How has boulderings recent popularity impacted the cliff/talus environment?
Hank- I’m not really sure how it has impacted it, because everything we have on it is anecdotal at this point. But here is what we have noticed. Boulderers by the nature of their activity are exploring areas where there are no trails. So they are creating social trails and clustering areas where they practice their activity. Sometimes they tend to clear the areas below the climb, so they rearrange boulder fields and sometimes trample vegetation with their feet and with their pads. One of the other issues with bouldering is that they tend to travel in large groups. A large group of people multiplies the impact. The impact of twelve people in one spot is much more severe than those twelve people spread among a variety of spots. Another thing is it’s a new group of people that are coming into climbing. Trad climbers tend to have exposure to outdoor activities; they tend to be outdoorsman. They seem to have a pretty good idea about minimum impact practices. I’m not entirely sure that’s tru
