Socorro

Please see the below information. It came as an email to me regarding some vandalism to pictographs at the Socorro box.

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There has been a serious incident at the Box, in the large shelter
upslope and northeast of the parking lot, with the large zigzag and
diamond-pattern pictograph. Someone used climbing chalk to make their own form of pictographs just right of the large pictograph. This is vandalism of the most serious kind and a federal crime. But even worse, under the public lands agencies' and numerous outdoor groups' backcountry and front country use ethics - Leave No Trace - this is extreme unethical behavior.

Further compounding all this is the person(s) who did this may have
thought they were doing their thing next to the main panel as a cutesy thing - and I hope not as a statement - and avoiding the pictographs, but they put the vandalism right on top of faded pictographs! They probably did not "see" the pastel tones of the faded pictographs where they did their graffiti
vandalism. Hopefully we can figure out how to remove the chalk without further impact. Hueco Tanks studies show that pictographs usually have some type of calcium carbonate occlusion, and when I worked there as an interpretive specialist in the mid '80s, we were able to actually remove modern enamel paint from pictographs because of the protective occlusion.

Under the Climbing Club's volunteer agreement with BLM to help manage
in the Box, please do everything you can to influence resident and
visiting climbers to avoid the pictographs, and certainly never, ever do graffiti in pictures or names. In fact, one of the projects we'll be working on is to continue to try to remove that green paint enamel up near that shelter (which also happens to cover some faded pictographs). Last semester I conducted a tour among some Club officers to look at the problem in general. There are some pictographs that have climbing chalk from climbs very near them.

What to Look For:

Most of the pictographs in the Box are Archaic-style, which generally
dates from + 3,500 BC to 300 AD. The pictographs are mostly red, but also faded to light red or orange colors. There are also white and black pictographs in various locations - mostly the shelters or protected overhangs. During the tour we found a white Puebloan (Piro-style) mask in the main pictograph shelter we had not seen before. So even people experienced at looking for pictographs always need to check themselves out.

Avoidance Techniques:

I don't know of any standard of how far away climbers should avoid
pictographs, but in our tour we discussed avoiding the known shelters.
When preparing to climb at a place that could have pictographs, always
take a good look and think in pastel tones for red, black, white, yellow. If they are there, then best to move over to an alternate location, note it for the Club and any internet resources and let Kevin Carson or I know about them. I've taken a hard look at all the established route locations and haven't seen anything. But it's in establishing new routes and in bouldering that the hard look must be taken. Prior to rappeling, the landing location needs to be looked at the insure that there is nothing on the wall just above it. Most pictographs at the box appear to be about chest or head-level; some are right down at ground level and some actually extend into fill. There do not seem to be any higher above ground or at the top of talus than a 6-foot person can reach.

Thanks for your assistance on this aspect of the Box,

Mike

Mike Bilbo
Outdoor Recreation Planner/
NM Leave No Trace & Treadlightly Coordinator
Socorro Field Office
901 S. Highway 85
Socorro, New Mexico 87801
Desk Phone 505-838-1278, Fax 505-835-0223
http://www.nm.blm.gov/recreation/socorro/socorro_rec_home.ht>>>>>

A good guide to both the boulders and the cliffs, while still in the works, is found here:
http://www.enchantedtower.com/PrintDrafts/02-Socorro_Preview>>>>>
It's gonna look sharp when it's done.

Socorro has many areas scattered around, the area described here is actually known as "Box Canyon" or officially by the BLM as "The Box".

A lot of these routes were put up quite a while back...many of them are listed in my 1993 guidebook. I think they were put up before sport development really turned into an art. And it shows. Non-existent anchors, poorly placed anchors, too many shared anchors, too many unprotected bouldery starts, too many ill-considered bolt placements. It kind of takes the gloss off what SHOULD be a really fun area. The rock is great, the movement is good, but the route development is...not so good. I've never considered retro-bolting to be a topic even worthy of discussion, but this area has made me wonder. I think if I had just discovered this area and were doing the development, I could make it much better. It's not a big deal but I just thought I'd lob it out there. During the 3 days I was at Box I never saw any other climbers. I've never had that happen at Datil (which is not very far away). Is the quality of development part of the reason ?

And it's spelled "Socorro".