Editor--Bruce B. Junek
Happy New Year!! Our next meeting will be Tuesday, Jan 11, 7:00 p.m. at the Gaslight in Rockerville. People say to get good attendance at meetings you need consistency in venue and time. The Gaslight seems to be working well, a place with food and drinks and still quiet enough for people to hear. Unfortunately, consistency in dates is harder to do. I changed this months meeting to the second Tuesday since I will be out of town the following week. Check our website bhclimbers.com if you are not sure!
We had a great BHCC holiday gathering that started with a short meeting. I will stay on this year as chairperson, since no one else will take the position I “win” by default. In fact, no one was even willing to be the co-chair, so while I am gone Ron Yahne will be the offical BHCC “representative” (talk with officials or land managers, etc), Gus Malon will write the newsletter, and Dave Springetti will run the meetings and continue to organize sponsorship for Pumpfest gear and prizes. It was unanimously voted that Rich Barry, who was not at the meeting, should co-ordinate the site managing of Pumpfest, and he is still considering whether he will accept our nomination.
It was suggested the coalition buy a drink for anyone who did volunteer work last year. A motion was quickly passed that the coalition buy everyone a drink. Since we saved $300 by not renting the climbing gym for the party I think the $36 bar tab was a cheap, yet much appreciated gesture.
A report was made on work done to replace bolts and anchors in the Needles Area, which included work on Old Man’s Face, where an old pin was removed and a bolt put in its place. This news created an instant uproar. It was correctly pointed out that the whole issue regarding when it might be acceptable to use bolts to replace pins had still not been worked out. Until a policy was in place such cases were supposed to be okayed by the BHCC membership at large before such actions were taken. So we need to better work out our process for decision making, and deal with the whole replacing pins issue.
The Forest Service is still uncertain what it wants to do about sections of the Mohican Trail in Spearfish Canyon. Two options are under consideration. One is to simply take out a section of trail built by the coalition, which would return the areas too a steep, dangerous hillside scramble. A second option is to have the coalition rebuild the trail to Forest Service standards, and pay for the insurance to declare it safe. Duane is checking with the Access Fund to see what they suggest.
Does it seem like forever since we have had a BHCC meeting without some drama over ethics? This whole ethical debate started with the idea of a climbers survey last May, just 8 months ago. And since then we really have hammered out a policy for Needles Area climbing. So don’t lose heart! We are moving forward! With so many serious issues resolved and behind us, hopefully coalition meetings can be a little more relaxed and fun! Also to discuss at the January meeting, possibly having an educational event in April to cover knots, anchors and safety. Eric Sutton and Sue Scheirbeck both said they would be willing to work on putting something together.
CLIMB HARD AND CLIMB SAFE!!!
BHCC BOARD OF DIRECTORS: