Boy Scouts Gang Roping

What the hell is up with troops of Boy Scouts descending into Indian Cove and gang roping every decent wall in the entire area? I think we spent more time looking for an open climb to lead than we did actually climbing.

William, in all honesty, going to Indian Cove on a holiday weekend and expecting to get any climbing done short of Rattlesnake Canyon (which has the best routes anyway) would be foolhardy in my opinion. I normally avoid Jtree at all costs on weekend, much less holidays, but had friends there this past weekend and we had the Comic Book area to ourselves...but of course tried and show them Conan's corridor which was a stupid mistake on my part. A complete gong show, most of which you just have to laugh at. So I am not berating you, just saying I still make the same mistake myself every few years.

William Domhart wrote:What the hell is up with troops of Boy Scouts descending into Indian Cove and gang roping every decent wall in the entire area? I think we spent more time looking for an open climb to lead than we did actually climbing.

Uhhhh... maybe you should just start climbing harder?

Gang roping! Love it. This happens in my part of the country as well.

Holiday weekend business aside, the big issue I had was that when you drape 8 or 9 ropes per wall on multiple formations and no one's climbing on half of them. To add to this, the ropes were fixed over night on a lot of the climbs.

Will definitely trek out to the Canyons next time.

And thanks to whoever played Stairway to Heaven on guitar while I was finishing up on Direct South Face...made my night...

Rant complete!

It's just the new self serving mentality...take over the crags, throwing ropes down on people, parking in between 2 spaces etc etc. It's nice to see people getting out and enjoying themselves, but I'd never show up at a crag with 10 people. That's a kind of dickish thing to do.

But whatever, b*tching online won't change a thing. Get up earlier, climb harder or find more obscure stuff. That's all we can do.

Been on both sides of this one, though not with the actual Boy Scouts. Those groups should be willing to pull their ropes aside if you really want to climb something they've got a TR dangling on. Be a good lesson for the kids: share the resource, right?

Often, groups will try to pick a cliff that doesn't get much traffic - but not always. It's a pain in the ass being the leader of such a group, for the very reasons you're talking about. You feel badly about tying up the rock, but you have your students to look after and provide with a good experience. You're damned if you do and damned if you don't.

Not trying even a little bit to defend those guys, just giving you a look at the other side.

I don't see anything wrong with 10 people wanting to learn to climb. I don't condone leaving ropes up on routes not being climbed, but why shouldn't the Boy Scouts have the same opportunity to learn like we did? If they got there before you did, go to a different formation.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say this is an exaggeration:

William Domhart wrote:gang roping every decent wall in the entire area

In this thread, people are recommending Indian Cove as a good place for a group of beginners:

mountainproject.com/v/youth…

My wife and kids and I had atlatis to our selfs tell almost noon on Sunday.
But the gang roping can get really annoying.

William Domhart wrote:...the big issue I had was that when you drape 8 or 9 ropes per wall on multiple formations and no one's climbing on half of them...

Did you speak to the troop leader to ask if you could pull a rope so you could lead one of the routes and offer to rehang their rope when cleaning the route?

Normally, when I encounter a sea of beginners clogging up a crag, I just take it as motivation to get better so I can spend more time at harder crags where it is less likely that I will be even remotely close to gangs of noobs and their ilk.

Aww the little boy scouts took up all the classic 5.6's? Learn to climb harder than boyscouts..

Christopher Gibson wrote:Most Scouts only get to enjoy two to three days of outdoor climbing a year, let'em get their fill. It happens here certain times of the year also. I like the gang roping thing, ha.

They need more leaders, more real instructors, and to split up large groups into no more than 6 respectful climbers. Fat chance that will ever happen.

William Domhart wrote:Holiday weekend business aside, the big issue I had was that when you drape 8 or 9 ropes per wall on multiple formations and no one's climbing on half of them. To add to this, the ropes were fixed over night on a lot of the climbs. Will definitely trek out to the Canyons next time. And thanks to whoever played Stairway to Heaven on guitar while I was finishing up on Direct South Face...made my night... Rant complete!

If you're dead set on climbing in popular places on holiday weekends (or any weekend) sometimes you just have to deal with it. Try to make friends and show them that it's not really good for the area if they hang ropes on every route. Well, at least that is the civilized way to deal with the problem.

My way: Pull the unused ropes and climb.

Woodchuck ATC wrote: They need more leaders, more real instructors, and to split up large groups into no more than 6 respectful climbers. Fat chance that will ever happen.

Na, what they really need is this... solojoeclimbing.com/Joe/Def…

I will definitely say they weren't A-holes. Having 200 kids around could have been 1000 times worse than it was.

Chris Miller wrote: Na, what they really need is this... solojoeclimbing.com/Joe/Def…

LMFAO! Where did you find that? Now I can train to crush those 5.7's from anywhere =)

RockyMtnTed wrote:Aww the little boy scouts took up all the classic 5.6's? Learn to climb harder than boyscouts..

They were draped on all the 5.8s at Billboard Buttress. Anchors set partway up the climbs and left for 36 hours, it seemed.

Too much hassle to walk up, state the ethics, move their rope and all that bs.
Lots of TRs that could have been set on non-leadable routes in the area - which was the bigger irritant.

Palmreader was our first climb (camped next to it). Moosedog was later that day, after Varnished Wall. We wanted to tick off more 5.8 cracks (should have hiked to Rattlesnake Buttress for sure) - did Campfire Girl with no one around at least.

Weird thing was "holiday weekend", right? 90% of the people left on Sunday. Had Billboard free yesterday morning finally. Of course, Will was one of the people that had to leave for work, though!

Crag Dweller wrote: Did you speak to the troop leader to ask if you could pull a rope so you could lead one of the routes and offer to rehang their rope when cleaning the route?

+1. Whatever happened to people being social and nice. I've been to many areas where groups are set up and doing their thing. I have always walked up started to BS and ask questions, next thing you know, your climbing what you want and possibly have some new friends. It's really not that hard, not being a total dick and all. I can't remember a time where I used this tactic and was met with opposition, except in boulder canyon.

Randy W. wrote: +1. Whatever happened to people being social and nice. I've been to many areas where groups are set up and doing their thing. I have always walked up started to BS and ask questions, next thing you know, your climbing what you want and possibly have some new friends. It's really not that hard, not being a total dick and all. I can't remember a time where I used this tactic and was met with opposition, except in boulder canyon.

Personally I don't want to climb anywhere with a bunch of people around it. I hate crowds, next time I am in Indian Cove I would say it is worth it to head out away from the park next to crags. I have climbed routes out there that I don't even know the names on but they are awesome no star routes. But then again, you put rock under my feet and I think it is pretty rad.