Stolen Ropes

welp...

Stealing ropes is not cool.

Stashing ropes is a good way to lose your rope to theft.

Carry your ropes in and out. Problem solved!

If ropes are stashed, and accordingly, stashed ropes are "abandoned" and considered trash. Wouldn't that mean someone cleaned up the trash??

That said, "abandoned" property is not trash and those "finding" it have a responsibility to return it to the owner. As such, seems like the best course of action would be to contact the Bishop climbing rangers who from the sounds of it may have a cache of previously stashed ropes.

Finally link the 'controversial Instagram post by the Bishop climbing rangers" so people have some context.

Edit: After reading the IG post here is my take. In the past, stashed ropes were probably not an issue, but they are now because there are more people and more stashed ropes. The (new) rangers are trying to soft approach to encourage folks to change their habits lest their ropes are removed by others. May not have been the best post from an official administrative point of view. And for others old habits die hard. At the end of the day, and in general on federally managed lands any property left over 14 days is considered abandoned. And as I posted above it is not trash and those "finding" it have a responsibility to return it to the owner. At this point, BACC should step in and work with the rangers to educate folks that stashed ropes are no longer acceptable (regardless of what other water/power infrastructure might be in the area). 

Sorry about your rope.  Seems like it's been happening a lot this season.  Would love to know who's doing it and why?  Can't imagine why anyone would get upset about stashing in the gorge

Stashes are fine and dandy until everyone thinks its cool to do. I can just see a S CA gym climber spraying about his stash in the gorge to a YP right now.

Anytime I’ve left a rope stashed or fixed it’s with the thought that when I return it might be gone and that’s just part of the risk of leaving gear.   It sucks, its wrong that someone stole it but the bottom line is I left it.   If I leave the keys in my car on purpose and come out in the morning and the car is gone part of the blame is on me for “knowingly“ leaving the keys in the car knowing it might get lifted.   Same goes here, leave your gear stashed but don’t whine if it gets stolen.

The average ORG approach is what, 15-20minutes from the car? It's all bolted too, so no need to bring a rack. Pathetic/disappointing that people feel the need to stash ropes in that sort of circumstance.

Maybe it's a bunch of developers looking for the next great one star climb?

The gorge is owned by LADWP correct?

If you are leaving stashed ropes in privately property, you are putting Access at risk for everyone all because you don’t want to carry a rope 10-60 minutes? Sounds like you are the larger issue here.

gotta stash better.....such that there is no way anybody will find them

Whoever is telling climbers that " leave no trace does not apply to climbers," needs to stop, because that is a lie.

Did that guy from Smith migrate south?

If you can't carry a rope down into and out of the gorge, eat some more red meat.

So, my buddy decided to stash his rope in the backcountry.  Lazy fucker.

1 rope in the backcountry.  No big deal.

10 of his friends decided to stash their ropes in the backcountry.  10 lazy fuckers.  

11 ropes in the backcountry.  But, no big deal, I guess?

10 of their friends decided to stash their ropes in the backcountry.  100 lazy fuckers.  No big deal???

101 ropes in the backcountry.  Is this no big deal??

Now the critters start to find them, shred them, build nests with them, and the plastic makes it's way down the creeks and rivers and throughout the backcountry.

1 rope in the backcountry.  Big deal.  

Don't do it.  

B P wrote: Did that guy from Smith migrate south?

He often lives in Bishop a large part of the year. Good luck deterring the thievery. There are better ways to engage a (potential) issue than sneaking around robbing people...

Leave gear at the crag, gear gets taken, complain on the internet. Maybe carry your gear in and out? FFS. The myopia and entitlement in these kinds of posts are stunning but sadly indicative.

caughtinside wrote:

No, you are not threatening climbing access by stashing a rope. Try again. 

Leaving ropes isnt “stashing” according to most private land owners or government agencies. 

Robert S wrote: Leave gear at the crag, gear gets taken, complain on the internet. Maybe carry your gear in and out? FFS. The myopia and entitlement in these kinds of posts are stunning but sadly indicative.

Not complaining, just trying to see if anyone knows who took the ropes. For anyone who lives on the Eastside and climbs in the gorge on a weekly basis, you know that stashing ropes is a norm. The gorge is littered with steel, concrete, rebar, and other heinous remnants of the power plant. In no way does rope stashing effect access or aesthetics, and never has the DWP asked that the ropes be removed. There are fixed lines that are far more problematic, and some of them have been hanging for years on end. 

Robert, the issue here is that rope stashing has NEVER been a problem in the gorge. Many of us who have stashed ropes do so because we absolutely love the place, and climb there almost daily. We take care to remove trash and dog shit, participate on cleanup days, and attempt to restore the access trails when visitors go off path, dislodge rocks, and create dangerous situations. For those of us who have lost ropes due to the recent trend of thefts, and locals who still keep ropes down there, we'd like to create a discussion.

As always, MP users from all over the country seem to want to offer their input on regional issues they know very little about (aha, entitlement?). LNT principles should always be practiced, but equating a rope and rope bag with a piece of trash is highly problematic. That's the issue here. 

Is a stash really a stash if someone can easily find it and take it home? 

If you really love the place pack your gear out.
It's not your Property!

A Potter wrote:

Not complaining, just trying to see if anyone knows who took the ropes. For anyone who lives on the Eastside and climbs in the gorge on a weekly basis, you know that stashing ropes is a norm. The gorge is littered with steel, concrete, rebar, and other heinous remnants of the power plant. In no way does rope stashing effect access or aesthetics, and never has the DWP asked that the ropes be removed. There are fixed lines that are far more problematic, and some of them have been hanging for years on end. 

Robert, the issue here is that rope stashing has NEVER been a problem in the gorge. Many of us who have stashed ropes do so because we absolutely love the place, and climb there almost daily. We take care to remove trash and dog shit, participate on cleanup days, and attempt to restore the access trails when visitors go off path, dislodge rocks, and create dangerous situations. For those of us who have lost ropes due to the recent trend of thefts, and locals who still keep ropes down there, we'd like to create a discussion.

As always, MP users from all over the country seem to want to offer their input on regional issues they know very little about (aha, entitlement?). LNT principles should always be practiced, but equating a rope and rope bag with a piece of trash is highly problematic. That's the issue here. 

It sucks that someone took your ropes, and I'm not glad it happened. But these posts (usually about project draws being "stolen") amaze because so many people are surprised when gear left behind, hidden or not, gets taken. While we can debate the use of the term theft, there shouldn't be any debate that leaving something behind is likely to result in that something vanishing.

I work for a local guiding outfit. Sometimes we stash ropes in a location that is out of the way and hard to find. Someone would have to go to quite some effort to find them. Although it would piss me off if I showed up to find the ropes gone, I also know we'd ultimately have only ourselves to blame for it.

That said, I hope whoever took your ropes honestly thought s/he was being helpful, sees this post, and gets them back to you. But I also hope people stop stashing gear and acting surprised when someone takes it.