold by just tapping with the palm of his
hand.
Davidson is a paid organizer for the Access Fund, the
non-profit organization which advocates for climbers'
rights. He says the Forest Service's proposed ban on
bolts, which he calls fixed anchors, is ignoring the
importance of climbers' safety.
If a lightning storm comes in on you for example I
mean you are the greatest conduit up there on the
rock and sometimes you have to get off in a hurry.
The option of being able leave a fixed anchor is very
important to climbers. You may not have to, but you
should have the option.
That is because fixed anchors give climbers the
safest way to get down from the rock. Organized
opposition by the Access Fund against [the ban on]
rock bolting made the Forest Service back down
temporarily on its proposal, but the service has been
joined by the Bureau of Land Management and some
individual national park managers in calling for
restrictions on new bolts.
Pinnacles Superintendent Gary Candelaria says
enforcing a ban will be impossible without the
cooperation of climbers.
When you are standing looking at the Pinnacles rocks
and the raptors and the falcons are circling over the
top, it's an unbelievable experience and I think that
people who come here tend to know that if they don't
do their part that may be something that disappears.
For its part, the U.S. Forest Service is holding a
series of public hearings this fall which could
affect the future of bolted climbing on Mt. Whitney,
California's highest mountain, and in thirty-two
other wilderness areas in the State.
For the California Report, I'm Robin White.
