Sitting here in Wild'n'Wonderful West Virginia, thinking back on winters past, some of the best of them spent in Northern Devil's Canyon, in the Dripping Springs Mountains of Arizona.
Resolution Copper has once again been denied their application to swap other, smaller chunks of AZ for this jewel... no thanks to climbers or their advocacy organizations... it was the San Carlos Apache Indians who accomplished this feat.
But like all corporations, although they are treated like people in the eyes of the law, they live on a timescale of immortals, planning for decades-long campaigns to wear down their unfocused and weak-willed opponents, who will all too quickly move on to some place like The Homestead, because the climbing rags and a few asshats claim those spots are "the best climbing in Arizona".
Of course, that particular crag is now closed, since climbers just can't stay off private land or limit their impact...
So, reaching to the back of the rack, and a bit closer to the present, I pulled up a few images of the incredible views and rock of that seldom-visited crag which I believe to be one of the best in all of Arizona, in hopes that perhaps the lazy, scene-driven climbers of the Valley of the Sun and the rest of the U.S. just might be inspired to speak up and act.
Urge Congress to enforce the same EPA regulations on foreign companies that U.S. companies must follow. Understand that we are doing many of the same things in other nations, including Australia, which is corporate HQ for Rio Tinto/Resolution.
 |
| The Silent Scream Boulder, high on the shoulder of King's Crown Peak. |
 |
| The Melting Man area, on the road to King's Crown. |
 |
| Cindy Gray, taking a break from the wind, Windlass Gardens Wall, above Shenandoah. |
If climbers do not act, now, and in a unified fashion, instead of feuding like children and backstabbing each other and the climbing community over old slights that have NOTHING to do with the issue, then this place will, someday, be nothing but an open pit mine skirted by a carefully-placed freeway.
And the the climbers of the world will have no one but themselves to blame.
Of course, since this post, the Access Fund has cashed in its chips on Devils Canyon and Oak Flat Campground, opting to purchase half of the Homestead in an effort to further erase the climbing community's awareness of Oak Flat and the AF's almost complete failure to deal with the largest giveaway of Public Lands (and crags) in American history.
ReplyDelete