Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Black Hills Climbing Coalition April 2009

The next meeting of the BHCC will be 7 pm Wednesday, April 15, at Dublin Square in Rapid City.


We have had a large attendance and lots of activity and discussions at the last two meetings. Since I was in California and not at either meeting I will rely on the notes from the minutes taken by our secretary, Becky Wood, to give everyone an update.


A number of ideas have been brought up for possible events next summer:

1. Educational Day: Self Rescue and Anchor Building

2. Climbing events at Devils Tower and Spearfish Canyon in addition to Pinfest and Beans & Beaners. Will Buckman proposed a 3-hour workday at Devil’s Tower, and then food and climbing, possibly for late September.

3. A Chili Feed. Melissa Hampton volunteered to help with a climbing festival and chili feed.

4. Doing some trail maintenance projects

5. Horseshoe Hell: 12 hours of climbing for a fundraiser

6. Tree slash and log removal around the Ten Pins area. Will Busse volunteered to be in charge of a clean-up. Tree thinning crews ripped through the area last summer and left numerous piles of slash at the base of a number of climbs.


If you are interested in seeing any of the above project happen, come to the next meeting and stand up and be counted as a potential volunteer.


The Forest Service is considering closing a number of back roads in the Black Hills, including the only road offering access to the limestone climbing in Victoria Creek in Dark Canyon. The Forest Service will accept comments on this proposal until May 4th. Jason McNabb and Mike Cronin attended the Forest Service meeting about the various proposals for this area. Mike also gave out a reference letter with talking points on how this will affect climbing. If you want to help protect climbing access to this area, contact the Forest Service, or Mike Cronin for more info. On the web, check out the info on Mountain Project under SD, then under VC.


Mike Cronin brought up a proposal to discuss a possible route permit system that would allow a limited number (3 or 4 a year) of pre-approved routes to be developed in Custer State Park using power drills. This started a number of heated debates, both for and against such a system. The upheaval continued into the following day, at which time Mike sent out an email saying that due to the turmoil caused, he was withdrawing his proposal as being too divisive, and that was not his intent.


I will be back in the hills for the April meeting. Hope to see you there!


Climb Hard and Climb Safe.


Bruce B. Junek — Newsletter Editor



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