How To Write A Public Comment

Over the last year and a half I've been receiving a lot of emails from non-profits about public lands. Many of these emails have been about what's going on with public land in southern Utah, a place I love to climb.

Some of the time I delete the emails after briefly scanning them. Sometimes I read the email and take the most minimal action I can on the issue. I am not proud of either of those responses. Increasingly I've been thinking that the amount of time it takes to dig into the issue enough to understand and respond productively is pretty small given the amount of time I spend enjoying myself in these places. In less time than it would take for most readers of this blog to earn the money for a lift ticket at a major ski area, I can do something lot more effective than clicking on a box to send a form letter.

Sometimes the emails are just news, but sometimes they're calls for public comments. In two days the public comment period for the management plan for the new Indian Creek monument (in place of Bears Ears) ends. McKenzie Long recently wrote a great how-to guide to writing a public comment. Read it here. It's aimed at what's going on with Bears Ears right now, but some of the beta could certainly be applied to public comments generally.

Rocktober 2014

For most guides in the lower 48 summer is the busy season and I am no exception. Ever since I started guiding I made it a point to take some time off in the fall. Some years it's just a couple of weeks, but more often it's over a month. Sometimes it begins with The Yosemite Facelift, a fun volunteer event put on by the Yosemite Climbing Association. This year though, I went straight to Red Rocks. It was pretty hot, but we got some fun climbing done in the shade.

On my first day we linked up two somewhat obscure routes: Magic Triangle and Crabby Appleton. Except for the scrambling from the top of Magic Triangle to the Crabby Appleton gully we were in the shade all day. Both routes are worthy for folks looking for something off the beaten path.

Aaron and Geoff staying (just barely) in the shade on Magic Triangle.

Geoff hand-over-handing down a weird old fixed line in the Crabby Appleton gully.

The Black Velvet Wall in the eponymous canyon is one of my favorite spots to climb in Red Rock and it's also not very sunny. Aaron, Braden, and I climbed two very different but very classic routes. Both Prince Of Darkness and Rock Warrior are mid-5.10 and feature hundreds of feet of fun edging. However, Rock Warrior has fewer bolts on the whole route than Prince Of Darkness sports on a typical pitch. As a result Rock Warrior is a lot less traveled and requires solid trad skills - the ability to find and place good gear and then climb above it. Both routes are great, one is all about the movement, and the other is a mental journey. 

A sea of edges on the Black Velvet Wall. Aaron puts the rope up while Braden belays suspiciously.

As fun as Red Rocks was, Jess and I had to leave. We had a wedding to attend in Moab. The ceremony was beautiful and the reception was a fun chance to catch up with old friends and make some new ones. The next morning we drove to Montrose, CO to meet up with our friends Vic and Heather.

We stopped in Zion on the way to Moab for a day of cragging.

 

We saw these two get married just north of Moab.

In the morning-after-wedding-reception haze I drove over my climbing pack. Fortunately my helmet was the only damaged item. I think I might have to retire it.

Vic is a climbing ranger in The Black Canyon Of The Gunnison. For years he's been telling me to come visit and I've been putting it off. I was wrong. The Black is a fantastic place to climb. Looking over the rim reveals thousands of feet of vertical stone in a tight canyon. The rock itself is fantastic to climb on, with good friction, cracks, and featured faces. Even if you're not going to climb there, if you're in the area it's well worth a look.

Vic at a belay on Journey Home, with the Gunnison River churning a thousand feet below.

We climbed a few classics and were welcomed at the North Rim ranger station's end-of-season party. The current guidebook to The Black Canyon is over a decade old. Vic has been plugging away at a new guidebook and the end is in sight. When this thing is published it's going to have great essays, route history, and little works of art masquerading as hand-drawn topos.

Cliffs of Insanity on the far left, Bridger Jacks at the center in the distance, and the Six Shooters on the right.

After saying goodbye for now to Heather and Vic we turned the truck toward Indian Creek, the typical center of gravity for my Rocktober travels. As usual there were sunburns, campfires, gobies, new friends and, oh yeah, lots of amazing splitter crack climbing.

Jess following a fun stembox on one of The Bridger Jacks.

Rocktober is by nature a temporary state and now I'm back home. I went ice climbing yesterday and today it's snowing. Mammoth Mountain Ski Area says they've had 6 inches already at the Main Lodge and chain restrictions are in effect on 395. Winter is here and I am stoked!

Taping For Crack Climbing

I'm smack in the middle of my yearly October rock climbing vacation (or Roctober, best spoken like an enthusiastic classic rock DJ). I've been climbing and catching up with friends old and new at some great locations, including Red Rocks, Zion, Indian Creek, and The Black Canyon.

I'm also learning a lot. As usual I'll spend the most time in Indian Creek this Roctober; I'm writing this from Moab's excellent public library. Indian Creek always teaches me a lot about crack climbing and trying hard. Another thing I'm learning on this visit is how to tape my hands.

Taping wasn't really something I saw climbers doing a lot when I was learning to climb in New Hampshire. Over the years I tried making tape gloves a few times, but they always took a long time to make, never lasted more than a pitch or two, and usually made the climbing harder. Climbing on the sometimes sharp rock of Joshua Tree taught me that "milking" the jams always led to bleeding and that it was best to put the hands or fingers (or more) in the crack and accept the jam for what it was. I still rarely use tape. After a few weeks in the Creek I usually have my share of gobies, but they've never been a huge problem.

I recognize that I am in the minority here. For most climbers, crack movement does not come naturally, and taped hands are a very effective "training wheel" when learning different sizes. I've come to see that as a guide it benefits me and my clients if I know a great taping method. I did some research before Roctober began and was looking for a method that didn't take a lot of time or tape, was easy to remember, and didn't change the size of my hand too much. This last one was a problem I've always had with the reusable tape glove.

The best method and tutorial I've found was by crack master (or mistress?) Steph Davis. She writes about  it on her blog, and is in a great instructional video. She advocates for 1.5" wide tape, but I've had good success with 1". As with learning anything new, practice is important, and the best place to practice might not be at the crag right when it's your turn to climb. She's also spot on with her recommendation of the Mueller Europtape. It can be found at climbing shops here in Moab and also at Eastside Sports in Bishop. If your local shop doesn't carry it, they should.

Rocktober

Every year I take a big chunk of time off in the fall. By early October the summer climbing season has come to a close in the High Sierra and work and play have slowed down. This coincides with a particularly nice time of year to climb in desert destinations like Red Rocks, Zion, the Moab area, and Indian Creek. This time off usually encompasses October and quite a bit of November, and I spend it enjoying some of the desert's finest rock climbs. So, taking a page from classic rock radio, I call my fall vacation "Rocktober".

Just like the more extended dirtbag climbing trips I've taken in days gone by, the two best parts of Rocktober are the climbing itself, and the people I get to climb and hang out with. Every fall it's a mixed bag of folks I already know and new friends. This year was no exception. Jed came along for his first Rocktober and wrote a neat little thing about the people.

For now I'm back in California, holed up at The Hopping Rabbit Farm near Yosemite and enjoying the dregs of Rocktober. Soon I'll be back in the Eastern Sierra for late fall and winter sport climbing, bouldering, ice climbing, hot tubbing, alpine climbing, skiing, movie watching, and all the other fun stuff we get to do in the Mammoth area.