WOW! That's freaking awesome. He's looks exactly how I had always pictured a draw thief! Was he sh*tting his pants there at the end?

AWESOME! Why was he clipping all those draws to his own harness while you were talking to him.

I know I'm an Administrator and should act accordingly around here, but I so would have pounded the crap out of that maniac. Too bad Bob D'Antonio isn't here to weigh in on this as well.

awesome!! that was handled brilliantly, way to keep your cool :)

Wow, that is unbelievable!! Caught red-handed. You guys were really nice and calm to him despite the circumstances. Was that chick with him? Was he even a climber?? What a weird situation, did he really think no one would call him out if they saw that?!

It’s the draw stealing leprechaun!! LOL



I bet he was a hippie just looking for pot or gas money!

Draw stealing leprechaun Submitted By: Aaron M on Dec 29, 2010

Way to keep your cool.

This could have easily gone in a drastically different direction
if had occurred at, say the Red River Gorge in Kentucky:

www.wlwt.com/r/25762204/detail.html

Climbing for 18 years. Not a noob.
I still think leaving your gear all over the cliff is presumptuous and tacky. A total "high end elite" practice. I don't leave my car unlocked because I don't want my crap taken... Just my $0.02

Not everyone believes it is your right to leave your crap on any old cliff. I would not personally remove the gear of others, and I do not condone taking someone's gear. But I still think leaving draws hanging on a route is like pissing on a tree to claim it.

That being said, if you want to keep your gear, do not leave it hanging in public to be grabbed. I have bailed from routes and left bail gear. I have never found that gear; someone bootied it. I don't complain because I chose to leave my stuff there.

Clean up your crap and it won't get stolen.

Don't look now, but here comes the "abandoned gear" vs. "fixed draws" debate.

So the gear thief is definitely a moron. But this has become more common. Do we really have a right to leave our gear hanging around though? Something about the people climbing 14s makes them think the cliff is theirs to deposit their junk on. At what time limit are said draws "left". If I left my stuff hanging, I would not expect to see it again.

Maybe the elites should clean up their crap like the rest of us moderate losers.

So here is the whole story......

On Christmas Day I headed over to Big R to get in a quick workout before over eating Christmas dinner. I noticed that 1 quickdraw was missing from the second bolt, since I had been on the route 3 days before. I then noticed that the draws were also missing from Coleslaw and Chemicals and there were a bunch of drag marks in the dirt between the two routes. It appeared to me that someone cleaned the draws from Coleslaw and then had their belayer pull them over to pluck the second draw of Big R.

So Monday I decided to replace bolts on Overboard. While I was driving to the park Tim Garland called and told me someone was stick clipping up Big R. I arrived at the park and he was still stick clipping. He was not very experienced and it took him a long time to get to the top and set up the rappel. I just watched to see what he was doing. Then he started lowering and started cleaning the draws from both Big R (mine) and Starvation Fruit (Ryan's).

Tim Garland and Stan came over to help me out and we confronted the guy. He told us he was aid climbing and that the biners were worn out. We was going to take them and he would use them if he could "salvage" anything from them. He told us he was from Colorado Springs and all the places that he climbs at do not have fixed draws and if anyone leaves draws "they get taken down". He also admitted to taking the draws from Coleslaw a few days earlier. He gave us back all the draws.

He said this was his first time at Smith and had not even hiked to the main climbing area. He said he was leaving.

Did I hear someone say something about local ethics?

Well...thieving IS lame (so is that hat he's sporting)...but then again...so is leaving your shit everywhere in my opinion.

Funny vid though...especially that he keeps clipping your draws to his harness as you are explaining that they are in fact...YOURS!...lol.

"and then held him down while I shaved his thieving hipster beard."

+10 for the ginger hipster hate....+20 if you had thrashed him to a steezy Steve Aoki beat bumping from his girlfriends Ipod.

JasonH that was awesome!

So what was this thief going to do with the draws? Sell em on MP?

So, did he willingly give you the draws he stole?

unfortunately, I can't even climb 12... so I don't project much. But even the steeper stuff I have tried, I always clean my gear.
I guess the world is just F'd up, and that is why I would expect to have my stuff taken if I left it out in the wide open.

I dunno, just a personal choice. I like to clean the route for the next group to enjoy. (and I wouldn't climb on questionable gear left on a route in full UV and weather)

Wow,I can't believe how relaxed these guys are while confronting him.Can't say I would have handled the situation the same way.
At the very least I would have called the cops and gave them a copy of the video.Although had I found the guy stealing my draws I probably would have just turned the camera off....

Anyone post that photo on RC.com or Supertopo? Sort of like a wanted poster...at least know people know who to keep an eye out for. Chances are he frequents RC.com.

I still think he was let off easy. If he knew what he was doing a tongue lashing isnt going to stop him from doing it again in the future. Did you at least make him put every draw back up?

Maybe the guy wanted to lead these climbs without draws all over them? Every time I leave my draws on my 5.11- projects they all get stolen. Maybe I need to find this dude. Maybe when you are climbing 14a the rules change.

wow...regardless of an opinion on fixed gear..this IS lame. Caught so bad.

He is lucky you guys were nice. Others may have been "not so nice".