To The Person That Chipped Holds On Way Rambo Approach

I assume you thought you were helping, chipping a dozen footholds into the boulders. You weren't. On the contrary, you vandalized an otherwise beautiful wash.

Your actions were foolish, shortsighted, and threaten access to our climbing areas. Perhaps worst of all, they were completely unnecessary. Please do us all a favor, and don't try to help anywhere else.

Useless chipped foothold

useless chipped hold

another chipped hold

Wow! What a complete load of shit! I've hiked down that wash in a complete downpoar and hadnt felt a need for anything like that! Whomever did that needs to be removed from participating in any outdoor activity (like life...)

not cool

Those boulders are super dangerous. They really need to be bolted so we can "sport approach" the thing.

and the stacked rocks + rebar spikes + incut, eroded trailbed at the super popular spots are completely different, right?

A sign of the times - like the plaques at the base of routes.

Max Supertramp wrote:and the stacked rocks + rebar spikes + incut, eroded trailbed at the super popular spots are completely different, right?

Well yes, they are different. Stacked rocks, rebar spikes are usually put in to help prevent erosion and build a trail to concetrate erosion in a certain area. The eroded trailbed is what happens when lot's of people walk that route.
These foot prints do none of the above and were not needed.

I'm sorry, I don't understand how a cupped, channelized trailbed will minimize erosion. It seems like encouraging foot traffic to stay on durable surfaces (eg: rock) might be less erosive in the long run.

I totally agree about this being an inappropriate action, this smashing of a rock surface with a hammer. yes, you are right: they are indeed different.
Still though, even the nice climber-built trails to more-trafficked crags have their own problems. Like spent herps-ointment tubes and exposed pointy rebar and dogshit and manstock-eroded channel trails.

Edit: Want to dig in some log checks next time you/I/whoever goes out there? Might be a while for me...

When I think rebar and rocks I think of methods to keep the trail in it's place, like switchbacks for example. It's a way to minimize erosion in that it's in a concentrated area, rather than having several slightly smaller, slightly less eroded trails going the same direction. And yes, they deffinetly have their own problems.
But back to the original post, this was a bull-shit move. Stuff like this pisses me off, and I can't even climb hard enough to justify the walk out to Way Rambo.

Allen Sanderson wrote:A sign of the times - like the plaques at the base of routes.

Those plaques have been there for decades, not exactly a new phenomenon.
Now chipping approach boulders, that is a new low even for climbers.

Derek Lawrence wrote:Wow! What a complete load of shit! I've hiked down that wash in a complete downpoar and hadnt felt a need for anything like that! Whomever did that needs to be removed from participating in any outdoor activity (like life...)

Don't you think this might be a bit dramatic, removing someone from participating from outdoor activities such as life for a misguided attempt at improving a trail? These are rocks on a trail people, go save a panda.

It's a slippery slope. Next thing you know there's going to be a hand rail and ramp access. Maybe even a tram. Oh the horror.
Personally I'm all for a tram and a zip line back to the parking lot. My knees are shot.