The clean vs. the many

The world rarely is captured in terms of absolutes. Greys are the norm. The more I study culture and group dynamics, the more useful I find discourses about tension. Our neck of the Rockies has tremendously bad rock. Outside of Expert's choice, Wedge and Knob Hill, few areas don't have sizable amounts of choss. A recent revisit to the lower tier of Drywood brought up a tension that exists between route availability and route cleanliness.


The lower tier of Drywood is composed of a solid fossil algae limestone, well featured, but sandwiched between layers of less stable rock. Large ledges tend towards talus, and even solid faces still have some friable veneer.

Climbing in our neck of the woods rarely occurs without a few loose blocks or at least some loose rock on ledges. Because of this, I have never been too concerned over scrubbing routes crystal clean. Once dangerous blocks are removed, I generally figure traffic is the best way to ensure loose pebbles and veneer are brushed away. For instance, 20 years ago the information bureau had sizable amounts of gravel on the ledges. Increased traffic (and Duncan Mackey's broom) has made popular routes almost spotless. This cleaning really is more than any one person could have done (I, like others, have spent hours brushing off loose gravel from routes that are 40+ years old).

While everyone likes clean routes, cleaning up gravel on large ledges is an eternal process. More just pores down from above. Where does the balance lie between climber's responsibility for a route's safety vs. other's expectations? Do minimum cleaning codes make sense in our area? Should we really expect all established routes to be brushed and swept, or is removing obvious, unavoidable dangers enough? What about the book sized talus that is easily avoidable on ledges? What about loose rock which is slightly off route? What tensions come into play in this ethical conundrum?



Mr. Grimm. The large ledge below the roof is still home to some scree. Typically extra protection has been installed as rock quality lessens.