Sunday, August 5, 2007

Views From the Dungeon

Today I worked on Iron Maiden. I didn't do it, but I made enough progress that I'm planning to go back. Between burns I took some photos of the views.



Obviously Vedauwoo is a pretty special place. Yet, people don't always treat it that way. Many do things that mar its beauty. Party goers leave their beer cans, and bonfire pallets. I've found full trashbags left by campers, to be torn apart and spread about by wildlife and wind. Offroad vehicles, dirtbikes, and 4 wheelers are often seen tearing up the landscape off of designated routes. All these things piss me off, but it bothers me even more when members of the group I feel I am a part of, the boulderers, don't respect their areas. Today at Vedauwoo, I saw a couple problems with tick marks over a foot long just left unbrushed, and then another problem where about a block of chalk was rubbed into about six holds. The boulder looked awful, and it didn't even make any sense, but it had obviously been done by a boulderer. I spent twenty minutes brushing, and half of my water bottle cleaning it up, but it still looked over chalked. To me, climbing works as a doorway towards a greater appreciation of nature. I don't understand how boulderers, who should be more attuned than the average person, would leave things such a mess. It affects fellow boulderers, and gives other people a bad impression of what boulderers do.

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