pindude Posted April 11, 2003 Share Posted April 11, 2003 All cc.comers, friends, and family are invited to Minnehaha Rocks in Spokane Saturday, May 17 for a cleanup, fun outdoor climbing comp, climbers’ festival, and benefit for the Access Fund. Presented by the Spokane Mountaineers, and title sponsored by Mountain Gear, Omega Pacific, and Wild Walls. Also sponsored by REI, Mountain Goat Outfitters, All About Sports, Vertical Earth, Scarpa, Blue Water Ropes, The North Face, La Sportiva, Metolius, Petzl, Five.Ten, David's Pizza, Northern Lights Beer, Fat Tuesday's, and more. We’ll have close to 100 top-rope and bouldering routes set up, final number dependent on the number of competitors. The festival will also feature a rock shoe demo, free climbing instruction for beginners and kids, displays by local vendors, a free barbeque lunch, and an evening awards/rewards reception where we’ll raffle and award great prizes over Spokane’s best pizza and micros. Schedule: 8:00: Begin Registration, Cleanup, Raffle and T-shirt sales 10:00-4:00: Climbing activities including Rock Shoe Demo, Free Instruction, Vendor Displays 11:00-12:00: Free Barbeque and Lunch 12:00-4:00: Free Climbing Comp on dozens of top-roped and boulder problems 5:00-9:00: Awards and raffle prizes, slide show, pizza from David’s Pizza, Northern Lights beer, at Fat Tuesday’s Last year's cleanup was so successful ($50,000 worth of cleanup including sandblasting 50+ years’ worth of graffiti off rocks), we can concentrate this year more on fun stuff. The 2003 Minnehaha Climbers’ Rendezvous is a revival of the fun comps held there from the late 1980s and early 90s, but is bigger and better. All daytime activities, including the climbing comp and barbeque, are free thanks to our sponsors and volunteers. T-shirts, and raffle tickets for LOTS of great prizes, will be sold to benefit the Access Fund who have been supportive of Minnehaha Rocks since it was saved from development in the 1980s. Forms and further info will be available at the following web site: http://www.spokanemountaineers.org. To register for the fun comp and to order a T-shirt, fill out the Fun Comp Registration Form and Waiver and send them in by mail before May 6, or drop them off in person at Mountain Gear or Wild Walls in Spokane. You can also register On-site at the Rendezvous on May 17. (If forms are not available at the above web site, e-mail sreynold@icehouse.net.) The fun comp has categories for local/non-local, male/female, novice (5.8)/intermediate (5.10)/advanced (5.11+), and special age divisions for kids (12 and under), and masters (45 and over). T-shirts are $20 each prior to May 9, $25 after, and will benefit the Access Fund. Map and directions from Airport/I-90, to Minnehaha Rocks at George Shields Park: http://maps.yahoo.com/py/ddResults.py?Pyt=Tmap&ed=cCbfIOV.wikjZdPOezUtbk17kF.9waCdEnWxvSl1xVi.O75C5WqH2dX0XRu_uKytGjYT9h3u8dQXuVo8Hw--&newcsz=Spokane,+WA&newcountry=us&newtcsz=Spokane,+WA+99217&newtcountry=us&osd=n&dsd=n Camping is available at Riverside State Park: http://www.parks.wa.gov/parkpage.asp?selectedpark=Riverside&pageno=1 Still welcome are sponsors to donate raffle prizes or display. Also welcome are volunteers to act as belayers and judges. For more information, contact Steve Reynolds at sreynold@icehouse.net. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter_Puget Posted April 11, 2003 Share Posted April 11, 2003 I know lots of you cc.comers are going to slam this as being too comercial and so on, BUT especially if you have never been to Minnehaha, this is a really fun event at a super groovy place to boot. Minnehaha has lots of fun bouldering but most of the routes are too big for bouldering. With TRs set up you will be able to climb LOTS of quality routes. The atmosphere is fun and if you aren't into a comp go to support the event and enjoy the TRs. The rock is good. Pretty pine forest and if you spend the night you can check out Dishman or the limestone crags on Sunday! I went because I thought it was better than staying home on a rainy Puget Sound weekend. On the way home I realized it was one of the best climbing trips of the year! Fav routes: Any on Don Quixote Wall esp Oomph! Secondary Face is fun as well. Good mix of easy to hard routes too. PP Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pindude Posted April 11, 2003 Author Share Posted April 11, 2003 Thanks, pp, for the endorsement. Minne can get dissed because it's in an urban environment, but it's really a pretty special place. Too bad the Seattle area doesn't have anything like it. It's a killer bouldering area in addition to all its one-pitch climbs. While the event may seem commercial with all the company sponsors, that's exactly how we're able to receive prizes--the more the better--donated for the raffle and for the climbing category winners. Focus on previous comps has been on the fun, this'll be no exception. We'll have some of the locals out there Saturday who I'm sure on Sunday will be glad to take some of you out to some of the excellent limestone routes recently established around Spokane. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jake Posted April 11, 2003 Share Posted April 11, 2003 How about cleaning up some of those bolts? There are some weird ones out there that are pretty sketchy looking or are in strange locations that don't seem to be very useful. Somebody ought to shoot all of those idiots with the spray paint and the broken glass too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sabertooth Posted April 12, 2003 Share Posted April 12, 2003 What really needs to happen is to arrest those bastard paintballers pegging the climbers and trying to knock them off. It's a good thing they run fast. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lummox Posted April 12, 2003 Share Posted April 12, 2003 Sabertooth said: What really needs to happen is to arrest those bastard paintballers pegging the climbers and trying to knock them off. It's a good thing they run fast. get fucking burp on the job. he can kick paintball kids ass like no one can. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pindude Posted April 12, 2003 Author Share Posted April 12, 2003 Jake said: How about cleaning up some of those bolts? There are some weird ones out there that are pretty sketchy looking or are in strange locations that don't seem to be very useful. Somebody ought to shoot all of those idiots with the spray paint and the broken glass too. 1. Re. Cleaning up bolts: What do you mean "sketchy looking?" Which ones? Last year I removed a bunch of 15+ year old button heads, and replaced with new 3/8" expansion, so hopefully there are no more sketchy bolts out there on TOP, at least for TR set-ups. However, we still do have a few button heads on faces out there that need to be replaced, and that's planned soon. There are indeed lots of bolts on top, and for some climbs you'll see 3-4 bolts seemingly for one climb. As this is the urban crag, all those bolts are used by firefighters and climbers doing rescue training, and also by schools who top-rope belay first-time rappellers. Some bolts are placed near the edge for TR anchors, and some of the bolts farther back are also used by lead climbers to belay after they have topped out and are bringing up their second. 2. Re. spray paint and broken glass: If you've been out there since May of last year, you'll see we sandblasted off 95%+ of all the graffiti, and soot left over from party fires (and ALL the graffiti in the main climbing areas): all the sandblasting equipment and sand was donated, we worked 5+ days with more than 25 volunteers, and had to specially rig and belay. As some of us are contractors, we figured conservatively the sandblasting work alone was worth $35,000. Broken glass is still a *$en problem, as are paintballers. We've got the some of the deputy sheriffs making Minne part of their beat at night, the Centennial Trail Ranger also checks out the place during his shifts, and in the summer County Parks has private security patrol the front area, but there are still quite a few who get away with smashing their bottles against the rocks, virtually always in the dead of night. If you see paintballers out there, there's one group I've been trying to catch for a year--if any of you see them out there, call me ASAP at 869-1122 and I'll deal with them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pindude Posted April 12, 2003 Author Share Posted April 12, 2003 Sabertooth said: What really needs to happen is to arrest those bastard paintballers pegging the climbers and trying to knock them off. It's a good thing they run fast. I never knew they were pegging climbers too. PM me Sabretooth, or call me and let me know what happened. --Steve Reynolds Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sabertooth Posted April 12, 2003 Share Posted April 12, 2003 They pegged me back in January. I chased them away. Not a big deal, but I wish the kiddies would play elsewhere. Minehaha is a great climbing place, see you at the event Steve. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jake Posted April 13, 2003 Share Posted April 13, 2003 I agree that what has been done out there is a major improvement and I guess it makes sense about firefighters and stuff using weird setups - though some of the bolts just seem useless they are so far away from the cliff. What I was referring to most of all though were a few bolts, and I don't really remember exactly where on the main wall, that had loose hangers. Anyway, things do look better on the whole, especially since some of that spray paint is gone. By the way, there are other worries out there besides paintballers. I was bouldering out there the other day and saw this scary looking guy probably about 25-30yrs old smoking weed with two preppy high school girls who couldn't have been older than 14. Sex offender in action, I guess. They tried to hide what they were doing and run off when they saw me. It's really too bad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pindude Posted April 14, 2003 Author Share Posted April 14, 2003 Jake, I recently discovered with others 4 bolts above the main wall, each with loose hangars, that need replacing--I'm talking the whole bolt, not just the hangar. Hangars are now off and I'll come back later to remove the studs and either put in a bigger bolt in same hole or coverup and maybe replace. There are at least a couple other bolts I know of, on top to be used mainly for TR anchors, that purposely were put in with hangars that swivel so they can be pulled in more than one direction depending on where the direction of pull is from. Thanks for noticing the improvements. As this is an urban area, there's always going to be some partiers, including unfortunately some real wierdos. Generally they're out just at night after it gets dark out and the glowing runway lights of Felts Field are on. Part of what we're doing with cleanup, etc. is to reestablish ownership and let our presence be known, to cut down on the weird stuff. --Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jake Posted April 14, 2003 Share Posted April 14, 2003 Right on!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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