Aug. 2024 Minutes

Meeting attended by: Mark R., Collin, Ron Yahne, Becky Wagner, Brandon Tessdal, Duncan Stavner, Hayden Grosz, Logan Grosz, Bob Archbold, John Lang, Peyton Rafferty, Jim Slichter,

Land Managers/Climbing Access:

- No current access issues with managers, below are updates with our management plan:

- Mark gave history of management plan and working with the each land manager in the past

- We will be setting up trail day for every land manager this fall

  • Mt. Rushmore

    • Trail Day for Fall 

    • Reach about climbing concerns with Rangers and Manager 

    • Call about fixed ropes and boulders close to closure.  Head of Rushmore security was getting nervous about the influx of climbers, especially near closure.

      • Will be discussed this fall

  • CSP

    • Want to organize a fall trail day

    • Sign at the campground boulder

    • General Store CSP trail (volunteer opportunity)

    • Lydia reached out to us about the boardwalk behind the dam.  She has been crucial in helping maintain access to the homestar boulder and preventing a railing being placed right under it.

    • Trail day idea: Jamie has been looking into better access for campground boulders.  Maybe we can work with Jaimie on building this trail for them!


  • Black Hills NFS 

    • Contact about Wrinkled Rock

      • Meeting with BHCC Sept 5th 

    • Trails Day in Fall - Spearfish 

      • Looking at fixing the bridge for Darkside access and for the moss eroded area near the top of the approach to Darkside

    • Talking with them about Southern Hills AND Northern Hills

      • The NFS is keen on having us continue maintaining access to other trails.

    • WRINKLED ROCK PARKING FEE

      • The NFS is looking at $5 fee for parking at wrinkled

      • Meeting Sept. 5th

      • Archbold commented: The parking lot was to benefit Mount Rushmore, that it was built using grant money, it was supposed to be free, Forest Service doesn’t know background perhaps, it was meant as a replacement for Breezy Point, 

      • There is a comment period right now on it: please leave a comment in response to this.

      • First meeting is to understand why wrinkled is included

      • Hopefully there is a paper trail on how and why it was built

      • If it comes down to it we should try to isolate this to paying for camping only - not for day use fees

      • We should reach out to Rushmore about cars getting pushed from wrinkled rock to pullouts - would be a negative thing to block all pullouts so there are not any for tourists.

Climbing Ethics “Best Practices” Announcement:

  • Will be creating a clear and informed recommendation of climbing ethics 

  • This comes from a fixed rope issue with Mt. Rushmore

  • Maybe include avoid climbing near needles eye area in Custer

  • Maybe include only leaving dark colored tat, or not leaving tat?

  • Call it “Best Practices” and create a pamphlet to hand out as well

IRS/Non-profit Update:

  • Recently granted our 501c3 Status

    • Will post what this means soon(after pumpfest)

  • Thoughts about mission statement “Preserve & Protect”

    • Will vote on whether the community wants us to add the “Promote”

  • Access Fund Grant 

  • Lots of opportunity for growth now

  • Got our General Liability Coverage for all events

  • Was under $1000 

  • We got compliments from SAR and the Park Ranger for how organized we were


Pumpfest (July 26-28)

  • Single Day Insurance

  • Need to implement higher “Security” next year 

    • Volunteers for each sub area

    • For a good system to prevent accidents like the one we had this year

  • Rough estimates with what we made on pumpfest: $2200 or so

  • Got lots of donations, benefits businesses with write offs


Membership Update:

N/A

  • Raised membership dues from $25 to $35

  • Auto-renewal membership 


Spearfish Climbing Day:

  • With General Liability Insurance for 2025 we will be able to host this event

  • Won’t happen this year, but we want to do a scramble next year


Beans & Biners: 

  • Next event, in South Seas, is a pot-luck with Beans on Labor Day weekend

  • Might be a more informal event without setting up ropes or anything

  • We are moving the event to 21st of September

    • Brandon and Jim are both willing to volunteer for that event

    • Look through recreational permits for NFS and Rushmore for this event

      • 75 ppl max

      • No T-shirts for sale unless we have a permit (for Rushmore Only, never on NFS)


Bolting Committee Update: 

  • Bolts on climbus interruptus are replaced- pulled old bolts and replaced with glue-ins

  • Moved and replaced anchor for Garfield's Forgiven affair - used glue-ins on this as well



OPEN COMMENT

  • Logan wanted to present idea for bouldering day event

    • Could do a competition like Heuco and Horse Pens

    • Logan will work on building a plan for the competition and a scoring system


Meeting adjourned 8:01


Black Hills Climbers Coalition