Thanks

Properly written guide books (ie Wilder’s Hueco Guide) = Education. They also help define our sport to land managers, non-climbers, newbies, and ourselves.

In the end I think proper guides (written by actual rock climbers like Jamie) promote controlled growth of areas and increased awareness of conservation.

From this point we go hunting, locals give us vague directions with the pointing of a finger, or if we are lucky we can tag a long but in general we are hiking around looking for what we know exists.

What I am getting at is that there are a large number of people that head to the park/evans every summer with vague directions that get them almost there and then all of us stop around looking. The impact is great, the confusion is greater, but we still keep coming. I know my friends and I are not along in this, we run into other clueless guys all the time too. The cat is out of the bag, and the guides on the net already got a lot of people out hunting but doing so aimlessly. I think this guide is going to help keep my own impact and that of those in my situation down. So thanks… because to be honest the mountain project guide, and information found scouring local blogs is just enough to get guys like me out there and causing trouble.

Re:Hueco, Matt’s guide is exemplary. However would it be enough by itself to control climber misbehavior? The lack of climber self-policing seems to me the elephant in the room here. It’s too bad that the problem was so bad in Hueco that the government had to step in and regulate it so heavily.

Jamie, at the risk of sounding repetitive on the point of addressing climber behavior, here is the text from the Mountain Project description for Chaos Canyon. Feel free to borrow it for the guide.

http://mountainproject.com/v/colorado/alpine_rock/rmnp__rock/106286420

“This is a fragile alpine bouldering area and following Leave No Trace principles is important. Never stash pads. Do not alter landings, chip or glue holds, or remove or alter vegetation. Walk on hard surfaces such as boulders or established trails. Store your gear on boulders instead of dirt or vegetation. Clean up spilled chalk and tick marks and brush holds. Keep your presence low key and unobtrusive. Pack out everything you brought and anything else that shouldn’t have been left there. RMNP rangers are very aware of the impact that bouldering has on this environment. ”

“However this bouldering paradise has not been without problems. This is a fragile area, where plant and animal life struggles to maintain a toehold in a severe and barren environment. User impact has been hard to avoid noticing over the past six or seven years. Some climbers have been too ready to disregard the wilderness ethic in favor of a group mentality that emphasizes doing the problem at any price. Offenses include stashing pads overnight, landscaping landings, destruction of vegetation, and so on. The rangers at RMNP are watching the situation and it is up to every single visitor, regardless of climbing ability, to act as a good steward of a vital living natural resource. Otherwise painful and restrictive regulations could change forever the freedom that many have taken for granted in the mountains.”

I’ve thought about this over the last week and it seems to me a responsible guide to the areas around Mt. Evans has to unfortunately leave certain areas out due to the sensitivity of the landscape (alpine tundra) and wildlife (calfing goats), their remoteness, the lack of parking and any managed trail system and the responsibility of the Forest Service to manage these areas as wilderness in perpetuity for all Americans. In some places, the land simply will not be able to sustain the impacts from additional climbers due to lack of an existing trail system of any kind in the area and the sensitivity of the terrain one must travel over to get there. This doesn’t mean we can’t go there, but in my opinion there should not be a bouldering guide for these areas.

What areas? Places that come to mind include Area E, The Aerials, The Winds, HH and everything on the hillside above Lincoln Lake although including the stuff at the lake is a slippery slope. I was tempted to include Area D in the above list, but to be honest, the notoriety of the problems there and their inclusion in Bouldering Colorado would make Area D’s omission irresponsible. In contrast, Area D is the one area at Evans where it may be possible for a WELL LAID OUT and WELL THOUGHT OUT guide to actually provide immediate benefits to the terrain surrounding the boulders provided boulderers stricly adhere to precise approach instructions and strict wilderness ethics. The question is can we and will we?

If you indicate to the rangers that you’ve already ruled out a number of known and developed bouldering areas from inclusion (indicating their general locations) due to concerns over increased users, lack of an existing trail framework and the sensitivity of these areas, I suspect you may gain some credibility with the rangers right off the bat.

Assuming you can get the rangers on board for their inclusion, I would propose that the following areas are a good starting point for negotiations with the rangers:
Chicago Creek Campground
The Switchbacks
The Roadside Blocks
The Reservoir Boulders
Area A
Area B
Area C
Area D
Stuff on the other side of Mount Evans, Bierstadt and the Sawtooth Ridge accessed from Guannella Pass should provide other at least a few other areas for inclusion.

As you know, essentially all of Evans Area A is online for free right now at mountainproject. All of the classics and almost all of the not-so-classics are there. Most of the FA info is there, although there are a few glaring omissions and brainfarts on those details. However, mountainproject is an unwieldy format that lacks the good overhead topos of social trails and the like that a guidebook could provide. Similarly, there are no stories and almost no background info on mountainproject, subjects that are better left to a guidebook anyway. I look forward to reading yours and others impressions and history of the area. Although I did not start the Evans guide on mountainproject, I have put the last 60 or so Area A problems in the database, as I was not going to let it turn into a bastion of misinformation like Bouldering Colorado and because I had the impression a real guidebook to Evans was just a pipedream.

Good luck with this project … chipper