Fellow Climbers:
After being denied access by a closed gate myself last weekend, I thought it important to do a little digging. That is when I came upon this discussion. After absorbing information from several of your postings including opinions, history, and suggestions of people to talk to I made a couple phone calls and ended up talking to Matt Morrison who works at the Wenatchee Confluence State Park. He’s a nice guy. Although I did not get his title, it sounds as though he runs things at that station. The number there is 509-664-6373. The more friendly AND opinionated climbers he talks to the better. I learned a lot when talking to him about my disappointment in the early closure of the Peshastin Pinnacle State Park (PPSP). Here are a few of the highlights, potential ways to get involved, and all kinds of things to talk and nag about:
1. The have funding for and are searching for a full-time ranger. They will be interviewing in the up and coming months. I can’t think of a better way to ensure that I get what I want than to have a fellow climber serving as the ranger at PPSP.
2. Open v. Closed. PPSP was supposed to be open until October 16 (I expressed that this was still too early), but they had a major catastrophe at the park. Here is the story that Matt gave me, and I believe it. He was given short notice from those higher up that the removal of the sewer vaults of the old bathroom. So, he shut the park down with very short notice. On October 9th, they brought equipment in to remove the old sewer vaults and started in, only to find that when it was pumped out earlier, it was not done all the way. The result was serious contamination of the area due to the raw sewage that spilled out. The soil contamination problem is not been cleaned up yet because the truck to be used needs a new transmission (meanwhile solid waste is leaching into the soil and the ground water…?!?). This is something that I, for one will be checking back in with Matt on. It is important that they get that cleaned up right away for many reasons, one being a timely opening of the park in the spring. He said he has no problem extending the season if the weather is good next year.
side note: Matt said that over the summer months there was a flash flood that washed out the trail they had just reestablished/renovated and he made the decision not to close the park to redo the trail because it looked like the climbers were doing a good job of safely navigating the wash and essentially creating their own trail.
3. Official decisions by the State Park service (Agency/Matt) must be approved by the Washington Parks Commission (Commission). The time of closure right now is October 16. Matt said that if he officially changes the closure he has to go through the Commission. So he generally just keeps the park open longer than that on his own accord, weather permitting (he said he did so last year). This year, there were special circumstances due to the construction/deconstruction of bathrooms. He asked what a thought about when it should be open to. I told him that I personally would use the park long into November, and again in early March even April. I explained that just because the ground is wet doesn’t mean the rock is. I also told him that there was significant interest among all climbers, myself included, in having the park open year round. Here’s the reason for not doing that: maintenance. He would have to plow the road and, etc, etc.
4. Wenatchee Land Classification Plan: This is a plan being done through the Park Service where they classify or zone the land within state parks of this region. This plan is in the works and there is going to be public comment opportunity in December, Matt thought it would be sometime the second week in December. The folks to talk to about this are: Bruce Beyerl (509) 663-9730 lake.wenatchee.planning@parks.wa.gov. Right now PPSP is divided into two zones “resource area” and “recreation area.” The resource area is where we climb, defined resource because the resource, rock, is what the attraction is. As opposed to the “recreation” area or the rest of the park. Sounds like a lot less impact/development happens in resource areas, which is the way I personally like it. But you would have an opportunity to comment on the way the land is divided if you wanted to go to the public comment meeting.
5. Matt is open to suggestions on improvements. Here are a few that he has heard of already: (1)benches at the base of some climbs; (2) signage denoting which slab you are at; (3) a brochure. I expressed to him my own personal opinion that I have never been to a climbing area that had benches and that I would prefer not to have benches at the base of any climb. I also expressed that I think some simple signage may be effective and useful but that generally, that is what guidebooks are for. If you have other suggestions of improvements for Matt you should contact him and let him know.
6. As a side note, it sounds like they are trying to reopen Squilchuck, the old ski area before Mission Ridge, as a sledding area. This came up when I talked to him about leaving PPSP open year round. I would imagine it will divide resources even more over the winter months. I asked if there would be a skate or classic track maintained there and he said no.
Hope this helps.
