| News from the Blue Ridge Parkway |
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| Thursday, 12 June 2008 | |
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The Boone Climbers Coalition (BCC) and the CCC have been working with the National Park Service to negotiate placement of two additional anchor stations and a kiosk at Shiprock. We are pleased to be able to announce the negotiations were successful and the new stations have been placed. Here is a message from Park Ranger Eddy Cartaya: It only took a year and a half of head crashing but its finally done. Chris Ulrey and I installed the two new rap anchors at Ship Rock today. . .
One is at the top of the Broach just right of those two studs sticking out. The other is near the top of Linn Cove Lullaby. These are both areas we scouted when you came up last fall. Could you please advise the climbing community. The rappel from the Broach anchors is about 142 feet from anchor to ground. You can either do it as a two rope rappel or, if no one is one the first pitch of boardwalk, you could traverse over to those anchors and get down from there. The rappel from LCL is a little shorter...maybe 132 feet. For now, I guess, it has to be a two rope rappel. The anchors at the top of first pitch are too far to reach as the rappel is free and there is no reaching the cliff. Don't know if there are any other rap anchors on the way down one could traverse over to. Do you? Most climbers know that any rappel from up there is a 2 rope or 2 pitch rappel. Do you think, however, we should tag the anchors with a dog tag or something to remind them, or will posting this on the various climber boards do? There will be a small kiosk going up about 50 feet up the access trail mentioning the rules and this 2 rope/ pitch aspect of these rappels. We just don't want someone to mistakenly rappel off the end of their rope and try to blame the park (not that it would work, but it would be tragic and bad press for the area.) If you have comments, please direct them to the CCC board via email or on the message board. We will be more than happy to forward them onto the National Park Service Personnel. The BCC and the CCC are extremely indebted to the hard work that Eddy Cartaya and Chris Ulrey have put forth in order to advocate for our needs. If you see a park ranger at Shiprock, please remember to tell them thank you and that you appreciate their hard work on our behalf. |
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| Last Updated ( Thursday, 12 June 2008 ) |
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