Most Eco-Friendly way to Identify a Climbing Route
In Ontario where I live and do most of my climbing the routes are not clearly marked. Guide books also lack clear approaches and thus it just turns into a big guessing game of what route you're on and what grade it is. With a new guidebook for Ontario in the works I was thinking I may approach the authors and suggest we mark the routes more clearly.
I have climbed at crags that have numbers written with what appears like black paint or tar on the rock face; another example is at Muir Valley in Red River Gorge, Kentucky they use engraved coins at the base of each route. Some Spanish crags have a loose rock engraved and placed at the base of the route.
What is the most eco-friendly/sustainable approach to marking routes with the least impact to visual scenery...I personally do not like painted numbers as it ruins the view, the silver coins used in Muir Valley are much less noticeable by hikers.
What are some other ways of marking routes?
I'd like to consider:
- Initial/Maintenance Costs
- Visual Impact
- Environmental Impact
- Durability
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Muir Valley is a privately owned area, so presumably the coins are acceptable to the retired couple that owns it. Don't know about Ontario, but in the US (the Red River Gorge aside) most climbing areas are owned by federal or state governments who may likely have regulations against physically marking the starts of the routes (this is in addition to any leave-no-trace or environmental concerns). You should probably work with a local climbing groups (who have contact with the land owners) to address this issue, rather than risk alienating the government agencies that control the land.
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How about if you just take photos and post them on mountainproject or summitpost, along with verbal descriptions and UTM coordinates? Physically marking the starts of the routes is not compatible with a leave-no-trace ethic.
This post was sourced from https://outdoors.stackexchange.com/a/6423. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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