Impact of Primal Quest on X-Dome

[dberdinka]

Maybe I missed the discussion in the last two weeks but I'm a bit surprised not to see anything on the impact of the Subaru Primal Quest Adventure Race on Exfoliation Dome and the Clear Creek Area in general.

 

One leg of the race required the approximately 280 participants to follow a fixed line up the Granite Sidewalk, then jumar 600' long static lines up the "headwall" of rock possibly between Jacobs Ladder and Rain Man. At the top they were switched to a rappel setup by hired guides and retraced their steps back to the logging road.

 

As it turns out a number of friends of mine who work in the guiding industry for several different outfits were involved in the rigging and general support work. I was told that......

 

Approximately 30 bolts were placed for anchoring 12! 600' static lines on the headwall along with all the other lines used to access it. About a dozen of these bolts were placed on the Granite Sidwalk and below the headwall. All bolt hangers were removed and about 1/3 of the bolts were pryed out and expoxied.

 

In addition 1/4" buttonheads where used to anchor edge padding on the headwall. Considering the onionskin like nature of X-Dome there were probably numerous edges to pad. These were in theory all removed.

 

While there are already LOTS of bolts up there, the placement of bolts for short-term use and their incomplete removal seems like really poor form.

 

Of greater real enviromental impact, evidently there was no waste management. I was told "people were leaving their dookies and TP everywhere" With support staff, TV crews, guides etc thats probably 400 people in the area over a 36 hour period. No honeybuckets, no nothing.

 

Of course the irony in all this is that Subaru is also a Principle Partner of the Leave No Trace program, evidently those ethics weren't applied in this situation.

 

X-Dome is somewhat of a sacred place for many us. Remote, adventurous, pristine. Kinda makes my skin crawl to think of the blast of commercial exploitation it just experienced.

[Greg_W]

That fucking sucks ass. Bring it up on Subaru.com, man

[tivoli_mike]

Yikes!

 

 

I went up the west buttress route a month ago for the first time. The sidewalk was a challenge, especially on tired legs on the descent, but not earth shattering. Why did they have to set fixed lines? Man, this does suck.

[Ireneo_Funes]

Disgusting.

 

And so-called "adventure" racing is lame...

[dbb]

I think we need to contact some people. They're not done cleaning up yet. That is unbelievable.

 

Primal Quest LLC

16315 Vineyard Blvd. Suite A

Morgan Hill, CA 95037

408-779-7969

408-779-7982 FAX

Contact Dan Barger at: dan@ecoprimalquest.com

Contact Maria Burton at: maria@ecoprimalquest.com

[dberdinka]

As far as I can tell during an "Adventure Race" such as this participants have there hands held while doing "extreme" activities. In this case they were required to use a fixed line and jumar as they hiked up the granite sidewalk. Their jumar and rappel setups were rigged by professional guides and everything had a safety backup. Experience or responsibility for oneself were not prerequisites.

 

Evidently the impact was significant. A letter writing campaign or similar might be in order to prevent other crags, Upper Town Wall, Snow Creek Wall etc from being thrashed on for such "adventure races" in the future.

[foraker]

I wonder if any of the news outlets would be interested. They certainly seem interested when climbers are facing death on Rainier. Why not a little interest here. Who knows a talking head?

[John Frieh]

Word Dave. People should post replies they get in this thread. Can people also spread the word to other boards?

[mattp]

What happened at Exfoliation Dome is a disgrace. I believe, however, that we should attempt a careful evaluation of the impacts and assemble good documentation before anybody launches a publicity campaign over the matter. Also, I think it would be wise to discuss our intended outcome.

 

They are gone and it is left to us to clean up the mess as best we can; lets try to consider how best to spread the word and discourage such things from happening elsewhere.

[Dave_Schuldt]

Hey matt, post your pics.

[dbb]

They are not gone. They are an organization (LLC) that is responsible for cleaning up their course. How is this different from the guy who leaves his refridgerator along the side of the clear creek road?

 

I agree that we need to discuss our intended outcome. Informing future races that such behaviour is unacceptable is one.

[shapp]

I have a question. X-dome is kind of off most people's redar screen. SO what a-hole climber out there in our little community suggested that X-dome would be a good place to conduct this nonsense?

[dberdinka]

The following link gives a bit more detail on the company that organized the event and it's CEO. California Sports Marketing/Dan Barger. The guy is an accomplished climber, I'm sure he's aware of the impact his event would have.

 

http://www.csmevents.com/company.html

Edited September 29, 2004 by dberdinka

[mattp]

The guy told me he saw it from a helicopter, while flying back from some other "recon" for the race.

 

I have some pictures, but they don't show very much. You can see some ropes hanging on the wall, and I have some pictures of some of their anchors. I think we can get better pictures.

[Greg_W]

I'm available to hike/climb up there next Sunday if someone's got a digital camera.

[slothrop]

That fucking sucks ass. Bring it up on Subaru.com, man

 

Done.

 

You have to register to read the forum, I think.

[Greg_W]

cut and paste, or give me your password and id.

[slothrop]

Pfft. Go register yerself if you want to contribute to the thread. (You can use a fake name, just need an email address.) It starts like this:

 

A recent discussion on cascadeclimbers.com has made me concerned about the impact SPQ has had on the backcountry. From what I have heard, SPQ has been irresponsible in cleaning up two sources of backcountry pollution: bolts and human waste.

 

Race officials or their contractors (guides) drilled bolts in the granite of Exfoliation Dome to fix static lines and to secure padding for those lines to the rock. Some, but not all, of those bolts were subsequently removed. Several of the bolts were installed on a low-angle feature called the Granite Sidewalk, which is popularly used for hiking access to established rock climbs on the Dome. My concerns regarding the bolts are four:

 

1. Why bolt a feature that has a long and publicly documented history of hiking use? This is unnecessary impact.

2. Why bolt padding onto the rock? Surely anything that projects enough from the face to warrant padding could have padding secured to it by temporary, non-scarring means (i.e., something other than bolts). Duct tape leaps to mind, but I'm sure more sophisticated techniques are available.

3. Most alarmingly, several bolts placed expressly for this race were not removed. This oversight is utterly incompatible with the Leave No Trace philosophy to which SPQ claims to adhere (link).

4. Recent local controversy regarding the (illegal) use of power drills to place bolts in a wilderness area begs the question: how were the bolts installed?

 

Regarding the problem of human waste: I have read that participants or support staff left feces on the ground without disposing of it properly and there were no port-a-potties available. It's not clear at what locations this waste was actually left, nor who was responsible for it. Given the large number of participants and support staff (~400?), the amount of potential pollution along the course and at checkpoints or support locations is huge.

 

I am curious to know what waste-disposal facilities were available along the course and at support stations, and how many people each of those facilities had to provide for. Compelling each team to carry a trowel is one thing, but actually cleaning up after the intestinal byproducts of 400 people is quite another.

 

I would appreciate hearing from any of the race officials, participants, or sponsors regarding these concerns.

[Squid]

[Greg_W]

slothrop, your link allows me to post messages under your sign-in. You might want to change this.

[Greg_W]

If you can get into the forums, you can post without being a member. I did.

[slothrop]

Huh? That's weird. I tried the link from another computer and it asked me to sign in first. *shrug*

 

I betcha the Subaru site's moderators chop the thread before the bolts get chopped on Exfoliation Dome.

[fredrogers]

Huh? That's weird. I tried the link from another computer and it asked me to sign in first. *shrug*

 

I betcha the Subaru site's moderators chop the thread before the bolts get chopped on Exfoliation Dome.

 

Already down for site maintainence

[Camilo]

Up again.

[tivoli_mike]

If you go to the site and select the images tab, go to page 4 and about image 67 - 71 appear to be on the Sidewalk...

 

uh...nice helmet and tights.