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healyje
Trad climber
Portland, Oregon
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Jul 22, 2011 - 12:46pm PT
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Last I checked the Interior Dept. and most state park department staffs had access to and know how to use email, an intranet and the internet and you could tell that by the speed of the Delicate Arch response. The NW is a small place when it gets down to it, perceptions count, and Smith is known the world over for climbing so guess what? They have a staff that's actually tuned-in to the goings on and antics one of its major user constituencies.
You only have to see incidents like this, Vernal Falls, and any number of others to realize if you make something like a swing a publicly seminal part of the Smith climbing experience then you can be guaranteed a percentage of the jumpers will be totally clueless. It's simply unavoidable as has just been demonstrated and the 'fallout' will be such that the park administration will in fact have to deal with it in a public, and likely negative, way.
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jstan
climber
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Jul 22, 2011 - 01:57pm PT
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"More likely, they would laugh and feel as though they have succeeded in creating a subculture of individuals who take policing themselves to an absurd level."
At a time when reductions in force even among public employees are coming onto the table you may rest assured there is little laughing. Indeed even in the absence of economic difficulties, this is not the spirit in which managers approach their job. The then superintendent of JTNP phrased it very well when he said, "It is our job to manage JTNP. We will do our job."
When the actions of one user of public land causes injury to another user I think we all count on the managers to do their job.
This situation will be managed.
The management problem at Smith Rock seems very straightforward compared to that at Vernal Falls. Rest assured people in the NPS are just as puzzled as you or I as to what more could be done at Vernal Falls. Right now the received wisdom is, "What we have done already is what best meets the requirements of the public." Time will tell however. Changes were deemed necessary, and were taken, on Half Dome.
If the NPS were to bite the cost bullet and station personnel at Vernal Falls I suppose it would be useful, statistically, to do so only during spring runoff. But consider. If the ranger was pulled on a Wednesday and there was a death on Thursday, what do you suppose we would hear being said?
People are far harder to manage than even cats. The deaths at Vernal Falls in the presence of both signs and a fence and the spirit evidenced in some posts on ST are sufficient to remove any doubts we might have had on that point.
Edit:
Joe:
I think the situation at Vernal Falls is hard to manage because there is no way to tell who is going to climb over the fence and it takes just a moment. You would have to station personnel there constantly. If swingers at Smith pose a recurring danger to other visitors, the act amounts to reckless endangerment and persons can be arrested and charged. If the act becomes an integral part of the climbing scene, you can draw the conclusion as to what may become necessary better than can I.
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healyje
Trad climber
Portland, Oregon
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Jul 22, 2011 - 02:19pm PT
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The management problem at Smith Rock seems very straightforward compared to that at Vernal Falls.
The point was once you make something seminal to a visit - like Vernal Falls at Yosemite - there are no management measures on earth that will prevent Murphy and Darwin from having their way. In the case of Smith if the swing became a must-do aspect of climbing in the park it would become a regular and likely annual scene of bad juju.
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dr. juicer kaniglio
Trad climber
san diego, ca
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Jul 24, 2011 - 10:57pm PT
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Liz, Nice to talk with you yesterday. Glad your recovery is going well. Sounds like you will be climbing again soon enough.. Call me if you guys need anything during your trip to the Eastside!
Om, Justin M
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TGT
Social climber
So Cal
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Jul 24, 2011 - 11:07pm PT
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The press can be creative,
Boy, there's an understatement!
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John Ely
Trad climber
DC
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This does sound like negligence or reckless endangerment to me. I frankly think introduction of the law in this case would actually help distinguish climbers from yoyos. Isn't that climbers actually policing/purging themselves, rather than dimwits suing a gear company?
Dan Osman was a great performance artist who may have banged the head of a belayer or two on the Rostrum, but never recklessly endangered other near by pedestrians, hikers, climbers, or other innocent people.
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Archer
Trad climber
Portland, OR
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You nailed it couchmaster. Climbing is fun, rope swings are fun, highlining is fun, life is fun; and it's all f*#king dangerous. I really hope that they keep the swing open... never before has the park chopped bolts and Smith, and I hope things remain this way.
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