No Permanent Address - another ethic problem

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Slabby D

Trad climber

B'ham WA

Jul 27, 2016 - 07:46am PT

Lots of lucid well-thought out replys. But it boils down to this. If you're from CA you have no clue and no business to comment on what it may take to establish or even reach a decent rock climb on the wet side of the PNW. It's a little dirtier up here!

Sierra Ledge Rat

Mountain climber

Old and Broken Down in Appalachia

Jul 27, 2016 - 08:53am PT

What if you're from California and Whidbey Island?

Ghost

climber

A long way from where I started

Jul 27, 2016 - 09:05am PT

Interesting thread bump.

Go back to the top and look all the people who participated. About half of them have been gone from Supertopo for years -- andanother, dirtineye, tradisgood, forest, blumsky, bringmedeath, ropeburn, Jennie, relic, mechrist...

It's strange. You get to know someone here, and then one day something, maybe a bump of an old thread like this one, makes you realize they have been gone for a long time, and you wonder what happened. Why did they leave? What are they doing now? Will they ever come back?

Edit:

What if you're from California and Whidbey Island?

If you're from California, you don't need weapons of moss destruction to get at the rock. If you're from Whidbey Island you don't have any rock to get at.

mouse from merced

Trad climber

The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.

Jul 27, 2016 - 09:39am PT

If you're from CA you have no clue and no business to comment on what it may take to establish or even reach a decent rock climb on the wet side of the PNW.

I'm from California (doh!) And you're FOS.

From the ground to the stance, Lenna's Lieback on Swan Slab is front and center in the Valley. It was climbed by Kim Schmitz and Chris Fredricks in the sixties but never written up. It's now one of the most-climbed routes in the valley.

Maybe they considered it too dirty, for by the time Millis and Urs Truly had begun cleaning it, it may have filled in a bit.

But we Californians made sure the crack was clean and climbable by free methods and clean climbing ethical standards, such as they were back in '70.

Why niggle over a few pads of moss, some branches, and dropped soil? There will be more next year anyway. Unless the route happens to become popular.

When the iron was flying
And the bushes were dying
Those guys weren't crying
They were gettin' it done

And back in the day
No one went that way
It was overgrown with hay
And it wasn't very fun

Sierra Ledge Rat

Mountain climber

Old and Broken Down in Appalachia

Jul 27, 2016 - 09:40am PT

If you're from California, you don't need weapons of moss destruction to get at the rock. If you're from Whidbey Island you don't have any rock to get at.

Too funny
When I lived in the PNW I preferred rock that was too unstable to grow any moss

donini

Trad climber

Ouray, Colorado

Jul 27, 2016 - 09:47am PT

Has anyone considered the effect of multi acre golf courses on the environment....how about Wawona?

Mungeclimber

Trad climber

Nothing creative to say

Jul 27, 2016 - 10:28am PT

Munge still rules and is not remotely endangered.

Why yes, yes I do rule.

Though I do from time to time become endangered.

Oplopanax

Mountain climber

The Deep Woods

Jul 27, 2016 - 01:20pm PT

Cragar

climber

MSLA - MT

Jul 27, 2016 - 01:23pm PT

Kinda makes you wonder about the carbon footprint of FAs in general, and I'm not talking about the machetes. Excessive traveling by plane/etc. adds hella size to your print...think about it. It ijust isn't localized like a golf course mentioned above and folks just don't want to talk about it.

climber

away from the ground

Jul 27, 2016 - 01:46pm PT

I've "relocated" thousands of pounds of dirt, moss, lichen, stone, and patina while either desperately digging for gear, or polishing a soon to be classic route at a roadside-ish crag.

Sometimes it's done without thought. On rare occasion, a unique or beautiful form of plant life gives me pause.

One occasion , pulling from an overhanging finger crack into an even steeper OW (ugh!) though pumped, I HAD to stop and wonder at the swath of black flower lichen that surrounded me on all sides. It had been slowly growing there for thousands of years, until me, puny human dared venture into its domain. I tried my best to leave as much of it undisturbed as possible.
That memory is still very clear in my mind. Clawing up the wideness in the setting sun, all around blue sky, grey and black granite, and surrounded by ancient and delicate life that had seen tens of thousands of beautiful sunsets from its perch on that overhanging wall. My passage was just a blink.

The next week I tore off a few truckloads of common green moss and dirt to find gear for an anchor on a different route, and was just pissed I had to move so much sh#t out of my way.
What it is.