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...scarred cedar is a poignant example of the damage that climbers can do to the fragile ecosystems where they practice their sport. Camp 4 has long been home base for climbers in Yosemite, the birthplace of U.S. rock climbing. Here, where every cliff face presents an Ansel Adams moment, climbers should know better. But as the number of climbers grows--from 800,000 in 2000 to 1 million today, according to industry sources--so too does the impact they are having on the wilderness. Public-land managers, already short of funds, are struggling to keep up. Modern climbing techniques make...
...Management, the National Park Service and the U.S. Forest Service are due to release a long-awaited policy on where to allow bolting--the practice of drilling bolts into cliff faces to which climbers attach safety ropes. Other contentious issues include protecting ancient rock art, preventing degradation of the base areas around climbing cliffs and minimizing interference with wildlife, such as nesting raptors. Even the chalk that climbers put on their hands to get a better grip can be a problem. Often it leaves a smudgy trail on rock faces, resistant even to rain...
...walls, people get very intense after a few days up there--they feel more at risk, and ethics tend to go out the window," says Lincoln Else, Yosemite's sole climbing ranger. He regularly finds gear and trash left behind on the top or cast down to the base area below...
...impact is more immediate because there is a lot of activity at the base of the rocks," says Scott Fischer, climbing ranger at Joshua Tree National Park. He sees vegetation crushed by crash pads being dragged between sites, multiple trails created across the desert surface and an abundance of "micro trash"--climbing tape, bottle tops, cigarette butts...
...post vacated by Khin Nyunt last week, was given to Soe Win, a known hard-liner. A vital piece of the puzzle is missing, though: Khin Nyunt may be Prime Minister, but if he was forced to resign as head of military intelligence, he'll have lost his power base. For now, that's a detail only the junta knows for sure...