A rope bag filled with a tag line, about 25+bolts with hangers, and various other gear was stolen from the base of the shield. Please return to Kevin Jaramillo or Jason Patton and your Karma record will be cleansed. Kevmountainman@yahoo.com or grippedclimber@gmail.com. Thanks.

stealing hardware, that's lame.

Sorry Jason, this sucks. I can't imagine that it should be that hard to figure out who did it though...the number of people that hike in to do routes on the shield is pretty small. Hope this works out.
Best.

I haven't gotten into route development yet, but what are the ethics of gear stashes? Why not just carry it out and bring it back next time?

Ok... just educated myself on the shield... i agree it would suck to lug a bag full of hardware 1.5hours every time you wanted to do some work. But my question still remains. How are other parties supposed to know it's not booty? Should you leave a note in the bag? Pad lock it to a tree? I left my rope & bag at a crag once... was in a hurry and it was starting to rain... Anyway, when i went back to get it, it was gone, but there was a note with a phone number for the guy who found it. I'd count myself lucky, but i'm sure there are a lot of other people out there who would've just grabbed it and threw it on the booty pile.

Development usually means hauling (at a minimum) the following:

1)drill and bits
2)bolts and hangers
3)pry bar and hammer for cleaning
4)jugs and a fixed line

That junk is frickin heavy and developers usually stash some stuff in a hidden place so they don't have to haul it the crag every time. You could call it lazy, I just say thanks for the hard work and money that the developer is dumping into the project. Stealing it is way douche. ...and yes, it is obvious that it is not 'abandoned' property. If you can't figure out that the new looking bag of 'booty' is there for development and you should leave it be, then you are not thinking very carefully (or are being willfully blind so that you can justify being a thief).

Wow that is the last place I would ever imagine hearing about something getting stolen. That's too bad I hope the culprits realize their dumb ways and return the gear.

Matt

In June I had my gear stash get shredded in the Sandias by some animal, luckily resulting in only the dry bag and my static line being ruined. Kudos to Kevin and Brad who generously hiked all my crap out of there, thereby allowing me to go stash it elsewhere and do some other new routes.

Any chance a bear made off with the bag? Have you checked downhill or around the base? Was the bag hidden in the caves? I can hardly rouse myself to go climbing on the Shield much less climb out with with a bunch of extra crap, so the thieves must be motivated assholes or zealots.

Hope the stuff turns up,

William

Clay, you have obviously never experienced the true joy of developing new lines in the Sandias--trundling the biggest things you can find en route, which requires some kind of mechanical advantage if you are getting after it. Your loss really.

My guess is hikers. I have seen people out bushwhacking in some very remote areas of the Sandias. I can't imagine a climber who hiked in to the Shield to climb, would haul all that stuff up the route with them.

Just curious--was the gear well-hidden, or hidden at all?

I personally know 3 people who've had stashes stolen:
-from a route on the North Rim of the Black Canyon in winter (when the road is closed and nobody goes there)
-from Broadway ledge on the Diamond in winter
-from Twin Owls on Lumpy Ridge in winter

I believe the common denominator was that these stashes were not hidden or well-hidden, and these folks trusted their fellow climbers. Unfortunately I have a hard time believing that anybody but climbers did any of these crimes-especially in the case of the Diamond and the Black, the thieves had to be climbers just to get to the gear.

If it was climbers in this case, maybe they got wind of the fact that gear was out there?

The gear was hidden beneath some boulders with a lot of rocks stacked up on top of it. Clearly it was not hidden well enough. I tend to think that it was hikers or possibly even a ranger that picked it up. I realize that it is possible that someone picked it up with some sort of good intentions like cleaning up or something. Perhaps it would help if I said that the gear was "lost" by us below the Shield. Lost, stolen, hikers, climbers, I really don't care. Leaving all that gear out there in a public area is inherently risky. The several different user groups that visit the base of the Shield have complex systems of morality, ideals and intentions in regards to the Shield and the Sandias and leaving gear up there undoubtedly crosses someones boundary somehow. I can't know what the person thought when they picked up our stuff, so perhaps us saying that the gear was "stolen" from the Shield may be a bit incendiary. I am just hoping someone knows something or hears something and we can get all those expensive bolts back.

Thanks for all the concern, Jason.

That sucks J...
Hope you get your stuff back, and I'm glad your still out there gettin after it. Come on up to Smith and show me how to climbg this thin vertical shit someday, and bring Kevin with you.

Clay meier wrote: "Just to clarify, development, in its truest form, only needs a trad rack and a rope". Sorry Clay, one only needs an unclimbed boulder problem, or an unclimbed crag route, or unclimbed face on a peak etc. No rope, rack, chalk, harness, shoes etc. Just to clarify, (and stir the pot a bit). Just some Erickson/Amment logic for you.

We found our gear! It turns out a bear got a hold of it, drug it a good ways out from the wall a tore it up. Someone was able to see it from a couple pitches up and let us know where it was.

Thanks again

Jason Patton

Wow, I've seen Bears turn over big slabs for grubs but for bolts ?
Any food in there or ever been food in there ?

Oh, and Daryl, I was referring to my friend's wife.

Paul is refering to his "friend's" wife's BOOTY???

No food, and I doubt Penner left any food in his cache either. The bears are on to us.

I had a bear get into our cache for the sunscreen. They like any scented stuff...bug spray, climb on, sweaty stinky clothes, soap, bacitracin. Once they went for a store bought water bottle. I am sure they smell water too. I took care of a Philmont scout who cleaned the dishes for the troop and was mauled in his tent that night. 40+ tooth punctures on his arms probably just from the scent (soap and/or food) left on his arms. We lost a 50# cache tied and buckled to a tree hidden in an alcove covered with pine boughs with none of the above scents. I looked every where. I think the 2 legged beasts may have gotten this one.