Boulderers give back to Emery County

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The Salt Lake Climbing Alliance members along with US Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management personnel spent Saturday repairing trails and cleaning up around the boulders people like to climb. Joe’s Valley is considered a world-renowned boulder-climbing site. Julia Geisler, Director of the Salt Lake Climbers Alliance said this is an environmental stewardship cleanup project called “Adopt a Crag” in partnership with the Access Fund out of Boulder Colo.
It is important to cleanup and improve this boulder climbing resource because the popularity of Joe’s Valley and the increased climber traffic is causing some environmental impacts that could threaten access if not taken care of. Jaydon Mead with the Price BLM office said before the work started, “We will be doing some trail work, some boulder site stabilization, campground and campsite cleanup.”
“A lot of trash and fire pit ashes will be hauled away. We are having a problem with too many fire pits and fire circles being built in the area. When a fire pit or fire circle fills up with ash, people commonly build new ones close by,” said Mead.
Ty Tyler of the Access Fund welcomed the volunteers and mentioned that they will be improving the trails, the landing zones, cleaning up fire pits and trash. He said half of the climbing is on BLM and half on the Forest Service land. The majority of the camping is on the BLM and they are working together to help us.
Tyler mentioned to the group that the Forest Service requested Utah’s Department of Transportation post signs along five miles of Highway 29 in Straight Canyon prohibiting overnight camping. The pullouts along this narrow road are not considered roomy enough for overnight camping.
This boulder climbing area cleanup was taking place along Cottonwood Canyon Road off State Highway 29 in Emery County. Over 51 volunteers had signed in to help with this Cottonwood Canyon cleanup effort. There are many trails leading off Cottonwood Canyon Road to boulders for climbing. Some of the people this day came from as far away as Texas to participate in the cleanup effort and climb the boulders.
The climber landing zones are the spaces around the base of the boulders. The landing zone is where climbers place a thick cloth covered foam pad or mattress to fall on if the climber should slip off the rock. Rainwater has been washing away and eroded many of the landing zones to where they are no longer flat surfaces.
The volunteers were improving the many trails being used by climbers to gain access to the boulders along the mountainside. This improvement of trails will limit the erosion from foot traffic. On some trails installing heavy stepping-stones will make walking up the hill to a boulder easier.
A trail leading to the practice boulder was observed being made safer in this way. When they started work on the trail, the trail looked like it was made up of sandy eroding soil filled with small and large loose rocks on an incline. Accidents could easily happen walking up or down over those loose stones. To correct this situation six people carried large heavy boulders in a sling to the place needed. These rocks were placed securely in the trail to make a set of stair steps up to the practice-climbing boulder.
The Salt Lake Climbers Alliance a non-profit organization has for seven years spent $2,500 a year to supply two Port-A-Poty toilets. They are getting too expensive and get full quickly. One of those toilets is in Straight Canyon and the other is in Cottonwood Canyon. Donations are cheerfully accepted to help with the cost of the toilets.
Local merchants are concerned that the county and the forest service isn’t being as accommodating to the boulderers as they should be. The closing of the camping in Straight Canyon on the forest service boundary to the Joe’s Valley Dam has upset some of the people involved. They say if they aren’t welcome here they can find other boulders to climb elsewhere. The climbers liked to park in the parking areas and then camp up in the hills.
The bouldering group is very eco friendly and packs out what they pack into the area.
Concerned residents said they alerted the county that bouldering was getting big in the area and it would need to be addressed with adequate facilities for the boulderers, but very little has been done.
“I don’t see how they are hurting a thing by camping there on the north side,” said the citizen.
“The climbers are the perfect tourists, some of them stay for a month, they buy here locally and spend their money in the county.
“Visitors to the Swell, stay in Carbon County and come to our desert and then return to Carbon County, they don’t spend a dime here. I think we need to cater to the boulderers and make them feel welcome here in our county,”
“If there are problems, these people are really concerned about fixing them,” said the citizen.
The Bureau of Land Management is considering installing a new campground and pit toilet away from the stream in Cottonwood Canyon for use by the many visitors that come here to recreate.