Fixed Anchors Stolen in Rodger's Canyon, WY

Sometime since early June and now a person has stolen several carabiners that were placed as anchors in Rodger's Canyon, North of Laramie.

We placed two sets of carabiners at the top of routes (Bavarian Bratwurst Massacre, and the anchors that Small Steps, In Orbit), thinking it would be a kind thing to do, especially conisidering that the Small Steps anchors see the most traffic.

One of us was up there bolting a new route and noticed that someone had taken the gear we left.

If someone knows about this we would greatly appreciate it if you could get the gear returned.

Given how Rogers comes and goes in the minds of the college climbers, it really wouldn't surprise me if it was just some young, poor college kid how doesn't know any better. You might try zip-tying them on in the future.

Laramie is a weird place.

It can be acceptable to grid bolt one route and chop the anchors on a trad route, feet from each other.

There is a large disconnected community there, all with mismatched ideals and often playing the penis swinging game. Also, booty scouring is a point of pride out there. If it's not nailed down, it'll go away. If you aren't part of the right crowd, it still might go away.

When I lived there, I only ran and rode that canyon, it was pretty much toprope only. I am not surprised that it's been yielding good sport routes. I hope the community attitude has changed enough to allow them to stay.

Johnny Sauerkraut wrote:Hey Ryan, the carabiners weren't painted or had camo on them. However the gear Andrew some other climbers and I left there were all old carabiners. Meaning they didn't shine like gold in the sun. Besides that a lot of anchors there aren't painted, but we will def. start doing it. Most likely as somebody here suggested, some poor climber stole them. It is really sad that some people just can't respect community service. Especially since Rogers is probably the safest and best place to go sport climbing in the Laramie Area.

The problem, as nicelegs and I said, is that Laramie has always had a really fragmented community. The average lifespan of any big group of climbers is around 5 years, and the local leaders (e.g. Ken at Cross Country Connection, or Bob Scarpelli) just aren't interested in being that kind of leader. If you want to form a Laramie Valley Climbers Consortium to try and provide that cohesive voice, I won't stop you, but fundamentally, the climbing community is wrapped up in the university community, and tends to have a similar cycle.

Hey everyone,

Thanks for your responses. Being pragmatic, I never really expected to get the carabiners back. It was more the point to raise awareness about it. I appreciate some of the ideas that several of you have put forth.

The whole situation is a little confusing because, as Johny Sauerkraut pointed out, the gear wasn't particularly nice or new - they were just pieces that were donated to Rodger's Canyon so people could easly and safely lower off of a couple popular routes.

If it was a student at UW I would imagine myself or one of the people who donated the gear have climbed, or will climb with them at some point. We'll see, I suppose, what comes of it all.

Maybe the a local group for Laramie is a possibility, but that becomes diffcult because the leadership would probably change on a semi regular basis if no permanent local would take on the responsibility...

Anyways, thanks again, everyone.