Canal Zone at CCC - Reasonable Use?

Was at Canal Zone yesterday, and rolled up to find a summer camp taking kids out climbing. Seemed like a great event, people were having fun on top rope and being safe - except when the group rolled out, we discovered that all the ropes (at least five of them) that kids had been taking laps up all day on were threaded directly through the anchors.

I started climbing on the east coast and learned that this was a bad call as it puts undue wear on the anchors. What's the consensus out here on that?

Yes you are correct. Feel free to say something next time. Top roping off the anchors is bad form.

agree.

slim wrote:agree.

It is pretty sad if it is true that it is common practice for guides to thread ropes directly through the anchor so they don't have to climb up and clean the anchors. Talk about being lazy.

I would love to hear some examples of guides doing maintenance on anchors in the Boulder/Denver area. In places like Eldorado and the Flatirons permits are required to do maintenance and I don't see any guides names on any of those permits.

It is NOT a standard guide practice to TR directly off the chains. Nor is it standard guide practice to maintain fixed anchors. These actions may be standard for some individuals but not the profession in general. Guides should know better. They should have a higher level of training than most recreational climbers and therefore should observe best practices in all aspects. This would include TRing off of a soundly constructed anchor; not TRing through the chains, or even TRing through quickdraws. This speaks of pure laziness to me. I hate to see it.

Well, the best you can do is add some quicklinks for the moron crowd to wear out.

They leader of the group should also speak with all the other parties climbing at that location . He should say something in the manner of, "Hey we have a big group. I'm sorry if it causes any trouble. Right now we have four ropes up and the kids are taking turns TRing. If you want to get on any of these routes let the belayer know and we can pull the rope or if you want to TR you can climb on our rope. Again sorry for the big group."

ROC wrote:It is NOT a standard guide practice to TR directly off the chains. ... This speaks of pure laziness to me. I hate to see it.

Aside from the poor technique, it is illegal to take guided groups there. Jefferson County open space property. They require a permit for commercial use of their lands and do not issue permits for the Canal Zone.

caughtinside wrote:That is pretty standard behavior for larger guided groups. Guide strings things up, threads the chains so they don't have to come up later to clean them. The upside is that often the guides are the ones maintaining the steel in the anchors.

Thanks for the feedback, everyone.

Interesting that it's illegal, but really not trying to get anyone in trouble - the guys leading the group seemed like genuinely nice people, if a bit ignorant to the wear they were putting on the fixed pieces. Next time I see them there, I'll mention it to them.

That certainly isn't standard practice for guiding. They should be building sport anchors and wearing out their own damn lockers. I generally rap instead of lowering after cleaning the anchor to minimize wear. And yes, they should also talk to other climbers and offer them use of the routes.