Comments on: News & Notes – 3/4/2010

By: Egghead

Egghead — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 02:08:26 +0000

@Mark: is there something organized? I know Nick has talked to at least one park Ranger crew…

By: Steve Schultz

Steve Schultz — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 00:07:46 +0000

No, you’ve got the timeline right. We were there last fall and after talking to the ranger for a while, were able to talk him in to letting us climb there for the day.

I don’t think this is a huge issue for them, but they’re noticing increasing numbers of climbers in the last year or so. That has prompted them to be a bit more active about enforcing it, to my understanding.

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 23:37:19 +0000

There is. Talk to Nick Rhoads.

By: Huston

Huston — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 22:55:11 +0000

I’ve also seen the Rib Mtn Stuff on various sites and it is so unfortunate. My questions lie more in line with the determination of what needs to be protected and how the park is going about that. For example – why is it that hiking and scrambling are still allowed? Do hikers and scramblers not cause damage to these areas? If not, what does cause this damage; climbing shoes and pads? How is this different than walking on these areas or falling on them in tennis shoes? If hiking and scrambling do in fact cause damage, why are they allowed? Do they cause “less damage”? How was this determined? How much damage then is an acceptable amount of damage? And what evidence is there that the bouldering in the park has in fact caused an unacceptable amount of damage (and how was this determined)?

Also, is there any sort of public comment system in the Wisco DNR that has to be used before something like this goes into affect? Or was an environmental assessment done first?

I don’t know – I’ve never been to Rib and likely will never go, but the whole Wisconsin climbing access thing is horrible and areas keep disappearing. It seems to me, in many ways, that it is often more of an anti-climbing policy.

One last thing – from the brief bit I have read, it seems the problems lie in the talus areas. What is to prevent the talus at Devil’s Lake being closed down? There is precedent in closing areas there (New Sandstone) and I don’t think bouldering is grandfathered in at the Lake quite like climbing on the cliffs.

There needs to be a climbing access group formed in Wisconsin…

By: Remo

Remo — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 22:08:16 +0000

Interesting point Narc. I left Stevens Point in 2006, and I climbed there probably 2-3 times a week during the on-seasons of 2005 and 2006. I saw rangers every now and then, but they never once mentioned to me the fact that it was closed to “bouldering”, not to be confused with “scrambling”. So I ofcoarse kept climbing up there and later posted all the beta on MP, thinking to myself it’s time everyone knew about Rib’s quality and concentration. It sucks that we keep running into these scares in this State. I’m glad Wisco has such a good environmental ethic that we do save and preserve fragile habitats, but where does the line stop, when we no longer have rock to climb? I’m internally torn about this area in particular, but we do still have the Lake and G. Dodge, for now.

By: Narc

Narc — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 21:28:03 +0000

But if they had completed their planning in 2005, how did the ranger allow you guys to keep climbing when you were there last year. Maybe I’m just not understanding the timeline??

By: Steve Schultz

Steve Schultz — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 21:25:36 +0000

Apparently there have been a number of minor run ins with rangers in the past couple of years. This only hinted at the problem though.

When we went up there, the ranger was in contact with us in a matter of minutes, but extremely cordial. I have nothing but respect for the DNR and what they do.

Who knows, maybe there is another resolution at the end of all this.

By: Ken Etzel

Ken Etzel — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 20:15:29 +0000

Man, Rib Mountain….. I spent a lot of time there in the late 90′s exploring and establishing problems. It’s really unfortunate, that tiny area means a lot to me. We never really thought the place would catch on. Otherwise we would have started a relationship with the park.

This is a big bummer and I hope it can be resolved.

By: Narc

Narc — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 19:00:46 +0000

Thing I can’t understand is how climbing has been banned since 2005 yet they are only moving to bar people from climbing this year.

By: Paul Campbell

Paul Campbell — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 18:52:37 +0000

*Sigh* just another great Wisconsin location we can’t climb at. If it wasn’t for access restrictions our state would be full of climbing.