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Show No More Fixed Anchors For Wilderness Climbers The Forest Service has prohibited prohi-bited the use of permanent fixed anchors for rock climbing in wilderness wil-derness portions of national forests. for-ests. The ban does not apply outside of designated wilderness, nor does it apply to removable devices used to assist climbers. "This decision clarifies our application of national policy to the issue of fixed anchors," said Robert Joslin, deputy chief of National Forest System lands for the agency. "It demonstrates our commitment to the integrity of the wilderness resource, and is in keeping with both the spirit and legislative intent of the Wilderness Wilder-ness Act. At the same time, it does allow for rock climbing in wilderness that is done in an environmentally sensitive man-ner. man-ner. Today's announcement, which applies only to Congressionally designated wilderness areas in national forests nationwide, is based on a May 27 discretionary review at the Washington DC level of an April 13 decision made in the Forest Service's Intermountain Region. In his letter let-ter of review, Acting Associate Deputy Chief Darrel Kenops concluded that fixed anchors are "installations" that are prohibited by the Wilderness Act. The decision over what to do with existing fixed anchors was left up to local Forest Service Supervisor discretion. The national review stemmed from an appeal of a decision on the Sawtooth National Forest involving the Sawtooth Wilderness. Specifically, this decision means that metal bolts that are drilled into rock to support climbing climb-ing hardware, whether camouflaged camou-flaged or not, are not permitted in wilderness. Pitons that are left in the rock are also banned, as are slings or ropes left permanently wrapped around trees or rocks. However, a wide variety of commonly-used cams, nuts and other temporary devices that have minimal mini-mal impact are still permitted. It is estimated that about 40 wildernesses with major rock climbing opportunities, about 10 percent of all national forest wilderness wil-derness areas nationwide, will be affected by the decision. |