Leave wilderness out
of your
climbing plans
Dear
HCN,
I, for one, and I suspect there are others,
applaud the Forest Service’s ban on fixed anchors. Wilderness areas
are not to be permanently marred by man – regardless of how
insignificant the marring is (HCN, 8/17/98).
We
don’t allow motorized vehicles, bicycles or hang-gliders in our
wilderness areas. Why should we allow the permanent placement of
climbing anchors? The tracks from bicycles and the damage caused by
the landing of a hang-glider are surely not as permanently damaging
to the wilderness as a bolt driven into the living rock; a bolt,
which for all practical purposes, will be there forever. Why should
climbers be given the right to damage wilderness areas while the
other aforementioned user groups are not?
It
appears to me that Armando Menocal is more concerned with climbing
than he is with the welfare of wilderness. May I suggest that he do
his climbing outside of wilderness areas, where he can drive all
the bolts his heart
desires!
Jerry D.
Orr
Tucson,
Arizona
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Leave wilderness out of your climbing plans.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
