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bluering
Trad climber
Santa Clara, CA
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Dec 16, 2010 - 08:46pm PT
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Funny you should ask, Wade. Just today I received an response to an email thread we have going where someone (I'll not name unless they'd graciously like to chime in) donated $1000 to the AF for the Summit Rock project.
I've volunteered to gather a small working group to be the front-people on this to talk with local authorities, but alas, I've been busy at my new workplace working mucho overtime.
Apparently we even may have a recent young-gun law graduate that will join the group. I should contact him soon. I just found out about it today.
Anybody who'd like to join our group can. It would probably involve petitioning city/county officials to hear us out in re-thining their somewhat illegal rules. We may even have to go higher than local officials and get State/Fed reps involved.
E-mail me if interested and I can add you to our working group. The city/county is trying to play hardball but we may have found a loophole to their justification. We may need legal fees and personal support, hopefully from individuals who are more clean-cut than I.
That's your update.
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Bruce Morris
Social climber
Belmont, California
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 14, 2012 - 03:36pm PT
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Yesterday, I visited Summit Rock with members of the Santa Clara County Park & Recreation Commission, advocates from the Audubon Society, representatives of State Department of Fish and Wildlife, and Paul Minault from the Access Fund to discuss reopening the rock to climbing on a seasonal basis to allow raptor nesting. Prof. Clayton White of BYU was flown out by the Access Fund (with matching funds from Planet Granite) to provide his expert opinion, which was, to summarize, that the presence climbers would not stress the peregrines out during the non-breeding season. Boy was it cold & wet!
It seems as though the only people who have been going to Summit Rock since the closure in 2008 are local gangs, who have been tagging all over the rock to mark out their territory:
After returning to the SC Park and Recreation Dept. headquarters in Los Gatos, the meeting that followed seemed to offer a slight possibility that Summit could be reopened to climbing during the non-breeding season. A male peregrine even made an appearance in the sky above us during the time we were discussing the matter at the base of the rock. Prof. White pointed out that the bird was not stressed by our presence there, which may have influenced the Commission to react positively to our request. Wait and see!
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tornado
climber
lawrence kansas
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Feb 14, 2012 - 03:41pm PT
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Thanks Bruce!!
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briham89
Trad climber
los gatos. ca
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Feb 14, 2012 - 03:42pm PT
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Thanks a lot! That will be awesome if it reopens even partially.
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karodrinker
Trad climber
San Jose, CA
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Feb 14, 2012 - 04:53pm PT
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super psyched! Lets clean that place up!
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dfinnecy
Social climber
'stralia
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Feb 14, 2012 - 05:09pm PT
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the tagging is just obscene. Summit has always been a bit of a glass pile but I don't remember anything like that!
Visiting CRSP a few weeks back while passing through the area I was dismayed to see a bunch of tags there as well, what's up with the beige sombreros on all the rocks out by the falls and Western Addition?
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Wade Icey
Trad climber
www.alohashirtrescue.com
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Feb 14, 2012 - 06:16pm PT
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Hmmm...What if a bunch of dirty rock climbers got together and cleaned up that sh#t?
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Bruce Morris
Social climber
Belmont, California
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 14, 2012 - 06:45pm PT
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After dark, both Castle and Summit have become lawless zones ruled by the local gangs and partyers. While the Rangers and Eco-freaks worry about climbers damaging the environment; they are totally helpless to stop these punks from tagging every bit of rock in sight. There is even a gold line rope installed in the cave where the peregrines have been nesting that allows them to get up there and tag. The 'sombrero' incidentally is a gang symbol. If Castle ever gets closed, it's obvious that the gangs will turn the whole area into a marijuana plantation. I bet it's only a matter of time until one of the Rangers gets shot!
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tom woods
Gym climber
Bishop, CA
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Feb 14, 2012 - 09:49pm PT
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Wow, that's a sad shot of Summit Rock.
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Dr.Sprock
Boulder climber
I'm James Brown, Bi-atch!
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Feb 14, 2012 - 09:50pm PT
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probably just some drunken punks,
we used to party up there back in 1970 to 73 when it was legal to park on skyline,
had a good time but never did any lameass sh#t like tagging a rock,
i'm gonna sit up in a tree with an air riffle and blast those punks in the ass from about a 1/4 mile out,
anybody wanna help?
we can make our escape down the illegal bmx trail onto sanborn, then up stevens canyon to a ranch i know run by bluey and the blue notes,
anybody like the coasters? not bmx but the band.
did they clean up the plantation supplies that wre rounded up down below california wall or are the choppers still waiting for a wind free day to get rid of that disgraceful garbage dump, wtf, over?
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bluering
Trad climber
Santa Clara, CA
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Feb 14, 2012 - 09:55pm PT
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Keep me posted, Bruce, on my pm-email.
Have you ran into the new ranger up ther yet? He's pretty cool. He climbs too.
Thanks for persevering on this sh#t, man....
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Dr.Sprock
Boulder climber
I'm James Brown, Bi-atch!
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Feb 14, 2012 - 10:03pm PT
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miles is back,
over...
they should but a brethalizer in the parking lot at crsp,
or maybe not,
i caught fatty taggin some rocks at summit, over...
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bluering
Trad climber
Santa Clara, CA
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Feb 14, 2012 - 10:21pm PT
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Sprock, you'd like the new man in town. He's a strict, yet fair guy.
Bruce, lemme know if you need more help on this. What should I do? Even the new LEO is asking about status updates. He says he makes busts up there still. (Taggers and the like...)
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Bruce Morris
Social climber
Belmont, California
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 15, 2012 - 12:32am PT
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"Have you ran into the new ranger up ther yet?"
Where? At Summit (Sanborn County Park) or at Castle Rock SP?
Do you think they might be getting a real climbing ranger at CRSP?
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Dr.Sprock
Boulder climber
I'm James Brown, Bi-atch!
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Feb 15, 2012 - 01:58am PT
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take the train from sunnyvale to the shark tank somtime,
couple miles of siding all done up nice and pretty,
then there is the stuff rollin in to oaktown, some of it pretty decent,
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Dr.Sprock
Boulder climber
I'm James Brown, Bi-atch!
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Feb 15, 2012 - 02:14am PT
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every place has it's downside,
yosemite is a climbers paradise, but then the tourons,
joshua is nice but you can't smoke weed,
well, i mean,
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healyje
Trad climber
Portland, Oregon
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Feb 15, 2012 - 05:34am PT
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Bruce - good on ya man. That's pulling it together right.
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Bruce Morris
Social climber
Belmont, California
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 15, 2012 - 02:30pm PT
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To make a long story short, it was very gratifying to listen to Prof. Clayton White lecturing the SC Parks and Recreation Dept. about the false premises behind their blanket closure of Summit Rock. Prof. White's main point was that climbers, at least in the non-breeding season, did not stress out peregrines in the least. It is only during the nesting, breeding and fledging season that peregrines exhibit aggressive behavior toward intruders into their environment. In other words, there is no reason whatsoever that climbers should not be allowed to climb on Summit Rock from approximately late July to December; at least, no scientific reason. Of course, there are still some hardline people in the Department who would rather not pay attention to the scientific evidence, no matter what it implies, but they really couldn't disagree with Prof. White because he is the world's leading expert on peregrine falcons with literally hundreds of publications in the field.
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Doug Robinson
Trad climber
Santa Cruz
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Feb 15, 2012 - 02:41pm PT
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Thanks, Bruce!
Really cool to hear the calm voice of real knowledge raining down a reality check on the Park folks.
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billygoat
climber
Pees on beard to seek mates.
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Feb 15, 2012 - 02:42pm PT
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Good to hear the PG money went to use. It was a big project personal project to bring Doug over and do a slideshow, I hope good results come of it when all is said and done. Next up: some big time events to fuel a privately funded budget for Castle Rock and Portola Redwoods. Keep posted. PG is aiming to do a big matching event in March, Pacific Edge a (most likely smaller scale) event in April, and I'm personally aiming to do two HUGE events in May (one in Santa Cruz and one in the East Bay). I think keeping all those skyline area parks open is imperative to the environmental health of the region. And we all know how much fun can be had if we're responsible in with our use. Lets keep up the hard work!
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