Smith Rock Loved to Death

Smith Rock Loved to Death

We all know the Sate of Oregon really screwed up when it places Smith Rock on the 7 wonders of Oregon campaign that has lead to massive parking issues at Smith Rock State Park, and many of the visitors are climbers. So the over crowding at Smith has a lot to do with climbers. So since it is cold and wet out I would like to get some dialog on what is the climbing community going to do about it?

Do we need more routes? Do we limit the guiding companies? Or Limit group sizes? Should we continue the old process of building routes, then spending lots of time fixing a trail system, that should not be there anyway; or build the trail systems first then put up the routes. How do we get people to climb the new routes? How should new routes be paid for? Should there be a climbing fee to pay for replacement and new route development? $1.00/climber is a lot of money when 100,000 climber visit the park each year.

One of the biggest problems is most of the people putting up routes are hard climbers (5.10+) they put up routes harder and harder for their own enjoyment and expense. The rest of us reap the fruits of their labor. But most of the waiting line climbs are <5.10. I have seen people on 5 Gallon Buckets from sun up to sun down. I was at the park in late November and meet some people that drove all the way from Seattle and had their book out trying to find a climb. But they are not the only ones. I spent an hour walking around. I never have seen more people on so many routes, in my 45 years of climbing at Smith Rock, and this is not the only time in 2016 this has happened.

So how do we get route developers to put up 5.5 bolt routes and who should pay for it?

Smith Rock is not the only place to climb in Central Oregon. I would say it is only a very small part of the overall rock climbing potential. But how do we get people to climb at new areas?

I hope all of this will get your brain working. Because when the weather clears it will happen all over again, unless climbers address the problem before government will.

Rick Krause
Madras Or.

Hmmm... head over to the forum at Redriverclimbing.com. This has been their life for the past 8 years, so maybe yall can learn from them instead of reinventing the wheel?

My opinion? If you've got the rock to accommodate more moderate routes to help disperse crowds, go develop them. But set a standard that you want followed, and have some vision for the future. Set the bar high.

I have a completely different take. I climbed at Smith a lot in the 70s and 80s. I moved to California and hadn't climbed there in probably 25 years until a year ago. I was taken aback by how thoughtful and well managed the place is. Also, in my day, it was pretty much only climbers, in fact the bridge didn't exist and you had to do a tyrollean across the Crooked River. (Prior to that you could drive and camp beneath The Monument.) When I last visited there were all sort of folks hiking with their family's and enjoying the Park. The trail system is great, sustainable and enviro and people friendly. The climbing scene and vibe was great and everyone, climbers and non-climbers, were very friendly. What a great blend of trad and sport.

It was different for sure. But Bend had a population of about 12,000 and climbing was still sort of a counter culture thing. State Parks and the local climbing community I think deserve a high five for a job well done.

Rick.Krause wrote:Smith Rock Loved to Death We all know the Sate of Oregon really screwed up when it places Smith Rock on the 7 wonders of Oregon campaign that has lead to massive parking issues at Smith Rock State Park, and many of the visitors are climbers. So the over crowding at Smith has a lot to do with climbers. So since it is cold and wet out I would like to get some dialog on what is the climbing community going to do about it? Do we need more routes? Do we limit the guiding companies? Or Limit group sizes? Should we continue the old process of building routes, then spending lots of time fixing a trail system, that should not be there anyway; or build the trail systems first then put up the routes. How do we get people to climb the new routes? How should new routes be paid for? Should there be a climbing fee to pay for replacement and new route development? $1.00/climber is a lot of money when 100,000 climber visit the park each year. One of the biggest problems is most of the people putting up routes are hard climbers (5.10+) they put up routes harder and harder for their own enjoyment and expense. The rest of us reap the fruits of their labor. But most of the waiting line climbs are <5.10. I have seen people on 5 Gallon Buckets from sun up to sun down. I was at the park in late November and meet some people that drove all the way from Seattle and had their book out trying to find a climb. But they are not the only ones. I spent an hour walking around. I never have seen more people on so many routes, in my 45 years of climbing at Smith Rock, and this is not the only time in 2016 this has happened. So how do we get route developers to put up 5.5 bolt routes and who should pay for it? Smith Rock is not the only place to climb in Central Oregon. I would say it is only a very small part of the overall rock climbing potential. But how do we get people to climb at new areas? I hope all of this will get your brain working. Because when the weather clears it will happen all over again, unless climbers address the problem before government will. Rick Krause Madras Or.

Rick, In your first paragraph you say the parking is a problem because Oregon "advertised" the beauty of the park and then you propose building more routes. Don't understand how this might fix the issue.
When the parking lots are full, it seems to me, most people are hikers/tourists, not climbers. However, there are beautiful, Spring, Sunday afternoons where I would agree there are too many climbers (and hiker/tourists) but in that case I have just walked over the pass, out to The Marsupials or even Northern Point to find free routes. Maybe a climber-designated parking area would help? But then again perhaps more parking isn't the answer. By restricting parking, this caps the total number of visitors per day and hence the impact on the park.
I don't have a real answer to make the park less popular but I've always thought a worthwhile regulation would be to ban dogs form the park. This would eliminate the the dog crap left on trails. Local hikers who want to take their dog out for the day would have to choose someplace else to go and there wouldn't be all the usual BS of irresponsible climbers having their dogs at the walls.
J

gofundme.com/Rebolt-Smith-Rock

Spring Thing in April volunteer for trail building on the excellent trail system that minimizes erosion.

Not a single climber out there today. Good temps at morning glory, you could have run laps on 5 Gallon Bucks all day long.

There was, however, a fresh warm doggie doo in the middle of the main trail though. Enforce fines for not picking up after them?

Do we really need more bolted 5.5 routes? Will this help the crowding issue? Hate to say it but if someone waits in line all weekend for a burn on the 5.5 and this discourages them from coming back, maybe that's not a bad thing.

I agree with others who don't think the "problem" is as big as you're making it out to be. Yes, it's a crowded crag, and parking is tough for people showing up after 10am (from my observations), but nothing needs to be "fixed" per se.

As to adding more parking...I'd hate to look down from the top of a climb and see huge paved areas, and I suspect even hikers would feel the same when they reach the top of misery ridge or burma road. Perhaps the park could run some kind of shuttle service between the park and a remote parking area, if parking becomes something the park feels needs addressed.

I'm a pretty low-grade climber, but I still have a todo list of smith routes that grows faster than I can keep up with. Maybe I'm not ruthlessly efficient at completing my todo list. I've sometimes wished that more easy 5.5-5.6 were available for beginner climbers, but routes like that can't "just be made". If there isn't rock which is of that grade (and isn't total choss), then there isn't! It'll be far worse to try to squeeze more routes between the existing ones, particularly in morning glory, dihedrals, and christian bros. There's probably potential farther out, but I've noticed many people are too lazy to walk "all that way". I think quite a bit of new development has been happening at smith in the last few years, and although most of it is 10 and above, there are a few easy gems here and there. There are also plenty of fun routes that aren't 4-star classics.

Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems there is also plenty of new/newly revealed development at other crags in within a comfortable driving distance from Portland and Bend, though mostly in the Santiam area. I feel like I'm always reading about new little crags here and there in OR, even Willow Creek near Madras that you've added to MP. I'm hoping to visit some of them this next season.

I think the folks in charge of Smith have done an excellent job managing the park given its popularity and the dozens of different user-types who enjoy the park.

I understand your thought process for route development and associated fees, but I hate fees, and I favor voluntary approaches. Perhaps if that's something you want to accomplish, then you should solicit donations on the trailhead boards with a flyer and a GoFundMe account or something similar.

As for the parking, it's only bad after 10am on the busiest of days. If climbers aren't there yet, they're not that into it. We don't need any controls because the existing limitations are sufficient for managing the number of people.

I climb there ~40 days a year, and I learned to climb there just a few years ago. I don't wait for routes; I keep walking until I find one, or I have a goal that I know isn't busy, or I just climb Trad.

There's certainly potential for more route development and I'll help out if anyone want's to organize some work this next spring. Glue-in's FTW!

I don't get over there a lot but it seems pretty well managed to me. I like what Smith folks have done and the vibe there these days, especially considering how many folks get over there. I too remember tyroleaning over in the spring and taking a raft over, but with the bridge came new routes and great trails. If you want to put up a new 5.5 route go do it, don't know why you need a committee, a vote, or a surtax to make that happen. Not sure where you'll find all this easy ground to bolt up though. I've gotten in a couple traffic jams on occasion on lower grade stuff in the diheadrals, but it all seems to resolve pretty well. I like it the way it is. Plenty of places to get solitude, good routes and no crowds elsewhere in my view.

As a long time climber who has seen it develop from the past time of a few fit hippies into something mainstream, I understand your underlying concern. However, I don't believe what you describe is any different than what's happened at most makor climbing areas. Joshua Tree, for example, has gone bananas since becoming a national park. When the designation was made about 20 yrs. ago, some rangers I talked to thought it was great because they would get more funds to "protect" the park. What that really meant was more visitors, more pavement and way more crowds, both climbers and nonclimbers.

Crowds will always be an issue. However, I'm not sure if its the people in line on 5 Gallon Buckets. If they're content to wait in line in a single place, they're mitigating their impact elsewhere. Honestly, those folks are doing a far better job of sharing that route than the dude with a big ego and limited technique (and big crowd of friends) who has his rope and draws all day on a .12b that he won't send even though he thinks he can climb .12b because he' done V5s at his gym.

I find myself having similar feelings at Josh when I see nothing but group TRs strung along most of the climbs visible from the road. No one leading (except the person who may have lead the route to set up the rope), just TR'ing. You have to work that much harder to even find something to climb. You can always walk farther and usually find something else, but not always. Plus, now that my kid and her friend climb, I see the convenience of having them work on their skill and technique on TR. I try to avoid making judgment about who, based upon experience and skill, has a superior right to be on a particular route. Though I can't always do that, I try all the same.

I agree that some steps should be taken to spread out the herd and mitigate their impact but how best to do that? Guiding companies help with trail building, but also install fixed anchors that, I believe, at places like Josh, increase crowding. I think gyms are the single biggest generator of new climbers, but they can't seem to do more than offer classes that help climbers transition to outside, but not really understand or limit their impact. Almost sounds like a doctoral thesis in the making.

I have noticed more crowds than before, but my observation is that the majority are hikers. Smithrock.com has a page about visitor demographics at smithrock.com/smith-rock-vi…
According to that, only about 20% of visitors are climbers. And there are thousands of routes in the park. Head over to the west side, or up to the marsupials and crowds are virtually nonexistent. I agree the "classic" routes are seeing more and more traffic, but I have never had an issue getting there early, or hiking a bit further.

This is not unique to Smith Rock. Have you been to Yosemite or Red Rocks in the past 5 years? The popularity of climbing and outdoor sports in general is exploding!

I think as climbers we need to accept that the classic climbing areas are going to be crowded. This means, showing up at the crag pre-dawn to get a parking spot, or it means going to less famous places to get away from the crowds.

Donate to the Smith Rock Group. SmithRockGroup.org it is the not for profit organization that runs the spring thing. Your donation is tax deductable and goes to trail building, anchor replacement and education. Smith Rock group has no paid employees so 100% of your donation goes to the park. Participate in the Spring Thing.

You can't love something to death. If you use the facility without respect it will die.

The parking is pretty crazy sometimes. Happy kers just walk on designated trails and do no harm. As for climbing? When the weather is perfect things get busy, but its so easy to to get on great routes. If you climb 5.9 or less and only want to walk 10 min you are pretty much hosed at any crag on the planet that isn't Arapes. At smith you need to explore a bit. Asteric pass is like a laziness a filter for sport climbers. Hop over and things are way less busy. Or you can go really nuts and walk to the upper gorge and climb arguably the highest concentration of quality routes at the park.

Rick.Krause wrote:One of the biggest problems is most of the people putting up routes are hard climbers (5.10+) they put up routes harder and harder for their own enjoyment and expense. The rest of us reap the fruits of their labor. But most of the waiting line climbs are <5.10. I have seen people on 5 Gallon Buckets from sun up to sun down.

Not trying to be elitist, but you could try to get on some harder routes. 5.10 is hardly unattainable and I feel like at most sport areas you avoid the giant TR groups once you get into midrange 10s.

Rick, I would assume you're aware of this already, but if not, here's your chance to provide input.

smithrockparkplan.com/