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hobo_dan
Social climber
Minnesota
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Topic Author's Original Post - Oct 12, 2017 - 04:36pm PT
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My son and I were racking up to do a route at DT when the Park Service Police pull up. Two men get out of the truck and they have a serious, no fun look on there faces. I say Good Morning. They ask how we are and I say "I'm afraid" This sets them off a bit and they ask why? So I say "I'm about to go climb and it always scares me"
This effort to be friendly fails. They keep their heavy on, and they get to the point, and ask my son where he got his hat? He tells them he was used to be a grunt working maintenance for the St. Croix River and this is his old work hat. They tell him that its against the law to wear the hat if you're not working for the NPS- This is the reason they stopped. Now, Neither of us is very fierce, and there was no need for the beetled brow. My son takes off his hat, not a problem. They start to tell stories about what happened to some poor slob who had an NPS patch on his shirt and how they ripped it right off of his shirt. The feeling was if we would have given any sort of push back we would have been on the ground or against the car. For wearing a hat!
I'm thinking about Kerouac and On the Road when he talks about having a cop soul--These two had this very much. Maybe their jobs require the need to always be balled up for potential conflict but they could have just asked us politely and it would have been fine.
A strange and disconcerting way to start a climb.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Oct 12, 2017 - 04:40pm PT
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Seig heil!
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AP
Trad climber
Calgary
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Oct 12, 2017 - 04:42pm PT
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I climbed at Devils Tower with a park ranger once.
He was laughing about an incident the week before. The head ranger fell on the Durrance route, broke an ankle and his underlings did the rescue. He didn't say if they got good performance evaluations for that year.
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c wilmot
climber
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Oct 12, 2017 - 04:46pm PT
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Thats why all my old nps gear went to the appropriate place- the dumpster...
There is good LEO and there is bad LEO... I would file a complaint with the superintendent. It's about all you can do
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hobo_dan
Social climber
Minnesota
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Topic Author's Reply - Oct 12, 2017 - 04:49pm PT
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The rest of the NPS people were aces- hard to say what was going on with those two guys.
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WBraun
climber
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Oct 12, 2017 - 04:59pm PT
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Was the truck marked with NPS arrowheads and US Park Ranger on it?
How was it marked?
Did it have lightbar on the roof?
Did it have GSA license plates?
Where they official Protection division rangers?
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thebravecowboy
climber
The Good Places
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Oct 12, 2017 - 05:12pm PT
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NPS: strange kindergarten-military blend.
technically not illegal, at all. maybe if you wore it while robbing a bank or something.
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Chaz
Trad climber
greater Boss Angeles area
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Oct 12, 2017 - 05:12pm PT
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Hells Angels do the same thing.
Nice to be on the same totem pole as those guys.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Oct 12, 2017 - 05:20pm PT
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I bet that if it was a Navy SEALS hat and you looked the part they woulda
kept on movin'.
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tradmanclimbs
Ice climber
Pomfert VT
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Oct 12, 2017 - 05:27pm PT
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welcome to Trumps amerika.
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nathanael
climber
CA
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Oct 12, 2017 - 05:31pm PT
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What if you had the NPS patch tattooed?
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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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Oct 12, 2017 - 05:31pm PT
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I have had a couple of incidences in Yosemite with the NPS that weren't very pleasant. I have also had many, many more encounters with NPS employees that were great. For the most part NPS employees are helpful and informative. There will always be exceptions where having a badge will lead someone to excess.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Oct 12, 2017 - 05:41pm PT
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Of course, we all have, but you know about apples and barrels, AND WE’RE TALKIN’ ABOUT A FREAKING HAT!
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Q- Ball
Mountain climber
but to scared to climb them anymore
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Oct 12, 2017 - 05:46pm PT
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There are good guys and bad guys with NPS, in every park. Ignore the bad ones and hope you guys had fun climbing!
Edit- had a meting earlier today with the acting interim GSMNP and heard some great research updates from our private organization that funds it.
I hope the idiot didn't scare your son too much. Because that would piss me off!!!
Hugh
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Russ Walling
Social climber
from Poofters Froth, Wyoming
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Oct 12, 2017 - 05:48pm PT
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Always love a reminder why they are called Tools...
#GreenGestapo
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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Oct 12, 2017 - 05:55pm PT
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How was your climb?
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hobo_dan
Social climber
Minnesota
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Topic Author's Reply - Oct 12, 2017 - 06:08pm PT
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Way to cut to it Jay
Bon Homme Variation-from my FB page
Proof that the memory is the second thing to go. Flash backwards 35 years and this route was the trade route that we used to do to shake off rust at Devils Tower. This was what we did to stretch out. So I go back with my son David to climb this. It was like something from the Twilight zone. The first 25 feet are not the hand crack of my memory but they have morphed into a nasty off-width. The traverse to the left was still as crude as ever. But the kicker was the 150 feet of locker hands was gone, and it was replaced by a long thrutch, wrestle, crack. NO move was easy and after 85 feet I was gassed. No point in just resting and then going again as I could see that my fore arms were flamed. So now we had to figure out how to set up the bail. If you look in the picture you can see that my rope is gone. I clipped into two anchors, then untied and let Dave have the rope to set up his rappel so he could get down to where I was. Then we we set up a hanging belay and then set up the rap. We had to deal with the usual cluster that comes with this type of scene: rope stuck in crack, numb ass from hanging in slings (pain went away 4 days later), question whether rope makes it to ground.
All worked out well and we landed safely.
Still I'm amazed at the gulf between reality and memory
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hobo_dan
Social climber
Minnesota
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Topic Author's Reply - Oct 12, 2017 - 06:12pm PT
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The truck was a white NPS Police type SUV- The guy cruised the campground checking who signed in. I'm thinking it had light bars but I really didn't bother to take down the license plate.
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guido
Trad climber
Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific
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Oct 12, 2017 - 06:25pm PT
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hobo dan- what we really need are names of said NPS "Rangers."
Can you provide that?
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hobo_dan
Social climber
Minnesota
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Topic Author's Reply - Oct 12, 2017 - 06:33pm PT
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No-I have no idea what their names are It was the sort of thing that happened and afterwards you kind of shake your head and wonder about it.
Devils Tower Monument was a great place to visit and i feel kind of bad writing about this one event.
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