jessehuey

By doing it in two pitches we simul climbed until we were out of draws which just happened to allow us to only meet up once on the route. Lots of times we only had clipped only one or two bolts on the lower half of the route then like every third up high. We just belayed each other with our body weight and never really used standard belays. That felt actually safe with the rope we had since it was only like 90 feet long. I remember thinking that two really good climbers (like timmy and dean), who were in great aerobic shape, could knock that thing out in under an hour. Id love to hear if someone has done it? When we hiked off the back side, we totally got cliffed out, which was unexpected and had BARLEY enough rope to get off, with fixing our line. After we fixed it, we ran into another cliffed out section that made the descent herendous. We traversed 60° slide alder just above a cliffband forever before we found a weakness dropping us into the final drainage and onto the road. We were up there for at least 8 hours on the descent alone. There is no way I am walking down the back side of that thing ever again.

My partner Shane and I climbed the route last year in 2:01 then walked off the back side. I think the descent took us literally 8 hours and was horrible! We took a 80' gym rope 25 draws and did the entire thing in two pitches. We talked about trying to get the time under an hour but there is no way I am ever walking off that thing again. I think the beta is to have friends climb the route above you (which is kinda scary on that route) and then rap with them and try to get the route in under an hour. I am sure it is possible but definetly not if you are doing a car to car ascent.

Sounds good for 7:30, See you all there.

MEETING: I propose a meeting in conjunction with the Washington Climber Coalition at Hales Ale, Thursday Feb. 23rd. It will allow us to brainstorm together and come get a concensous as to how we wanna go about this. After that we can meet with the ORV guys, the State, and DNR with our ideas. How does this sound to everyone. I am completely flexible on the day, time and location if someone would move it around to another time. I have a date with Sea of Vapors this weekend in Banff so I won't be back until Wed. Unless otherwise posted I will be at hales on Thursday.

Well I am really excited to see that there are alot of other people out there who care about this and who have really good ideas to add in to some sort of a solution. I think I agree with about every thing that each of us have brought up. I have spoken with all of the agencies involved here and they are each interested in working with us. I think that we as a unified body (of climbers) need to come up with a creative solution. Then we can take that to the other groups and get their input ie. the ORV users, the land managers, etc. and see if we can get somewhere. I think a meeting to brainstorm amongst ourselves is a good idea. I would say of the last 10 times I have been to the upper wall one third of those times something has been thrown off while I have been there.

How about Hales Ale in Freemont on thursday the 23rd at 8:00PM. We can change places if we need to or the time, I don't mind but I will be gone until Tuesday night.

Just talked with the DNR. Things are looking good. The DNR, State, and our interested group are the keys here. I think we should have a meeting for anyone who is serious about doing something. I am thinking next week. Anyone interested in meeting up.

Just got off the phone with the Sheriffs Office, the Lead SAR Sheriff, and the lead State Park Ranger for the Wallace falls area and have some interesting information. Evidently this problem as many of you know has been ongoing along with the quest for a reasonable solution. Here are the issues at hand. The State Park owens to within 300' off the rim of the cliff. This means that legally the State can only close off access to their boundary. The way in which these people are getting to the top is not the trail at all but a 4x4 road that ends several hundred feet from the wall. When approaching the cliff they are on DNR land. The DNR as most of you know are vastly undermaned and financed when it comes to issues like this. Evidently that 4x4 trail has become a political hotbed for the last several years due to this issue of person induced rock fall and the ROV users. Evidently as much as we want to see that road closed, there are ROV users who want to leave it opened. So here is where it stands. The State Park has closed access to the cliff from the 4x4 trail but this is merely on paper and uninforcable. The 4x4 trail is DNR land and is currently open for use for anyone with vehicle capable of driving back there. I believe the solution to the problem is to close that road down by whatever means necessary. There are many places in this state where one can drive a four wheeler while there are very few places that can complete with the quality of index climbing. So signs aren't going to do it in my opinion. I think we need to go to the source and try and talk to the DNR to close that road.

OK, It seems that the signs at the cliff are getting ripped out, what if we placed one or two along the trail or (road - I hear there is road access to near the top, not sure though) and hope that people going to the top see them.

Having never really explored around the top I was unaware that there were or are signs up there. I think if we wanted to we could make it really hard for any sign to get ripped out ie. metal fence posts in the rock and mortared in? When were they installed? I like the discussion though. What if we hire a perminate sniper to keep watch on the weekends?

Please go to the rock climbing forum and look at this post. I feel it is an important issue that we all need to look at.

To all Index climbers: Over the last several years I have realized that there is a legitimate problem with hikers hiking to the top of the index upper wall and throwing rocks, beer bottles, and objects off the top of the wall. This I believe is a serious issue that we as climbers of Index need to address before someone seriously gets hurt or killed. This Sunday my friend and I were climbing Heavens Gate when several microwave size blocks came flying off the top of the wall between the top out of Heavens Gate and Loving Arms. I watched as the rocks exploded about five feet away from the base of the Davis-Holland Route. I couldn’t help but think as to how many times I personally have sat there and have seen parties there eating lunch or racking up. About three minutes later, bread from a discarded sandwich hit us both in the face while we were at the anchor of the second pitch. Both of us shouted up to the top of the wall to no answers from the hikers. When we topped out I had a “conversation” with the two hikers and they seemed both unapologetic and apathetic to the situation they had put us in or to the danger that they were presenting to the climbers below them. About 10 minutes after we left their “company” I heard more boulders and rocks being trundled off the upper wall in the area of Dana’s Arch. So here poses the question. What can we do to prevent this from happening in the future? I would like to open the forum and see what others have to say and then take some form of action to try and stop this problem. The first idea that comes to mind is that we print several reflective signs and post them on 4x4s in concrete at the base of the trail, along the trail, and at the top of the wall. I have looked into the pricing of these signs and have figured it will run about 50 dollars to make and install a sign roughly. These signs would have a stick figure of a climber, and a few words telling the hikers to beware of the climbers below. I am curious as to if anyone has any other ideas they would like to throw out there to remedy the situation and am curious if there are funds available anywhere to conduct a project like this. Any input would be much appreciated on the topic. Lets start the discussion and take action, Sincerely, Jesse Huey