Gibralter Rock to become State Land

@angie

The State does *not* want to supervise climbing.

@ EB

The State explicitly recognizes climbing as a legitimate use of public land

@ccerling

The State does have a policy. And the State Natural Area folks did an end run around that policy at Rib Mountain - someone else in the DNR pointed that out to us, so its time to quit portraying the DNR as some monolithic demon. The ranger who told you climbing was never allowed at Rib was just wrong. Gibralter falls in a gray area because it is a State Natural Area with a long history of climbing, but only recently became State property - there are sympathetic ears within the DNR wrt both Rib and Gibralter.

The ball is in our court on both of these areas.

Doug,
I realize I might have come down a bit hard on the DNR. And I also realize that they do have a formal policy when it comes to climbing. My primary problem with them though is still in the enforcement of those policies. You said it yourself in your last post. The ranger I talked to at Rib was wrong. And that seems to be the problem. The individuals tasked with putting policy into action need to be on the same page as those who write them.

I climbed at GR in the 70’s, back then the worst part was bikers throwing beer bottles and pick nick tables at you as you tried to ascend, then they made fun of your funny gear and clothing. The state had a hard time getting the outcasts out of the area – this included both bikers and climbers. Having seen the rock it’s probably better to climb somewhere else like Neeceda if you like sandstone - just my opinion….

Necedah is getting to be a bit far for Chicago area climbers on day trips. One big reason I would like to see gibralter open again (aside from having another climbing option) is that it is a shorter drive than devils lake and is sport so people could get a lot of routes done quickly. If making a weekend trip out of it people from the Chicago area may as well go to jackson falls or the red.

You can add me to the list as Well

Erik Sundberg

PM For my address and phone number

DaleMoirDukeyetnotPrince wrote:I climbed at GR in the 70’s, back then the worst part was bikers throwing beer bottles and pick nick tables at you as you tried to ascend, then they made fun of your funny gear and clothing. The state had a hard time getting the outcasts out of the area – this included both bikers and climbers. Having seen the rock it’s probably better to climb somewhere else like Neeceda if you like sandstone - just my opinion….

Yeah, I remember those days too. I disagree with you though, Gibraltar is every bit as good as Necedah. If it were to get re-opened, however, it will take some serious cleaning to get the routes back in shape because it's been closed for so long.