Poll: Making noise at the Grasslands

[ryland_moore]

So, this weekend was my birthday and some friends decided to take a keg out there on Saturday night. We climbed hard all day Saturday and returned to the grasslands (Skull Hollow) after the Duck game for a small gathering of 12 or so people, no fire, to drink a few beers and enjoy our surroundings. Skull Hollow was unseasonably bare with only about a handfull of parties in the campground. Long story short, a group of all female climbers that were about 60 yards away called the cops and the sherriff showed up at Skull Hollow around 1am. The next morning, the all women group was kicking rocks on us as they walked to the bathroom to try and wake us up, which most of us already were up and out of the campground and climbing before they even had breakfast going. We were not some group of young punk gym rats we were twenty and thirty-somethings celebrating a birthday with conversation , a little beer, and soft music (not blaring by any means).

Anyways, what is the proper etiquette for Skull Hollow? It is public and free and a lot of climbers are there. Almost every weekend I have been there in the last 6 years I lived in Oregon, there has been noise, etc. I expect that there will always be a few people partying. Were we in the wrong to have such a small gathering, are times changing, or should I have just told them to shove it. If you want to whine maybe you should stay at the bivy site? I warned them that if they thought we were a problem, don't even think about coming back next weekend. Also this was the second weekend in a row I saw the sherriff at Skull Hollow, but last weekend they were busting a highschoolers party and a highspeed chace ensued up the canyon.

[Bogen]

Yam meadows. About 12 years ago was a free campground and gathering site for climbers from all over, a splendid experience in itself. Now it is a protected area, you can't spend the night at all, even in your car in the parking lot. (probably more to do with partying 4x4er's than climbers) Yes, the women were obnoxious bitches, but I gotta go with option 2.

[Dru]

Shutting down Yam Meadows was more in line with the general Alberta policy of no free camping anywhere in the Bow Valley or Kananaskis.

[skyclimb]

I was out there this weekend, and I heard no extremely loud noise either night. It was unseasonably bare, but to that.

You probably caught the brunt of their mounting frustration when they realized that 5.6 is harder than they thought. I would be pissed too If I traveled all the way to eastern oregon and couldn't do a single climb.

[Bogen]

As I remember, the shut down at Yam went in a couple stages, ie from full vehicle access, to tenting only, to bivying only, to no overnight. Given the destruction by partiers from calgary at the time I assume this to be cause and effect, but I don't know for sure. Regardless, I recommend treating free campgrounds with kid gloves.

By the way, you been by that Ashlu road forestry campsite lately? Someone has quite an unruly encampment goin in there.

[ryland_moore]

It would be interesting to see how many people who are answering this poll actually climb at Smith on a regular basis and always stay at the grasslands. Everyone who votes for number 2, do not come out to the grasslands next weekend for the Rope Up!

[rbw1966]

There will actually be two parties going on out there this weekend.

 

Lock up your sheep!

[b-rock]

I'll be kicking rocks on anyone making noise after 10 this weekend.

 

Really though, sometimes it gets a bit out of control there, but its pretty rare. It's a big campground, if you want some quiet just up and move. Or keep drinking till you pass out which will likely be my game plan this weekend.

 

btw, Happy BDay Ryland!

[Alex]

I climb at Smith on a regular basis. Most people at Grasslands are small groups that retire early.

 

I wouldnt call cops unless I went over to party central, asked them politely to please call it a night as others are trying to get their "send-sleep", and got some type of really obnoxious response. If the chicas didnt come over to you to work it out before-hand, they have nothing to complain about!

[jkrueger]

In all fairness, they should have also informed the bugling elk of the official regulations. Damn, they were loud!

[b-rock]

Or worse, one time at the Bivy I swear there was a heffer in labor ALL DAMN NIGHT LONG. F-ing cows.

[ryland_moore]

No, this was a group of middle-aged women from Seattle and Portland. They asked us Saturday morning if we were going to have a big party after they saw the keg next to our white van and they would move. I told them it was up to them, that we had 12 people who would be there and if they wanted to come over and join us, they were more than welcome. When we got back from the Brewery in Redmond after the game (around 10pm.) There was only about 6 of us. No groups were directly next to us and the closest group was the Silk NOLS touring bus. About 10 minutes later, one of the women from the group came over and said that this was a party. I told her that it was half the number I had indicated to her earlier that morning and she stormed off. Six more folkd showed up and we had beers for another 45 minutes. It was mellow, standing around in a circle with the keg in the middle (it was an almost finished keg when we brought it to Smith) and she came back again to tell us that she "heard" some "hunters" had called the cops. Being that it was late and that they were camped off alone around no one else, I doubt they were having conversations with hunters. Anyways, I offered her a beer and we promised to keep it down. I realize voices carry out there. The elk were screaming all night! I even offered to change music, which sounded low when sitting in the car, let alone with windows down, but I didn't have any Ani DeFranko. She made some snide comment that she was sorry that she didn't party like a bunch of us underaged 20 year olds. That comment was totally out of line and almost made me make some other comments about a bunch of middle-aged women hanging out in the dessert, but I bit my tongue.

 

Anyways, I am feeling like this was a unique situation as I do not think many of the women even climbed. I saw them hiking around on Saturday, but who knows.

[pzack]

Maybe you should have invited them over for brews?

 

Ya'll had a full keg. Where's the love?

[Dru]

One time... at the Grasslands....

[ryland_moore]

We did offer them beer! That morning and that evening. We offered all of our neighbors to come over and a few we saw in the park that Saturday as well. We also invited the NOLS crew over because they had a climbing wall on the side of the bus.

[Geek_the_Greek]

Yeah, it sounds like they didn't know the deal with the grasslands. Not that I'm into the whole party-till-the-place-is-trashed kind of scene, but it's too bad they called the cops. That's probably the number one thing that will lead to the end of free camping there.

[RuMR]

i dunno...if they asked once to keep it down, you probably coulda killed the music altogether...conversation usually won't keep folks up and if its your bros then you'd be entertaining yourself well enough...

 

Some people like to get sleep...guess if its important enough they can pay for that luxury in a hotel or at smith itself...

[iain]

Don't get me wrong, I like a good beer or three, but I've never understood why people drive from, say, Seattle all the way to Smith to get totally trashed and end up nursing a hangover in such a cool place to climb.

 

You can't expect to always have a quiet night at the grasslands, but those who party should have some awareness of how much noise they make.

[glassbonghits]

Crazy ho kick rock on me, I drop coil on your hood. Big nasty pile of Cleveland steamer on your car beyotch! Then I hose down door handle with large amount morning urine. How you like them oranges

[RuMR]

Don't get me wrong, I like a good beer or three, but I've never understood why people drive from, say, Seattle all the way to Smith to get totally trashed and end up nursing a hangover in such a cool place to climb.

 

You can't expect to always have a quiet night at the grasslands, but those who party should have some awareness of how much noise they make.

 

[ryland_moore]

The crazy thing was the first woman did not complain about the music, they said we were talking too loud!!!! I had four beers that night, so it wasn't really partying and I live in Portland and go down there on the weekends during the season, so I do respect others, just not when they are overly sensitive. I am not out there to accomodate others sensitive ears. if they know they need complete peace and quiet, it is not up to me to make them feel comfortable. No one else apparently seemed to have even heard us that night.

[chucK]

But how do you feel about people talking on cell phones up on Mt. Hood?

 

Sometimes you just can't have your rules whereever you are. It's tough cohabitating with other humans.

 

Nice poll by the way, in terms of the way you made three fairly reasonable options.

[ryland_moore]

But how do you feel about people talking on cell phones up on Mt. Hood?

[ivan]

this certainly doesn't bode well for this weekend

[TimL]

Granted for me I'd rather get a good nights sleep to be strong for the next day of climbing. With that said, the Grasslands is all about free camping and that that leads to pretty much do as you please atmosphere. The chicks had no right to call the cops and if they didn't like what was going on, they should of moved. Sounds like they were being bitches.