routes vandalized at vantage

[crazy_erik]

I went out to Vantage last weekend to find that many of the best sportclimbs at vantage had been vandalized. The hangers and nuts had been stolen on at least 8 OF THE BEST sport routes on sunshine wall, and in at least one instance, the anchors had been chopped. We did not encounter any other climbers that day, so I don't know if this is common knowledge yet or not.

Now for the commentary. I have been a very active climber in the Washington climbing community for 14 years, and have observed the progression of sunshine wall and surrounding areas from traditional climbing area to a combination of sport and trad. All one needs to do is to recognize the arete/die-hederal pattern of the area, and basalt columns in general, to understand the balance of trad and sport. The lousy routes were not cleaned - only the good ones, which implies a climber has done this. We saw that only the routes available by easy access from above were "cleaned". I noticed a bit of graffiti in the port-o-let that mentioned "Osama Bill Robbins" as the possible culprit.

I was wondering about our ability to see beyond our own biases.

Any feedback?

[JayB]

Crazy Erik:

There's actually been quite a bit of chatter back and forth about the situation at Vantage. Most of it is contained within the "Access Issues" forum -the good news is that there's already an effort underway to restore the routes that had their hangers stolen.

Cheers,