Putting Up a New Climbing Route or Removing Existing Hardware at Smith Rock? NEW RULES
August 31, 2020
Smith Rock State Park is the birthplace of sport climbing in the U.S when bolting routes took off in the early and mid-1980s on what were previously blank faces. Since then, each decade has seen the proliferation of more routes as new climbers came on the scene and added to the wonderful variety we have seen of grades for a range of climbing skillsets. Fast forward to 2020.
While in the ‘80s it was a small community of just over a dozen climbers that communicated easily amongst themselves, now there are dozens taking their skills from the gyms to the outdoors with some formal organizations and informal social networks loosely announcing new routes and the upgrade of existing ones. The Smith Rock State Park management team has been developing a climbing management plan with assistance from the climbing community for some time now, with the goal of formal implementation of the complete plan in 2021. In the meantime, however, an interim solution is going into effect immediately until the climbing management plan is complete and implemented.
NEW RULES FOR INSTALLING OR REMOVING CLIMB ROUTE HARDWARE AT SMITH ROCK STATE PARK
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.
Smith Rock State Park Manager Matt Davey
“My expectation is enforcement of these existing park rules will not delay any legitimate route maintenance and improvement, and that any person currently engaged in safety-related work will contact me as soon as possible to avoid an interruption of work.”