in recent news...

today in moab, utah a famous rock climber named Dean Potter climbed Delicate Arch in Arches National Park. he actually climbed it sunday morning before park officials could stop him. i am not sure how the news and everyone got pictures and movies of him doing it, unless he took his photographer out there with him to make a point or something. it's been known for quite some time that arches are off limits to climbers. the park has set aside specific rock formations in the park for climbers to climb. climbers are, at times, at odds with the people and officials who own the land they climb on. it's always been a touchy subject, especially in recent years as rock climbing has picked up in popularity. for example, indian creek- in southern utah with a plethra of crack climbing (see my pics), is famous for the feuds between climbers and a woman named heidi who owns a lot of the land with the buttresses we climb. climbers have left her cattle gates open, accidentally burned down her barn, and leave their bathroom messes everywhere. BLM owns some of the land as well, but heidi has been not getting along with the climbers in recent years and it's only getting worse. so we, as climbers, attempt to keep the peace with those who own the crags and mountains we frequent. not that climbing necessarily damages rocks. sometimes there are metal bolts that get drilled into the rock, but they are hardly big enough to truly offend anyone. we do use white chalk for our hands, but that too can be easily over looked. for the most part, many climbers respect nature and the rock they climb and wish to keep it looking natural. after all, who goes into the wild to climb what looks like it came froma gym? but we must keep the peace, and that means appeasing certain people of power, whether we like it or not, it keeps the crags open. now, arches are obviously a natural attraction- to climbers and to tourists in general. even though there wasn't a written statment saying'no climbing on delicate arch' , it has been passed that there is no climbing on arches in general. for dean potter to waltz in and think he is too good for rules or for obvious sense kinda irks me. granted, he did nothing to the rock. he really didn't. perhaps a couple of white chalk marks were left. no harm done. no physical harm that is. but, now, climbers everywhere will think, i want to climb delicate arch! that's so cool, dean potter did it, why can't it? and then we would have a bazaar of climbers on delicate arch all the time. and i mean all the time. it's senic, it's public, and it looks cool. you would not be able to visit delicate arch during any time of the year without a climber on it. and who wants some random climber in their souveneir photograph? not me! when i visited arches lasat february, all of the climbers in the group (which was 3 of us) talked about climbing the arch. it's so pretty, and would be so fun to stand on top of. but i had more respect for the arch than that. it is delicate. not that a climber could ruin an arch- not a single climber at least. but multiple climbers over several years, and yep, we wouldn't have delicate arch anymore. then what would utahn's put on their license plates?! so, my opinion is, good for you mr dean potter, yeah you can climb that. everyone knows you can climb anything you want (dean potter is like..mr climber. he is the equivalent to brad pitt of the climbing world- really famous) but take a little time to consider what y our actions will do for the future since you are such an icon. he's got park officials pretty mad, and now they are going to write a specific clasuse about climbing delicate arch. good for then. duh, you shouldn't go climbing something that BIG. not tall big, just big in culture big. everyone knows what delicate arch is! if you don't, i have a picture of it on my blog. it's beautiful and needs to stay that way. no longer is it a virgin arch. oh well. just my opinion.