Reported Potential Incident at Boy Scout Boulder-Sandstone Quarry

Reported Potential Incident at Boy Scout Boulder-Sandstone Quarry
By LVCLC

In Early December, Nick Walendziak, the outdoor recreation planner and climbing ranger for RRNCA was told that an individual was seen bolting at and/or around a culturally sensitive site at the Boy Scout Boulder. Also, he was told that the individual may have damaged the site and/or potentially removed a couple of steel/iron rods, considered artifacts from the quarry days, and, that the individual may have done a poor job of replacing old bolts at the site and left glue/epoxy and unfilled holes.

Nick Walendziak met Mark Boatright, BLM Archeologist, at the site. Nick also met Doug Foust and Xavier Wasiak from the LVCLC at the Boy Scout Boulder to look at the reported anchors.

We found that the original bolt anchors at the top of the following routes at Sandy Corridor were replaced with glue-in anchors: The Wallow, The Ring Leader, Bolt Route, John’s Wall, Belay Delay, Seams to Me, Inn Zone, Chicken Boy, Forbidden Zone, and Bark at the Moon.

We also found that there were now several similar anchors at the top of top ropes to the left of the routes above.

In total we counted fourteen new anchors. We also noticed that protection bolts on the routes had been replaced with glue-ins as well.

We found what appeared to be unpatched original holes and a few original bolts with no hangers. The bolts were in the area popular to rappelers, and in one case, there were two old anchor bolts adjacent to the new glue-in anchors that apparently had not been pulled and patched yet.

Conclusions:

The Sandy Corridor routes were developed in the 1980s. This area is documented and routes are listed in both Red Rock Canyon A Climbing Guide, and Red Rocks A Climber’s Guide. Although there were a number of holes that were left unfilled and unpatched and a number of original bolts that remained unpulled (mostly around the area popular with rappelers) , the work done was seen as bolt and anchor replacement and an improvement to the previously existing conditions in the Sandy Corridor. The glue-ins appear to positively address the theft of hangers cited in the latest guide book and make the routes more accessible to climbers.

This bolt replacement work is allowed by the Red Rock Canyon Resource Management Plan (RRC RMP) signed in 2005. There are no plans to remove any existing protection bolts or anchors since the bolt replacement work occurred on these existing routes. No new fixed anchors or routes were recently developed at the Boyscout Boulder area.

The RRC RMP outlines regulations for fixed anchors (i.e. bolts). New fixed anchors (i.e. bolts) are prohibited within 50 feet of the cultural site and also within ¼ mile (1320 feet) of the Sandstone Quarry parking area. New fixed anchors are also currently prohibited in Wilderness areas. Bolting is allowed in all other areas of the Calico Hills outside of these restrictions.

The Sandstone Quarry area, including the Boy Scout Boulder area, has an abundance of cultural resources and is considered a historic area because of the quarry and related artifacts. To avoid detracting from the visual experience of historic viewers and because of the cultural resources, no new fixed anchors will be allowed. Furthermore, the Archaeological Resource Protection Act (ARPA) of 1979 orders that no person shall excavate, remove, damage, or otherwise alter or deface or attempt to excavate, remove, damage, or otherwise alter or deface any archeological resource located on public lands.

Outside of the existing vandalism and graffiti, Mark Boatright determined that no additional damage had been done to the culturally sensitive site, and that no artifacts were removed.

Further Action:

Doug Foust has volunteered to patch the remaining bolt holes (not a part of the cultural site) and remove the remaining old bolts and patch those as well.

We want to thank Nick Walendziak for bringing this matter to our attention and to cooperating with us in first determining what issues and concerns it raised, and secondly, what steps we could take to self-police and further our relationship with land managers as a responsible user group.

Posted by Doug Foust and Xavier Wasiak on behalf of the LVCLC.

at least there was no boy scout gang roping...

Potential Incident? What does that mean? I'm gonna go with Definition #5:

in·ci·dent   [in-si-duhnt] noun

5.
an occurrence of seemingly minor importance, especially involving nations or factions between which relations are strained and sensitive, that can lead to serious consequences, as an outbreak of hostilities or a war: border incident; international incident.

Your final paragraph is vague. You say Nick pointed out "what issues and concerns it raised." What is "it"? The mysterious incident? The glue-ins? The empty holes? The missing/stolen (historical) anchors? The million pieces of broken glass at the base of the wall? And what are the issues and concerns?

Further Action (to "self-police") involves Doug removing old bolts and patching holes?

Those would be ASCA glue-ins... "Peanuts"

+1 on Doug for finishing the anchors and to everyone who looked into the situation further

Hey Mark,

The major issues that the BLM were concerned about:

1) New bolts being added
2) Historical Artifacts being removed(old steel rods that were driven into a crack)
3) Any damage to the historical site
4) Unsightly old bolts with removed hangers, and old holes not patched.

From what we could tell, all of the bolts were replacements and there were actually less bolts put in than removed.

The steel rods were still there and not disturbed.

The BLM archeologist determined that it appeared no damage was done to the site.

So, the only unresolved issue was removal of some old bolts and patching some holes which we will get done in the near future.

I know some people are concerned with the proper use of ASCA hardware, but that is between the ASCA and the people it gives hardware to.

Cheers,

Doug

Thanks for some clarification Doug. And Thanks to you and Xavier for taking your time to meet with the BLM. Seriously.

However, this "potential incident" seems to me to be the Big Archeological Whatever. It's great that you can show the BLM that we climbers are willing to clean up our "unsightly old bolts" and fill-in those empty holes...because you know, once you walk through the dog turds, diapers and garbage between the parking lot and the mouth of the Sandy Corridor, turn right onto the broken glass, walk into the corridor and see scores of chiseled graffiti (some dating back to 1910) on the right-side wall, nothing destroys an archeologist's culturally sensitive site euphoria more than having to (not) see a bunch of unsightly 30 year old bolts and 3/8" holes, 100' up a wall...in a quarry! It's a buzz-kill every time.

Why not give the guy guy who replaced the bolts a beer or twenty and stop calling it an incident.

I agree this turned out to be "much ado about nothing" but the BLM did have some legitimate concerns. We have some good people working for the BLM and I think being super responsive will show that climbers are not the ones(in general) leaving garbage, dog turds, and broken glass.

Doug Foust wrote: ...The major issues that the BLM were concerned about:... 2) Historical Artifacts being removed(old steel rods that were driven into a crack)