Unit 3b-I forgot to post yesterday!

Why Our Public Lands Need A Solid Climbing Management Plan

In a 1979 essay written by world-renowned climber Reinhold Messner, he wrote that “bolting is the murder of the impossible”. Never has that phrase held more truth than today, when our public climbing areas have become damaged and littered by climbers with no regard for either other visitors to the area, or the land itself.

I don’t mean to lump all climbers in to this category. I think that a majority of climbers do have respect for other people who use the land as well as the environment. But there are some out there who want to get to the highest places, to scale something that’s never been climbed before, so they can get their fifteen minutes in the spotlight. Bolting is a thing that, when used properly and sparingly, aids climbers in safety and helps them achieve their goals. Safety is the main issue I put forth here. On long climbs, bolts are a necessity for climber safety. They prevent climbers from falling great distances, as well as letting the climber know whether they should continue to attempt a specific climb.

There are some climbers out there who, after failing to succeed at a climb, will just grab their drill and some bolts and put more bolts in all the way up the rack face. This allows them to accomplish a climb that otherwise would have been impossible for them to accomplish. This was the “murder” that Mr. Messner was talking about in his essay. He thought that if you did not have the ability to do it with little or no aid, you had no business being up on the rock.

In January of this year, the National Park Service released a memo from the director establishing new rules regarding bolting in national parks. It places an immediate ban on all new bolting, and will require a permit from the park director to place any new bolts. In order to acquire a permit, you must follow the guidelines set by the specific parks’ climbing management plan. The problem with this, notes the Access Fund, is that not all parks have a climbing management plan, so therefore the ban would be all encompassing, as no permits would be issued due to no person having the authority to issue one.

The Access Fund, a conservation group focused on rock climbing, applaud the new rules, but want a few changes to be made. The main thing they want is for each park to have a climbing management plan in place, not one that lumps all the parks together. Each park is different, they maintain, as is the terrain and the people who use them. They believe that it is only through effective management can this issue of bolts be put to rest.

I wholeheartedly agree with the Access Fund. Though not all climbers will be happy with the new rules, I think it will effectively discourage those who continuously bolt a climb from placing those bolts, and might make them re-think the skills they may need in order to succeed at a particular climb. Through effective management along with the help of the climbing community, we can all pitch in to make our public lands usable for generations to come. I don’t think bolting is the murder of the impossible, but rather a guidebook to use when judging your own abilities.