The climbing gyms of America are breeding climbers who don’t have the first idea about crag ethics. Time and time again I go to popular crags and watch sport climbers, belay improperly, back clip quick draws, top rope through the anchors, or monopolize routes. This is the equivalent at screaming during someone’s back swing in golf. SWING GOLFER GOLFER GOLFER!?!?!!?!?!?!?! I don’t expect these skills to be known or even to be something you could necessarily read about, but you certainly should learn the ethics of the crags you are at. At some locations it may be kosher to top rope on the anchors. In others, monopolizing routes may be the correct edict. The fact of the matter is that for many new outdoor climbers these ideas aren’t even on their radar. Why?
The why is the part that scares me most about the futures of rock climbing and our crags? The gyms certainly aren’t stressing ethics. They are just moneymaking pleasure feeding machines. People who are “gym rats” do not give a flying dung muffin about ethics outdoors. Why would they? They have no need too; there are no environmental or social impacts when climbing at the gym. But when they make that transition to outdoor climbing with the same “I don’t give a shit, I’m just here to rock climb,” mentality it becomes a major problem. I feel there are really only two avenues available for climbers to enter outdoor climbing with respect to the crags and its climbers.
There is the peer method. Experience climbers who take “gumbies” climbing with them, teaching them ethics and know-how as they begin their outdoor climbing experience. Instilling these ethics as just another part of outdoor adventure and climbing. “That is a copperhead… it is poisonous… NO, don’t touch it… (Grumbling) stupid gumbies.” The major problem with this is not all new climbers know experienced climbers, and there are many that don’t care to. The same goes for the veterans. They may not want the responsibility of taking a “newbie” out climbing. The only alternative method, to learning an area’s ethics, is to read, to communicate, and spend time with the locals of a specific area or the crag.
I’ll give you an example. When I began rock climbing outdoors I had no idea what to expect. I knew there was no sport climbing in CT, the land of Ken Nichols, but everyone at the gym said there was tons of toproping. Before I bought a single piece of gear I had purchased the Climbing CT guidebook and read it cover to cover. This, while giving me a baseline, didn’t even begin to cover the cluster fuck that is climbing ethics in CT. While I did all the important stuff right, building anchors in the proper spots for routes, tying anchors to trees and walking off instead of repelling (all things mentioned in the book), I was in no position to understand why there were no bolt anchors. The same always baffled me about the incredibility long hike into Main cliff at Ragged Mountain that the book described. When in fact there was a shorter route.
Ragged Mountian Map (Notice the incredibly long walk)
I later found out that Ken Nichols, who had a whole ton of first ascents in CT, did almost all of them without fixed protection, and he intended the area to stay “pure.” As for the hike, well the short hike crosses private property. The landowners are ok with the locals using it, but they didn’t want the ever-exploding climbing community to be waking though their yards on a daily basis, quite understandable.
Notorious bolt chopping asshole
Another quick example is the climbing in VT. The administrators of their access group called Crag-VT operate more in secrecy then anything else. They have access issues with almost all of their crags, and they are quoted as saying “There will never be a guide book to VT.” This ethic allows them to keep the crowds away and keeps the crags open for the locals. The only people who climb there are people who have learned about the climbing by word of mouth. They have taken the peer approach to ensuring that their crags will be kept safe and clean.
The total opposite is an area like the Red River Gorge, where almost everything is bolted and documented down to the last tree. This area is breeding accidents and has seen a higher increase in the amount of climbing accidents in the recent years then almost any other area. Not to mention the blatant disregard of ethics has lead to the closures and restrictions placed on Torrent Falls, Muir Valley, and most recently Road Side Crag ( Road Side Closure Info ).
Torrent Falls Red River Gorge KY
The only thing that is for certain is for better or worse this sport is becoming mainstream, and the crowds are only going to get worse. So please learn the proper way to respect crags, teach others of your knowledge, listen to the locals, and don’t ever assume you are always right. Keep our crags and areas open and clean for others.
"flying dung muffin" - amazing...
ReplyDeleteGreat article Jay. While I'm not an outdoor person anymore (and I do miss it a lot) I definitely agree with your points. I certainly hated some of our approaches over the years. I am sooo out of shape after all. But that's all part of climbing and the respect we should all have for the sport. I won't forget the time we were at Muir and the idiots to our right were blasting System of a Down or something. As if it was a gym. gross.
Anyway - I was so sad to read about Roadside in RRG being closed a few days ago. That is honestly one of my favorite memories of KY and of my climbing experiences outside.
A lot of your points could even be said about people in general now a days. People would rather do what they want to do because they want to do it than be inconvenienced by social ethics. How many other people's conversations do we have to hear on the T or in the street on a daily basis. But alas. THAT is just the changing of the times -- hoping climbing doesn't continue down the convenience path as well.