Index Favor

[inacan]

Concerning the much discussed activities at Index on Tuesday, I cleaned off a ledge above and right of Gozilla as well as the route leading up from godzilla to the ledge. The route is a worthy mixed line and the ledge is large and comfortable. This ledge can be easly traversed over to the base of the third pitch of Narrow Arrow as well as a new route that was cleaned last week with the help of two other friends. This ledge also opens access to the pitches above Godzilla and City Park as well as the left side of Narrow Arrow (very dirty). The third pitch of City Park is a moderate 5.10 that was re-cleaned last summer by some other friends of Index. There is potential for other nice moderate lines that lead up from there to the summit ledges of the lower wall.

 

The new route follows a very thin crack in a flaring corner through a roof to another ledge just below the summit of Narrow Arrow. It was not very dirty at all and only required a light scrubbing and the removal of a few tufts of grass in the back of the crack.

 

The ledge above Godzilla and the pitch below were another story. I removed what would probably amount to a few wheel barrels of loose rock and dirt. I arrived at the parking lot around 7am and it was raining pretty hard. I hung out until it let up around 8am. I jugged the lines that I had up from the previous day in a light mist. It was a beautiful moist alpine day. I hauled up my cleaning equipment and got to work. I think that it was around 3 or 4 oclock when the first car pulled into the parking lot. By this time I was mostly done clearing the loose rocks and was dealing with what was left of the dirt.

 

The first party approched and called up. We had a brief conversation about what I was doing, and then they offered to climb Thin Fingers instead of their intended destination of Godzilla. I thanked them and continued to work. Not long after that, two others approached. The first thing out of one of their mouths was a loud baying mammalian noise that sounded kind of like........... "WAAADAAFUUUUUUGWAAADAAFUUUUUUG". It continued to make this noise in a loud gutteral voice over and over. I simply observed them and waited for them to move away. They clambered through the boulder field and back out to the tracks. Once back to work, I almost immediately broke the tool I was using, and had to go down to get another one. As soon as I got back to my lines, there was another party preparing to climb Godzilla. I was very frustrated at that moment due to the tool breaking and the strange baying creatures and the fact that my prefect misty cleaning morning had turned into a parade at Godzilla. As a result, I was regrettably a bit aggro and curt toward this second party. Much of the dirt that I had shoveled off the ledge above had collected on the many ledges and hand holds below, and I was just starting to clean them off. Anyone who has ever cleaned new routes or taken the time to unearth old classics at Index knows the joy of dusting the cliff after their project is completed. After I'd cooled off a bit and apologized for being reactionary, I offered to hold off on my activities until they had climbed above.

 

Back up on the ledge, I worked my way over to the base of the new route where I did some anchor work while I waited fro them to pass.

When I got back over to the first ledge, there was yet another party congregated below, and it was at this point that the water bottle incident occurred. ( You can read about that in another thread). I spoke to the lead climber about what I was doing and he was positive and encouraging (at the time). Afterwards, I hung around for a bit blowing off dirt from the critical holds on Godzilla between climbers and took a few pictures.

 

I would have liked to have continued cleaning all the ledges below on the effected routes, but that was obviously not possible with the other climbers around.

 

When I returned to my car, the two that bayed were there. I think that I might have looked at them for a moment before beginning to load my trunk. They offered from across the parking lot: "are you the guy that made the fuging mess on the lower wall?" I ignored this and kept unloading my stuff.

Then "Fucking stuuupid dude. You should save that shit for November"

At this point, after a pause, I turned to face them and started to walk toward them near their cars. It was then that they, without any further discussion, both hopped into their two cars and, I'm not kidding, roostertailed it out of the parking lot. I think this is what one of them meant by "cussing me out because I'm a moron".

 

So that was my day.

 

I realize that Index attracts a very diverse user group. It was not my intention to piss anyone off or spoil anyone's climbing plans. I am simply spending time, in my own way, at a climbing area that I love. I hear what people are saying about being sensitive to others and their desires to use Index. That is why I was out on a rainy Tuesday morning. But even so, there are over 500 routes at Index. Yes it's true. And a few are even pretty good. If you show up, and someone is on your favorite route, aiding or rappelling or climbing or cleaning or looking for Sir Francis Drake's lost gold, give a shout hello and go climb one of the hundreds of other routes that are out there.

 

From What I could tell the routes affected are the following:

Godzilla- Minimal above the ledge traverse start.

Deal with It Ranger is a real mess right now as are Narrow Arrow overhang and probably the start of 24hr Buck.

 

I can say with certainty that nothing that I did on Tuesday affected any routes to the left of Godzilla. As for the "2 inches of dirt on every route all the way to Tatoosh!" Please! Anyway I plan to clean up my own mess. My mother raised me right. And while I'm at it, maybe I'll clean up a few other messes as well. You see, I love Index. I've loved Index since the first time I climbed there in '89. In fact, if anyone else is interested in giving back to this amazing little(big!) crag, I would be very interested in speaking with them. Not just cleaning old or new routes but how about trail maintainance, picking up trash, cleaning up the brush down in the bog, or just trimming back the black berry bushes while you are sitting around waiting to climb. Or how about opening up a discussion about building a composting toilet in the parking lot.

 

So that's all I got. I don't plan to respond to this thread beyond this. If anyone wants to contact me directly for route info or otherwise, send me an email and I'll respond off site. Thanks! Really, if you read this far, you deserve it.

 

Last Bits:

 

Someone wrote:

"As for the birds, did he actually destroy their nest or just get in their area and piss them off" This sort of thing is what is so disappointing about these online discussion boards. Someone makes a wild, slanderous, baseless accusation, and the next thing you

know, lesser minds are not asking if the statement has any truth, but rather whether the guy just fucked the goat or did he kill it first.

I did not disturb any birds or bird's nests. I noticed the same squawking birds that morning when I crossed the tracks.

They seemed to me to be hanging around in the upper part of the quarry. Maybe the old codger came home with a little spring chicken under his tail feathers. Don't ask me, I'm not an ornithologist. One thing I can say is that I have never in 10+ years seen or heard of a raptor nesting on the lower town wall, let alone on a ledge 40' above Godzilla. I quote "did you think at all?" This was trumped up in an attempt to gain moral high ground. Weak.

 

Something else wrote:

"BTW- if anyone knows this dork-ass-retrocleaning-cidiot, please pass this message to him. thanks and have a nice day!"

Pass it yourself. I'll be at Index all weekend. If you can learn to speak that quickly.

[spicoli11]

and.........

[HeadSpace]

........

[Dechristo]

get the rubber bullets and fire hoses ready...

[Dechristo]

Where's the babe that walks around holding up the numbered round card between rounds?

[spicoli11]

mmmmmm....mm...mmmmm......................tick..........tick......>>>

[Dechristo]

tock

[spicoli11]

yawwwwwwnnnnn........i'm getting tired

[Dechristo]

There'll be blood on the floor by morning.

 

Or, at least, saliva on monitor screens.

[chris]

Just wait 24 hours, then the fun really begins...

[Dechristo]

homeys gonna putt dare freak own an busta cap.

[chris]

amen

[specialed]

I think this is what one of them meant by "cussing me out because I'm a moron".

 

Inacan, you ARE a fucking moron.

[Dru]

Moron in a can?

[larrythellama]

gw claims to love america....................???

 

inacan you listed quite a few ways you can help improve index, but it seems your judgement or "new route ego" prevailed over the smart thing to do. if you have climbed there since '89 then i would think that you would know that the weather changes quickly and that people do climb there anytime of the week. so maybe cleaning huge swaths of dirt and what not around one of the most popular routes in washington might be saved for a time when you minimize your impact towards others activies, it would only fair. you cite that peoples' negative reactions bummed you out, well think of what all the dirt did for them. and clean off the ledges is a pretty big project, so why would you start something that you could not finnish in a day?

 

have a nice day

[tomtom]

You see, I love Index. I've loved Index since the first time I climbed there in '89. In fact, if anyone else is interested in giving back to this amazing little(big!) crag, I would be very interested in speaking with them. Not just cleaning old or new routes but how about trail maintainance, picking up trash, cleaning up the brush down in the bog, or just trimming back the black berry bushes while you are sitting around waiting to climb. Or how about opening up a discussion about building a composting toilet in the parking lot.

 

Darryl Cramer (SVR guidebook author) has been doing such things and occasionally sticks his nose in this bb. He organized a cleanup party back in April in cooperation with the State Parks.

[flyingkiwi1]

I think the parties in this conflict both have valid points: (1) Those who wanted to do their thing (climb) and would rather inacan had done his thing when nobody was there (or not at all) and (2) Inacan, who wanted to do his thing (scrub a climb he wanted to climb). Conflict can be a bummer. At least this forum provides an opportunity to get some of the issues on the table without actual bloodshed.

 

On the topic of cliff vegetation, I found the photos and discussion in the new Squamish guidebook of the Chief's progressive forestation over the past century interesting. If you haven't seen em, check em out. You may be surprised.

[DCramer]

I can remember when we could clean all day at the Lower wall and never see another climber - this on a sunny weekend. Times have changed.

 

The number of climbers has increased to where it is impossible not to impact other through our very presence, but if not mid-week then when? Is a day when you can't climb a route because someone is cleaning really that bad? For the last 15 years or so I have pretty much stopped climbing much at the Lower Wall because there were too many people for my taste. Still I was excited a couple years ago when I noticed that the third pitch of City Park was cleaned. I kept expecting someone to report it here but amazingly no one even noticed it - or if they did they remained silent.

 

Cleaning such a large amount of dirt in the winter would have had a much more deleterious impact on the surrounding routes. I do not know the specifics of this incident but it sounds like winter would have been the absolutely worst time for this activity. Maybe now isn’t the right time either, but the alternative suggested in this thread is better only in theory.

[chris]

In fact, if anyone else is interested in giving back to this amazing little(big!) crag, I would be very interested in speaking with them. Not just cleaning old or new routes but how about trail maintainance, picking up trash, cleaning up the brush down in the bog, or just trimming back the black berry bushes while you are sitting around waiting to climb. Or how about opening up a discussion about building a composting toilet in the parking lot.

 

Well, I know you said you weren't going to follow this thread, Inacan, but I hope you're checking up on it. Thanks for the work - I'm confident that it will be appreciated.

 

As for your thoughts in the above quote - the group and the forum exists - check out the Washington Climbers Coalition's website.

 

Another possibility is to give the cascadesprayer.com community a heads up before a big project like this. It seems that if you get 3 pacific northwest climbers together, at least one of them reads this forum (the other two probably don't read, or just watch fox news). CC.com is an excellent way to warn off bystanders. We've already seen BoeAlps, the Washington Alpine Club, and the Mountaineers use the board for this purpose.

Just my $0.02...

[minx]

whoa! hark! someone has a positive solution to the conflict

[cman]

Sorry to hear you are getting so much grief.

 

sounds like you are doing good work on this new route, i look forward to checking it out

[archenemy]

So, did he fuck the goat first or did he kill it first?

[RuMR]

special would know...

[specialed]

Everyone knows if you're going to clean new routes at Index you must sacrifice either a pig or goat, then haul the carcass half way up the wall as a signal to everyone that route "construction" is occuring.

 

Fornication with beforementioned farm animal is optional.

[RuMR]

see...i knew you'd come through!