glbass86 Posted January 20, 2010 Posted January 20, 2010 Hey folks, My friends and I are getting really into rock climbing and want to do our part to help the climbing community, and greater community as well. We've built a bouldering wall in our garage to help satiate our climbing cravings, and we're trying to spread the wealth, offering an open invitation to all climbers living in the Portland area, as well as those passing through. We're trying to create a climbing organization with social nights, skill builders and comps at local home walls. We're also working on putting on community service events, our first of which will be a cleanup at Rocky Butte in Portland, OR., scheduled for Jan. 23rd at 9AM. We've been climbing out at Rocky Butte a few times this winter on the rare dry day, and the place is pretty gross. There are beer cans, bottles and all kinds of other trash around the climbing areas. We'd like to do what we can to clean this place up, and we hope to have many more cleanups in the future. We've created a blog to chronicle our climbing shenanigans and post information about various events. Check it out at Garage Door Climbing and let us know what you think. Regards, Mike
John Frieh Posted January 20, 2010 Posted January 20, 2010 Very cool Mike! Great to see people putting their energy in positive outlets I'd encourage you to get in contact with the great people at Climb Max... they along with the Access Fund have organized clean ups at Rocky Butte once a year though usually in the summer time. I bet they'd be willing to send out an announcement for you to their vast email list!
billcoe Posted January 20, 2010 Posted January 20, 2010 Very cool Mike! Great to see people putting their energy in positive outlets Ditto for me! _________________________________________________________ "Mike and I are working out a date for our Rocky Butte clean-up. We are tentatively planning on Saturday Jan 16th, however I have questions regarding hazardous materials removal that I am waiting on responses to from OSHA(Occupational Safety & Health Administration) and WMI(Wilderness Medicine Institute). Some of these questions involve my qualifications to remove such materials as a Wilderness First Responder. Provided I am qualified to do so, every participant will need to see me (Granville aka Big Town), specifically, at Rocky Butte for a debriefing before helping out." LOL! Sorry, blew coffee out of my nose there, can't help laughing. What did they say?
JosephH Posted January 20, 2010 Posted January 20, 2010 RB is the most dangerous place I've ever climbed, especially this time of year what with the rain. Be execptionally careful wandering around anywhere near an edge out there - that clay gets slick as snot and it's easy to lose your balance when wearing one of those hazmat suits. Also, if you need a skilled Russian interpreter for the cleanup then Bill Coe is your man. Oh, and watch out for the phantom chopper.
Plaidman Posted January 20, 2010 Posted January 20, 2010 I will be in Salt Lake this weekend, but keep me informed about other dates and times. Rocky Butte certainly needs some help. Glass and just a lot of junk around there. Joseph is right watch out that place is slippery. Especially after it has stopped raining. The next day can be the worst. It seems to get slimyerer. If that is possible. Plaidman
glbass86 Posted January 20, 2010 Author Posted January 20, 2010 Thanks for the support, and words of warning. We'll be sure to stress the importance of safety with all those involved in the cleanup. I'm not sure how much we'll accomplish this time out, since we'll have to fight with poor conditions and lots of garbage, but we want to get things rolling now so that as it gets closer to climbing season we can have bigger turnouts and more effective cleanups. Billcoe, coffee out the nose sounds quite painful. I hope it wasn't piping hot. WMI's response was, talk to OSHA. OSHA, I'm pretty sure, has not responded. We've seen at least one hypodermic needle out there, and needless to say, we'd rather not go near the things, but they also need to be removed. Good call on Climb Max. I'm not sure why we haven't talked to them. We will correct this. If anyone has any ideas for ways we could improve conditions at Rocky Butte we are all ears. Since it's so close to home it'd be nice to make it a more enjoyable climbing area. But let's keep the suggestions reasonable; I think removing I-205, or even quieting it, is a little out of our reach. Though I am a noise consultant... Anyways, one gent mentioned putting some trash cans in the area as a more acceptable receptacle in which all the hoodlums could put their beer cans and bottles. 'Course ya gotta empty 'em, and who's gonna do that? Mike
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