Need some input here -- The Las Vegas Climbers Liaison Council is gearing up their anchor replacement initiative this November. We are planning to start in the Calico Hills, and our initial activities will be directed at the replacement of worn chains and lower-offs. (other areas and bolt replacement coming soon-- stay tuned!) Anyway, let us know of any shaky anchors out there and let us get them onto the list.

I'm joining today along with a donation to the cause! Who's with me?

http://www.lvclc.org/

~Susan

I know I've come across a good amount of sketchy stuff. Unfortunately I have not really been keeping track of it until recently. So I don't have as much input for you guys as I would like. Here is what I do have. . . .
"Rebel Without A Pause" = Spinning Anchor
"Side Effects" = Spinning Bolt at the crux dyno
"Brass Balls" = 2nd bolt under the roof is a spinner
"Fleet Street" = Old pins placed so far apart that ground fall is
your reality. Just top rope this thing.
"Shelf Life" = AKA "the name is etched into it route," in Hidden
Corridor, Sandstone Quarry has spinning bolts
"Children's Crag" = Cold Shuts are Spinning
"Cannibal Crag" = Cold Shuts + homemade hangers
"Urban Crag" = Worn Chains + Cold Shuts

The little shrubs that I rapped off of on Nadia's Nine could use some fertilizing.

Can we mention the shady, and seedy Evil Dead trees, and shrubs that are a bit shaky that we rap from? Our list will grow as big as the Jolly Green Giant. ; )

I'm no Vegas local, but just spent the last month climbing there and noticed a few. The anchors that I remember really needing work included severely worn chains on several routes at the Gallery, ditto for Cannibal Crag. I wasn't quite sure what to make of it, but anchors on top of P2 (?) of Y2K were bolts of unknown length with about 8 washers stacked on them and a couple of links, no hangers. Finally, the anchors in the Lotta Balls descent gully are various equalized trees and shrubs that are slowly getting worked. It seemed as though a couple sets of bolts and rings would be easy to set up for that descent. I had a blast climbing there for the first time, can't wait to head back!
Mike S.

Jonny,

The sign at the base of the route says
Leave No Trace of Soylent Green,
or Nitro Humus.
(Kidding!)


Does the LVCLC accept cash or money orders? And who do I hand it to?

Thanks,

G

Gigette,

Aside from donating money maybe one of us should consider donating some time too. I emailed the organization last week stating I had cash and/or anchors and wanted to give them some.

........crickets..............

No reply still. I signed up to their group, sent an email and am more than happy to donate a little $$ to the cause. As it is now, the had better catch me before all that Halloween candy goes on sale.

Maybe they need help with volunteers?

Post up if you get better info on where to make donations.

Thanks,

Susan

Donate time? EEEEEK! You're right though, Susan. I'm sure they do need help with volunteers, as much as the dollars. I'm sure we'll hear something soon, as they have great leaders at the LVCLC.

And come on out-of-towners! Our Vegas climbing community is small, and you guys climb here just as much, if not more than the locals. Help, help!

We need volunteers.

I know the plan was to set out donation jars at both Desert Rock Sports and the Las Vegas Climbing Center for this purpose, however, it has not yet been accomplished. I know that money, in this case, is always helpful as it sounds like there are plenty of folks willing to donate their time to aid in the upgrade/replacement of the anchor setups.

I have not asked, but my guess is that the folks at either retailer would be willing to take donations and make sure it gets into the hands of the purchasers of the necessary equipment.

Membership signups: I believe the website is under construction (although it may not appear that way). In the meantime, please contact Amy Miller Ansari, amyvansari@yahoo.com if you are interested in helping out in anyway.

The LVCLC is always looking for new members. Our next meeting (usually held the 3rd wed of every month) wil take place sometime during the last week of November, after Thanksgiving break. I or someone else will post the day and time when the details are known.

Gigette is correct, the Vegas climbing "community" is really bigger than just the local folks. I love climbing at Red Rocks and would be happy to kick in some money to keep the area open and safe. I also wouldn't mind if some of that money was put into a keg party for those that are doing the work, and one step further... if it was used to buy "thank you equipment" for those that put in the time to make my climbing better when I come to Vegas.
Let me know where to send my check.

Often projects like this have bolts donated to them from various sources therefore the purchasing of anchors may not be necessary. Then again, that may not be the case and there is always things like batteries, drill bits, etc that will require purchase.

I'm glad to hear that you've got a local community willing to donate their time to do replacement. I was thinking perhaps you need someone to coordinate a fund raiser or at least the donation pot. There's nothing wrong with a donation jar if people feel comfortable dropping cash into it. But as a non-profit organization a receipt could be useful for people who want to deduct contributions on their taxes. This is where a volunteer who is in charge of such things would come in handy.

Who's doing the web design? It looks pretty set up to me except it's missing the Donation tag that provides either an address to mail money to or better yet a PayPal account that people could click on. Hegyes was pretty generous with his $50.00 - I think you'd be surprised how many people would donate if it was convenient. For us out-of-towners, going to the gym or shop is just not an option. Even when I visit, I'm there to climb not shop.

Does the LVCLC have a bank account? PayPal is easy and also can provide an immediate receipt for people making a donation.

For the people sending cash or check by mail, a simple receipt is easy to do. Hell, I could donate the time for accounting providing the LVCLC bank is one I have access to in CA & AZ.

I, like Jon, am not as concerned as to where the money goes providing it is connected to the cause. Have a giant party with swag & booze for all the people willing to donate time, give a portion to local climbers/families who had accidents, standard bolt replacement or any combination thereof.

~Susan

If the LVCLC is not setup for tax deductible donations, you could always use the ASCA to funnel funds through, and get bolting supplies.

Karin

Boy, I am glad to see such a strong interest in this topic. It sounds like there is a lot of interest in contributing to this cause. The problem is accountability. I have that same problem when donating to a non-profit agency: Where does my money go?

I know a few folks are going to replace the first anchor coming up in the next few weeks. And then, if all goes well, the board, with input from the climbing community will make decisions for anchor replacements for the climbing season. As these are completed, the LVCLC will be announcing there accomplishments.

There is some equipment that is being donated from sources (I think the ASCA is one of them) and that will help. But, as we all know, there are plenty of great climbing areas within Red Rocks.

As far as I can tell, The LVCLC has not done something like this in the past (at least not the recent past) and so we are doing the best we can right now. I believe that a receipt for donations is reasonable and will be discussed amongst the board members. The Paypal setup might be a bit too much for us right now, but it too can be discussed.

Please remember, this forum is for people who have recently climbed in Red Rocks and want to recommend routes that should/need/will need very soon their anchors replaced.

Hi All,

I am hopeful that I can help clarify things a little bit. My name is Amy and I am on the board of the LVCLC.

First, I want to apologize to susan for the lack of response from LVCLC. I personally don't have access to the website or the e-mail but we are currently working on the "lack of response" issue right now. The pay pal idea is great and we will discuss it at the next meeting. I am glad to hear that your money went to such a great organization (ASCA). Greg is going to be donating some stuff to us very soon.

Second John, I can understand not hearing anything from the LVCLC after making a donation such as yours can be a bit frustrating. But I really cannot commit on where your money went. I was not part of the LVCLC at that time. But over the past several months we started a new movement full of new conservation and education initatives, and community building fun.

This new LVCLC movement is still in an infancy stage and we are going through some growing pains right now. But since we have started this movement, I would like to give you some LVCLC accomplishments in the past several months.
1. Supported the Adapt-a-crag event in Mecca Climbing area
Several members went and helped construct LNT signs for this climbing area.
2. Make a Difference Day- Today (saturday) LVCLC will be supporting the Friends of Red Rock Canyon in there trail rehabilitation and graffiti removal efforts. Currently we have over 200 people signed up. In addition the Access Fund, Get Outdoors Nevada, Desert Rock Sports, Jackson Hole Mountain Guides, Acopa Climbing Shoes, has donated many items to this event for swag bags. A special thanks to Lisa, Lucas, Rick, and Michelle for helping me put those bags together
3. John Bachar slide show- WOW! what a success that was! Travis at Desert Rock Sports worked very hard to make that happen and about 100 people attended. (Proceeds went toward our anchor initative). He has also given us a huge discount for all anchor hardware we buy. (We can't just rely on Greg and ASCA : )
4. LVCLC T-shirts!- We are now selling LVCLC t-shirts at Desert Rock Sports and Red Rock Climbing Center. Check them out! Super Cool.
5. More slide shows to come- Next up will be Paul Van Betten. If you are not sure who he is check out any Red Rock Guide guide. You will find his name many times.
Well it is 4:00 am and I need to be up in an hour to prep for Make a Difference Day. Susan I would love to connect with you more on the LVCLC and will sending you an e-mail through Mountain Project soon.

Take Care,
AVM

Thanks for everyone's interest in the CLC. In response to some of the legitimate questions as to what's going on, where the money is going, etc., I would like to encourage those folks with questions to come to a meeting and speak directly to the folks involved. Bachar's slideshow and our recent tee shirt launch have brought in a decent sum of money to go directly to purchase anchor replacement gear. The CLC has resolved that 0% of our budget as an organization goes to beer, so it's BYOB (although I'm trying to talk Paul into getting a keg for his upcoming slideshow), and the money sits in an account controlled solely by the CLC treasurer, to be doled out to projects as they're voted on my general membership and the board.

The organization has blown up over the last few months and some original founding members are super psyched on the fact that we're getting off our asses and fixing bad gear on some of our showpiece crags. It's also really nice to see the CLC bringing 15+people to a major event like Make A Difference Day, cleaning up a ton of graffiti, fixing trails, and letting the BLM and other folks in positions to make decisions that climbers are stepping up to the plate and handling our business. Anchor replacement isn't an overnight thing-all of us (that I know of) work 40+ hours a week and aren't climbing enough as it is. I'm comitted to keeping photographic evidence of what the CLC is improving with respect to anchors and lead pro bolts, and that will be popping up on the site soon as well-give Larry some time; he's been busy putting up new routes on Wilson and fixing the trails out at Red Rock in the meantime.

This is a time of change and growth for our organization, we're working with the ASCA, Friends of Red Rock Canyon, REI, and other groups to maximize our impacts, but over half of the movers and shakers in the LVCLC are new as of this year, and we're still learning the ropes.

Any further questions can be answered when you guys help us tap the keg next month-but there's no free beer so bring some green to chip in and your Designated Driver of choice-Cheers!

Back to the point of the original post . . . The bolt at the small roof on pitch 2 of Chips Ahoy on the Tuna and Chips Wall at the First Pullout had a spinning bolt hanger when I last climbed there about a year ago (and fell on it).

Cannibal Crag needs some real work. It needs a number of new bolts, new anchors and some serious graffiti cleaning...

Jason

Which bolts/anchors on Cannibal specifically?

know it will take a while for anchor replacement, but can you put upper sunnyside crag in icebox canyon on the list for the future?

-Ma and Pa in the Kettle -- Old Hangers and a funky ring bolt
-Mac and Ronnie in the Cheese -- Some Button-Head bolts and some crappy hardware store bolts with funky old hangers.

This was just a quick survey while I was working. I didn't look at everything on the west face, but I suspect that the other Swain Routes from the early nineties at Cannibal have either funky hangers or weird bolts.

The anchors seem fine.

Jason

Thanks Jason. Ultraman's going down this week and we'll be branching out from there. As to Upper Sunnyside, again, specific routes are helpful. Please specify what needs to get replaced folks, and it'll be done before you can say "thanks, John Bachar!"

Purple Haze , Haunted Hooks, and Roto Hammer on the Stone Wall = homemade bolt hangers
at two of the anchors, as well as lower on the route
and a couple spinning bolts...

The Gambler and Glitter Gulch on the Sweet Pain Wall = spinning bolts...