Oct. 2024 Meeting

Meeting attended by: 

Mark R, Erika Ristau, John Lang, Jim Schlitcher, Ron Yahne, Peyton Rafferty, Charlie Brumbaugh, Nate, Becky, Denise Schlitcher, Brandon Tesdahl


Land Managers/Climbing Access/Management Plan:

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

    • Requested to move to Spring/Fall 2025 due to limited time and staffing

    • Park’s have been very busy

  • Interagency meeting discussed meeting with the climbing coalition

    • Austin (BHNFS- Northern Hills) 

      • Possible meeting this winter so they can finish up projects

      • Spoke about involving Hell Canyon District 

    • Dan Austin (Hell Canyon)

      • Need to reach out about setting up a time this winter…

      • (December-Feb)

    • Rylan Sprague (Mt. Rushmore)

      • Need to reach out about setting up a time this winter…

      • (December-Feb)

      • The meeting must include:

        • Ranger’s concern about climbers and boundaries (Fixed ropes/monument boundary, etc.)

          • This info came from head of Rushmore Security

        • New Wrinkled Rock parking lot plan/concerns  

    • Lydia Austin (CSP)

      • Stated “Currently working on a plan with Forest Service and are in the initial stages. At this time they are not prepared to involve stakeholders but wanted to reassure that they will involve the BHCC at that stage”

      • Could meet in November to help us prepare for that time

  • End of Year Goal

    • Finalized Management Plan with updates to fit current state of climbing access needs

    • Jim stated that Dan and Austin want to meet after the first of the year

    • No timeline for when this management will be done, but trying to stay ahead of the game.

  • Climbing area concerns/plans

    • Custer State Park 

      • Access Trails 

        • Middle Earth trail erosion 

        • Path to campground boulder - current signage blocks access

        • Signage and landing concerns for Homestar Boulder

        • Should climbing icon signage be used on all trails?

        • Sylvan Lake Trail/Sunday Gulch Trail Closure Announcement 

          • Posted on BHCC and Emailed to email list 

      • Trail Days 

        • Jayme mentioned having a standard date as “last weekend of October”

          • Emailed about maybe having two “standard dates” (Spring & Fall)

    • Black Hills NFS

      • Access/Trails 

        • Spearfish Canyon 

          • Dark Side 

            • Bridge 

            • Moss Erosion

            • Good spot to show the Forest Service how we take care of the resources we have?

        • Wrinkled Rock Parking Fee Proposal  

          • Brandon Emery & Jim Slichter had a meeting with Dan Austin and Bradley Block to learn more 

          • Forest service has proposed increasing fees and some of their licenses and instituting new ones: the one that affects us is a new $5 fee for parking at wrinkled rock

          • Bradley Block and Dan Austin were at the meeting with Jim and Brandon

          • Jim brought up a bunch of questions for the forest service: why was wrinkled rock built (for parking being moved away from road), options besides a day use fee (keeping it free of change, keeping area free of charge but no camping)

          • You can get an annual pass if you are handicapped, elderly, national parks pass NOT accepted, BHNF pass may or may not work (depending on concessionaire)

          • Land managers are more interested in having the work be done prior to meeting with them.  Do the work they do not have time to do or have funding to do and then approach them.

          • Jim & Brandon created Survey for BH climbing community 

            • Due by November 29th 

            • Requests that members fill out the questionnaire and place a comment on the NFS website

            • Survey will end on November 11th 

              • Include link to comment on survey


  • Trail Days 

    • Will postpone for 2025, so we can give a proper heads up and give awareness at meeting this Fall 

BHCC Plans/Projects:

  • Climbing Ethics page “Best Practices”

    • Clear and informed recommendations of climbing ethics 

    • Creating a pamphlet to hand out would be great 

    • Include Specifics

      • Fixed Ropes

      • Anchor Webbing/Color

      • Avoid certain climbing areas during busy tourist season (Needle Eye)

      • Refrain from playing loud music

      • Use Wag bags

      • Maybe a blog post about it

  • Mission Statement 

    • Will create survey about “Preserve & Protect”

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

  • Access Fund Grant 

    • $1,600 Anchor Replacement Fund

  • Climbing Event Updates 

    • Beans & Biners 

      • Labor Day Weekend

      • Had requests to move gathering further into climbing area 

        • Booth setup by Toy Boat 

        • Set up routes around that area = more moderate leveled routes

      • 2024

        • Moved it to the September 21st = better weather

      • Depending on location activities/booth


  • Next years potentially getting Ipad for coalition for waivers

  • Ron motions to buy ipad, John seconds

    • Passed unanimously

    • We can look for a donation

  • Next year top ropes down near toy boat

  • Having after-party at grapes and grinds 


  • Spearfish Scramble 

    • Potential to bring back Fall 2025 

    • Made possible by our general liability

    • Potentially changing pumpfest back to competition as well

  • Baldy Bouldering Day Event 

    • Proposed by Logan Grosz

      • Could do a competition like Heuco and Horse Pens

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

  • Christmas Party 

    • Ideas? 

    • Basecamp climbing Christmas party location

    • Pizza party

    • White elephant

    • BB’s naturals for location

  • Outreach 

    • End of the Year Report?

      • What we achieved and goals for next year?

  • Bolting Committee

    • Campaigns for building funds specifically for new hardwear

      • Mentions that Black Diamond/Access Fund will match some donations

      • Good question for us to consider: if money is not an issue what type of anchors do we want? For spearfish, rushmore, etc.

        • We should put in hardware with that attitude as the times are changing and we do have funds for this type of repairs

    • Spearfish repair day 

      • Possibly Coming Fall 2024 

    • We need to report for all bolting activities by end of year (Dec. 15th) to access fund (for grant)


Financials/501c3 Info Update: 

  • Update from Jim:


Bolting Committee Update: 

  • Recent Bolts Repairs

    • Climbus Interruptus 

      • Pulled old bolts and replaced with glue-ins

    • Garfield’s Forgiven Affair 

      • Moved and replaced anchor with glue-ins

    • Not Too Steep for My Lichen

    • Vertigo

      • Anchors

    • BAD BOLT: Anchor first pitch of spire 4 is loose (the right bolt)



OPEN COMMENT

  • Spire 5 - 8 has tat on every spire - Brandon suggested placing permanent anchors on the major spires (5, 6, 7, 8)

    • We will recommend this to the bolting committee

  • Carsonite signs that depict not only climber trail but also wag bag station

  • Signage day instead of trail day to establish this next year:

    • Locations: spires, behinds the lake, needles eye

  • Work with park to label trails with climber signs:

    • We should come up with plan to find locations 

  • Fundraising campaign for this and see if park has carsonite signs 

  • Buy stickers for sign and provide labor as coalition


  • Brit Rock film tour suggestion



Black Hills Climbers Coalition