Cob rock - new rappel route

Done.

Hi Steve, feel free to PM or call me or Roger about the situation on the W. Side. I'll RE here with my own general reaction to your post, for public consideration/discussion:

With regards to a walk-off:
I would love to see a good and sustainable trail down the W. Side from Cob. I tried to see a "mitigation" solution to that area, but frankly, the area is too steep and already too eroded to get something that I think would hold in, within the existing path. A path that would be anything from "high maintenance" to "sustainable" would require a less steep line and require switch-backs cutting into the forest to the west quite a way. As a trail-builder of some years, that was my view. If you see things differently and want to suggest a specific set of erosion mitigation actions, then I would suggest to eye up your suggestion in specifics, then contact Roger to get our trail team there, and review the specifics with him and the team, in order to discuss what we can legally do or not, and if it seems possible and beneficial to the most experienced and professional people we have access to. If it is later in the season and conditions are good, I'd love to join you, but right now I am only 3 weeks out from having a knee re-built and I can't make it up there.

With regards to a more permanent trail:
This would be a large amount of work (several weeks for many people) once we get approval from the USFS. This is a very high priority for the BCC and one of the pilot areas we are proposing to model our work in once allowed. We have a MOU signed with them now, but no approvals. It seems that the flood put a pretty big dent in our ability and their ability/bandwidth to move forward with that process. I hope we can get back on track.

With regards to the rap station:
I hope that this would be temporary as well. I hope that the station remains undocumented in guidebooks so as not to have its presence become "expectation" and set people up for a problem. I would hope that the community would expect and support its removal if and when we can get a dedicated and sustainable trail open on the West Side. The above circumstances may effect this though, so I admit to some uncertainty there.

With regards to "Voluntary Closure":
When I read what you said I was a little puzzled. I think this is a misunderstanding. Roger was suggesting that climbers do their best not to use that walk-off. Since it is 'voluntary' I think his expectation is that not everyone will volunteer. And I would not expect that everyone would agree either. Perhaps there is a better catch-phrase here like "suggested descent = rap" but that will not be followed when people prefer not to, due to crowding, weather or personal preferences. Hopefully the crag and personal discussions about this will stay civil, right down to the folks who might say/suggest something to the people choosing to walk, or to those who dislike the rap station there and choose not to use it. So far it has been pretty civil and I don't expect that anyone will try to "police" the area. At least I hope not. The idea is mitigation of the erosion.

Thanks again for contributing to the discussion. I hope more people feel free to do the same. Perhaps it will generate interest in the project to the point where, when we are prepared and permitted, that we can go fix the West Slope.

John Marsella wrote: There are people who are climbing / placing gear on multipitch routes and don't know how to rap? Really?

There are people being taken up it by more experienced climbers who are not at that level, yes. IE, like I took my Dad. He can follow a route and take out gear, but I didn't try to instruct him on rapping on a multi-pitch.

Wow, I just found this thread after walking off the top of Cob Rock for the first time. It's 2021 and no trail has been built. The hillside is an eroded shitshow. My climbing partner might or might not have bruised their tailbone from sliding in the scree in a steep section and landing hard.

We saw the rap anchors to the west of North Face Center but did not use them to descend because we had seen the party next to us using them as belay stations on the way up. Another party was lined up at the base to do that line, so we did not want to throw a rope down on the leader. There is no signage at this point about the anchors or descent - not that we saw, anyway.

I came to MP curious to see the descent beta. It looks like the rap anchor is not mentioned anywhere in the general area description for Cob Rock, nor in the description of the climb we did. In fact, no descent info is given at all, for rapping or walking off.

I read this whole thread and understand the controversy about the rap anchors. But it has now been 8 years with no trail built. Can we please add descent info about Cob Rock to the area description? I feel like it could be neatly summarized as "The traditional descent is a walk-off to the west. However, due to the severely degraded and eroded condition of the hillside, a rappel anchor was added to the west of Empor in 2013. It has two bolted rap stations and can be done with a 60m rope. Local climbers are working with the land owner (Forest Service) to hopefully install an engineered descent trail. In the meantime, climbers wishing to avoid contributing to the severe erosion problem can use the rappel anchors to descend. The rappel route unavoidably crosses the Northwest Corner route, and some climbers might mistakenly use it for belay stations, so please be considerate and check for climbers below before tossing your rope."

I have submitted this language^ for consideration as an improvement to the area page. Folks who were involved in the anchor installation and placement, and folks who maybe disagreed with the anchor installation - what do you think of adding this to the page? People have to get down somehow. I feel like a simple factual description of the options would be a good thing, but I'm sure my suggested text could be improved.

ETA - Looks like the suggested text has been added to the area description. Thanks, admin!