SMITH ROCK MANAGERS
HIT THE BRAKES ON BOLTING by Jonathan Barrett
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ffective August 31st, 2020, Smith Rock Park managers have put a stop to the previous freedom that climbers and highliners have had when placing bolts in the park. Matt Davey, the park manager, released a letter to the public that reads as follows:
Effective August 31, 2020, installation or removal of any climbing route, highline/ slackline, zip line, or other related hardware intended to be more or less permanent, including but not limited to bolts, rails, rungs, and similar devices, requires explicit written permission from the park manager or the manager’s designee. This requirement is authorized by Oregon Administrative Rule 736-010-0040 (4): A person may not injure, mutilate, deface, damage, harass, or remove any park resource, property, structure or facility of any kind at a park property, except as provided in OAR 736-010-0055 and OAR 736 010-0055 (2) (a): A visitor may only conduct the following activities with the written permission of the director, manager, or designated park employee unless the activity is specifically allowed by other sections of this rule: Dig up, or remove any sand, soil, rock, historical, or fossil materials; Any person who installs or removes the hardware described above without written permission from the park manager commits a Class A violation and is subject to warning, citation, and/or exclusion from Smith Rock and other state parks at the discretion of the park manager. The park was working in conjunction with the climbing community to establish a new climbing management plan which was expected to be complete in 2021. The cause of this moratorium is due largely to an individual by the name of Shawn Snyder who was in the process of adding via ferrata style rebar on the Picnic Lunch Wall. Snyder’s posts on Mountainproject, which have all been deleted now, indicated that his primary goal was to force the park’s hand into stopping the installation of all fixed anchors at Smith Rock. His choice of cheap rebar, which would rust quickly
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and which were placed on the prominent face of the Parking Lot Wall in the form of via ferrata rungs, were made to highlight his actions and force the park into dealing with the issue. Alan Watts, the author of the original guidebook to Smith and one of Smith’s original route developers, said on Mountainproject, “I’m sad that relationships fostered over sixty years between climbers and Oregon State Parks are being Smith Rock. Photo by Kerry Loehr. tested. I’m sad that one person would occurrences. As one might imagine, there attempt to hold all new route development have also been an increasing number of hostage until he gets his way.” His conflicts between all user groups and the comments were not unique. The response overarching vision for the park. Current on Mountainproject was swift and nearly park rules now require explicit written unanimous in its condemnation of his permission from the park manager, actions. Unfortunately, Mountainproject Matt Davey, in order to place permanent also quickly pulled from the site the two hardware. “My expectation is enforcement forum threads addressing this issue. of these existing park rules will not Smith Rock’s popularity has exploded in delay any legitimate route maintenance recent years. Both climbers and hikers alike and improvement, and that any person had been drawn there in record numbers. currently engaged in safety-related work Route development and the installation will contact me as soon as possible to avoid of highlining anchors were also regular an interruption of work,” Davey said.
