Unsafe Guiding Practices in San Luis Obispo

Sunday of this last weekend (12/06/15) I observed some of the most unsafe climbing practices I have ever seen at a popular wall in San Luis Obispo. This was at Cracked Wall, where a couple of guides were taking a Boy Scout troop out for a day of climbing.

I'm sorry to have to write this over a public forum, but I was not able to find the guiding service online so that I could send them an email directly. I believe the company was either VCC or CCC - I suspect CCC (possibly the old Central Coast Climbing); the logo on the shirts was of a climber ascending an overhanging wall.

The guides had set up a toprope on the popular route "Sixty Seconds to Soledad," and were having the climbers walk across the top of the cliff to some old rappel ropes to rappel down a different static line. The rappels were backed up by a fireman belay (or even a full belay) by another scout below. All of this I thought seemed very safe, and a good way to manage a large group.

However, while walking across the top of the cliff, many of the climbers knocked rocks from the top of the cliff. The first of these I saw within minutes of arriving at Cracked Wall, and it came within a foot of hitting one of my friends in the head. We immediately put helmets on and moved to an area out of the rockfall zone. As the rappel train continued, I witnessed many rocks rain down from the anchors every few minutes. Most of these rocks were about golf ball sized, and some were as big as a clenched fist. "Rock!" was yelled about 30% of the time something was knocked loose.

I was told the group was leaving the wall in a few minutes, so I refrained from saying anything. I very much regret that. The group stayed an additional hour and half, and I saw rocks kicked from the top of the cliff about every five minutes. Some of these rocks came close to my group, and many of these rocks were rained directly towards the Boy Scout group, a couple came dangerously close to hitting people. Most of the Boy Scout group wore helmets, but not all. One of the guides was below with the scouts, and he did not say a word about the continual rockfall, and did not tell the people in the group to vacate the area. I told some of the Scouts walking by that they should tell their group to move out from under Sixty Seconds, although they seemed to ignore me.

When the group finally finished climbing, the guide broke down the anchor and yelled, "Rope!" I then witnessed an entire coiled rope thrown from the top of the cliff moments after the exclamation. I am very disturbed by that particular indiscretion as it shows zero common sense by someone who is being paid as a climbing guide. I am very disturbed that neither of the guides said a single word about the rockfall, or changed their practices to mitigate it. I am disturbed that a guiding service would allow a group of inexperienced climbers to walk un-roped between anchor stations at the top of the cliff - the trail I later learned was on a loose section of dirt and moss. I have been hard on myself in the last day about not doing more in the moment, but another group there at the time admitted to being equally frozen by the experience. I think we all just hoped the guides would step in and shut the operation down.

I made a mistake by not stepping in, and I would equally fail by not publicizing the experience. Please speak up if you have knowledge of guiding operations in SLO that can be contacted. There is a concern of climbing access in SLO at the moment, and this jeopardizes that. This also jeopardizes people's lives. What a horrifying experience; in the very least it will ensure my entire group of friends uses their helmets every time.

wow , kicking rocks down repeatedly implies that they were walking across loose terrain at the top , pretty sketchy...I would say don't be too hard on yourself for not speaking up more. It's difficult and awkward to correct or even chasten other adults in that setting with children around to witness it, glad no one got hurt.

What is this world coming to...start a thread on the supertopo for better drama. And learn to face people in face to face encounters when your life is in danger. May help in a long run.

My guess is that they weren't "real guides". The Boy Scouts go out climbing as part of their program. If they don't have access to a certified and trained AMGA guide, then they will incorporate a couple of dads that climbed 15 or 20 years ago and know what a belay device looks like but maybe haven't used one in 10 or 15 years. It's really unfortunate because it gives the Boy Scouts a bad name and a bad reputation and most importantly it puts the scouts and others nearby in danger. I guess it's good that no one got hurt.

The scout program really is a great program and exposes a lot of young kids to the outdoors and great activities like rock climbing. The leaders of the need to recognize the real dangers of an activity like rock climbing and only go out when they have access to knowledgeable and experienced help. And most importantly hire an AMGA guide whenever they have access to one.

I don't think the city of San Luis Obispo currently has anyone certified to take out groups commercially at Bishop Peak like the scouts. So I'm guessing that's why they relied on a couple of dads to help.

hahaha, who sees a group of boyscouts climbing and goes,"man, I thought they would be so much safer and organized than this, it's like a bunch of kids running around outside having an adventure"

seriously, the're kids, let them drop rocks, no one got hurt, stick with that story, because it is factual? or we can continue the, almost, what if, captain hindsight banter directed by the ghost of christmas past

John Knight wrote: My guess is that they weren't "real guides". The Boy Scouts go out climbing as part of their program. If they don't have access to a certified and trained AMGA guide, then they will incorporate a couple of dads that climbed 15 or 20 years ago and know what a belay device looks like but maybe haven't used one in 10 or 15 years. It's really unfortunate because it gives the Boy Scouts a bad name and a bad reputation and most importantly it puts the scouts and others nearby in danger.

Thanks for replying John. I am a former Boy Scout, and an Eagle Scout, so I agree with you about the importance of the program - I did not bring this up to give them any sort of bad name. I am certain that the two men I saw "guiding" the group were not any of the Dads. One of the two explicitly told me that they were taking them out on a trip and that none of them had climbed before. I only brought it up because both men had on matching light blue polos with a climbing logo on it and some sort of acronym. All of that implied a guiding service.

And as for the comments about posting for the sake of drama: this is simply based on an observation I made climbing in perhaps the most popular wall in SLO. I went to school in SLO and loved the accessible climbing there. Just want to make sure no more issues come up and that groups like the one I saw are exposed to safe trips outside. Thanks