Summersville Lake Cliff Jumping Ban

This post was originally a comment in Summersville (Gauley River) Area

Cliff jumping in all its various forms, including deep water soloing, has recently been banned by the Army Corps of Engineers. The penalty is a $5000 fine, though it is unclear to me if it's being rigorously enforced. Does anyone have info about this?

See article here:

allclimbing.com/archive/200…

There is a petition going around to lift this ban. It only takes a few seconds to fill out:

ipetitions.com/petition/sum…

Dave Fiorucci wrote:I signed the petition.

I did too.

Dave Fiorucci wrote:It should be stated that climb/swim at your own risk, and made illegal for people to sue for injuries.

Only if liability was that easy. The Army Corps of Engineers is clearly just covering themselves from future lawsuits.

Dave Fiorucci wrote:No wonder why the majority of kids today are fat, and get in trouble with the law, bring guns to school etc. Americans are no longer allowed or encouraged to enjoy life's simple pleaseures. Is this America or do we live in Nazi Germany?

I think this might be taking it to far, but point taken. There is a line between allowing people to make stupid choices and dictating what they can or cannot do. It seems to me that The Army Corps of Engineers took this one too far.

It should be noted that The Army Corps of Engineers is in no way directing this new law against rock climbing or climbers, it is clearly directed towards tourists who get drunk and make bad descisions while atop cliff that may not be safe to jump from. They just don't want to give people the go-ahead to do something stupid.

-Ladd

Cliff jumping at Summersville will continue to be a passtime of mine and friends I'm with. Now I just have to be careful of more than what is in the water, I have to be careful of who is watching.

Cliff diving at Summersville

This is and has been pretty dumb, IMO. The best thing about Summersville Lake is going there in the dead of summer, climbing until you grease off the holds and then jumping in the lake and swimming the sweat off. You can't pass any laws against stupidity, people will Darwin themselves no matter what the rules say. Maybe we should put up railings with signs all around the lakes or make anyone within 100 yards wear a life jacket...

So here is where you can't jump from anymore (over your head):

JUMP!

And here is what you really shouldn't do anymore:
3...2...1...

I also wanted to mention this ban covers another lake in the southern region which has excellent DWS. Enough that it looks like it might have become a great summer destination for climbers who would contribute to the local economy by renting pontoon boats, buying gas, etc.

"I don't think they have anythign specifically against deep water soloing, as long as you don't fall."

If you climb above water, when you fall you don't die. But here, if you fall you pay $5,000. Probably more motivation for climbers than fear of death! LOL

Ladd, I hope for your sake you don’t get caught. I wouldn’t want to see anybody pay $5000, and or spend some time in the slammer over swimming in a lake. Maybe the law was made to prevent drunken rednecks from showing up with a beach blanket and a case of beast. But shouldn't local law enforcement take care of a problem like this with the current laws that are in place? Maybe I was taking it too far with my comment, but let’s check with somebody who did get slapped with the fine.

...btw nice photos Mark.

Will A. wrote:While I was there last sumer I heard of locals who were turning people in for some sort of cash reward. Anyone else heard of this.

I've spent the past 3 summers guiding at the New and I've never heard of anything like that. If they were locals, they weren't climbers.

Dave Fiorucci wrote:Ladd, I hope for your sake you don’t get caught.

Me too.

Echoing what many of you have already said... yeah I wish folks could just take responsibility for their own actions. This ban is so silly.

Perhaps I missed this reading through the thread, but does anyone know of someone who was actually fined? Or is this just an empty threat with a slap on the wrist?

I would love to go back next summer.

I've spent countless days out at Summersville, and at least 15 days last summer alone, I've been talked to, seen people talked to, even yelled at, but I've never seen someone fined.

The real danger when climbing at Summersville remains parking your car in the lot and hoping no locals break into it. (I've seen at least a dozen break-ins)

The petition has a TON of spelling and grammatical errors. The Corps will take you more seriously if someone edits it.

I thought this petition was a good idea... just now, however, I dug a bit deeper and discovered that the petition sponsors are two high school aged boys. This may be the reason for the numerous grammatical errors.

I tried getting in touch with them to correct the problems and find out what will happen to this petition. Their only contact info is through their MySpace page. I don't have an account, and therefore cannot contact them.

I guess it's better to sign the petition with the errors, than not at all, but could someone with a MySpace page get in touch with:

Josh connelly and Michael Bowe at:
myspace.com/mikebowe
myspace.com/joshisghetto

man, i can't beleive this...
people have been jumping around there since the 80s, probably earlier.
this sort of tourture is not american!
someone send the army general a copy of king lines, or
maybe we could get sharma to go and ward off the army!

First and foremost I would like to state that I hate cliff jumping and the people who do it are just asking to die.

What goes up must come down

I totally agree Jeff. It's just sick, awful and totally disgusting.. Only a bunch of derelicts would do such a thing. I rather be at home reading a book with some decaf tea.

YEa !!!
Fly like an Eagle!

Dave I am glad that you support the anti-cliff jumping coalition. If it's the last thing we do we will make sure those kids aren't having fun.

Gross? Did that cost "your buddy" a ticket?

Jeff, It's another place where jumping is rightfully prohibited

This is really sad. The New/Summersville was the place I would road trip to the most when I lived in Ohio. Some of my fondest climbing memories are climbing right out of the water, topping out, if I was lucky, and then getting myself pumped up to jump. In fact, I still have a picture on my refrigerator of me diving in the pirates cove area. Everybody who comes over to my place always comments on the photo. They can't believe that there's a place like this in West Virginia.
It's really unfortunate that this has been outlawed. Personal responsibility is becoming a thing of the past in this country. I guess all those lectures I got from my dad growing up on being accountable for my actions were for nothing. Spill hot coffee on yourself. Sue McDonald's.

A little of topic here, but does anybody know of any places out here in Colorado where one might partake in this sort of unlawfulness.

Dave, breaking the law at Gross Res? I'm a cliff jumpin criminal as well. This past weekend Vail had lots of the crystallized water to jump into. Cliff jumping is not a crime. Cliff jumpers are not criminals. Maybe just a little crazy.

Blue Sky
Signed the petition, hope it makes a difference.