Over 20 years ago, when I was a Boy Scout, our troop would stay at a house near the base (owned by the Scoutmaster's parents?) which had a perfect view of the main face. One winter morning 4 or 5 of us hiked over to it and scrambled up what seemed like the center of the cliff, scaling fairly steep sections of verglased rock, just barely hanging on. Miraculously, not one of us slipped, either because of sheer luck, or because it wasn't nearly as steep as it felt to a bunch of non-climbers - or both. At the time it felt like a do-or-die scenario; downclimbing was out of the question and we had no idea what lay ahead. Had I known about the North Face of the Eiger back then, I would have thought I was on it. When we topped out we felt like badasses, though a little shaken and happy to be alive. That's one of those formative moments in one's early climbing career that either kills you or makes you stronger; that either adds to your resume or makes you a statistic. Fortunately for me it was the latter, and an experience I'll always look back upon with fondness.
Lets get a petition going and get this place back in the hands of the climbers of WI. We have nothing like this anywhere else in WI.
I have no idea who or where to send the petition, or what exactly to write, but all together we have to be able to come up with something convincing. So please, contact me with any thoughts, info, and signatures. I will put together the whole thing, just help me get started guys/gals.
Climb on!
small update: Here is where I am going to send the petition
Richard Evans richard.evans@dnr.state.wi.us and his phone number is: 608-356-8301
Lets get a group of volunteers together to help clean up Gibralter and to help destroy the invasive species that plague the area. These efforts, along with our petition, should give us a better chance of gaining access to this crag.
I'd love to see this reopened. Put my name on it. I am curious if it is still closed because the fear of having to incur the cost of another rescue, or because of some protected plant species living there. That might make a difference on how we approach the authorities about reopening the place.
That's a very good point Travis. I believe they both play a role in keeping it closed. I have contacted Nick Rhoads of the WI Access Fund to find out the progress they made and why the crag is still closed. I will post his response when I receive it.
You can put my name on it. Anything to provide access for "silent" sports on public land. Can we send a petition around via email? That might work to get more people signed on. If it is a state threatened or endangered species that is the cause for the recent closure we can probably work something out with the DNR were the climbing would only be in certain areas or at certain times of the year or day even.
I have a hard copy of the petition. John do you have another hard copy with names? Issac, I will add your name. At this point I'm waiting for some responses to some things before moving forward.
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