"To take the wildness out of wilderness is to deny our grandchildren their dreams."
Written By: Kirk Metzger
A recent article in the Source, A Bad Policy is Like a Bad
Bolt insinuated that the Forest Service was reducing wilderness
standards by not allowing wilderness climbing, when in fact it is
quite the opposite.
The law is an awkward tool to implement the spirit of the 1964
Wilderness Act. Within it are many compromises and concessions
that erode the very essence of the Wilderness Act: mining,
grazing, private inholding grandfathered easements and airstrips
to mention a few. These voices were able to secure exceptions in
1964 and without those concessions we may not have the wilderness
preservation system we know today. Now thirty five years later
another voice calls out for an exception. At issue is a recent
ban on bolting, and climbers who advocate bolting, for safety
sake are the special interest group asking for an exception. The
Wilderness Act is the tool the USFS has to work with, and within
the law it prohibits installations. The wilderness act doesn't
differentiate between big installations like ski areas or
seemingly insignificant ones like bolts.
Section 2(c) of the Wilderness Act defines wilderness in language
unusually straight forward for a legal document.
"A wilderness, in contrast with those areas where man and
his own works dominate the landscape, is hereby recognized as an
area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by
man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain. An area
of wilderness is further defined to mean in this Act as an area
of undeveloped Federal land retaining its primeval character and
influence, without permanent improvements or human habitation,
which is protected and managed so as to preserve its natural
conditions and which (1) generally appears to have been affected
primarily by the forces of nature, with the imprint of man's work
substantially unnoticeable; (2) has outstanding opportunities for
solitude or a primitive and unconfined type of recreation;
....."
Keeping the wild in wilderness and attaining the highest level of
purity within every wilderness is what the wilderness act
intended. It is not about safety, convenience, or security.
Wilderness is about wild places. Wilderness is about making
choices and living with the consequences. Wilderness is about
climbing up and back down a mountain on the mountains own terms.
Wilderness climbing and mountaineering is inherently dangerous.
Wilderness and it's isolation can be unforgiving, with death for
the slightest mistake. It is that vary danger that makes
wilderness wild. Technology has given us webbing, cams and nuts
to rattle into cracks or secure to boulders for temporary
anchors. This equipment allows the climber to ascend and leave no
sign of his/her presence so the next person has the same
opportunity and challenge to climb the mountain. To bolt a route
or install a rap anchor diminishes the wildness of the wilderness
and denies the next person the challenge. Wilderness is not about
blazing a bolted trail so others can follow. Wilderness is about
discovering a new route or summiting a mountain, then quietly
descending leaving no evidence of your existence.
Wilderness is really about dreams, to look up at a peak or route
and dream of someday climbing it, knowing full well the
challenges, danger, and risk that lay ahead. To take the wildness
out of wilderness is to deny our grandchildren their dreams.
Kirk Metzger,
Wilderness Ranger
Sisters Ranger District
Sisters, Oregon
Published in Response to:
"A Bad Policy is Like a Bad Bolt"
The Source October 7, 1998
This essay was originally published as a "letter to the editor" in the November 19, 1998 edition of The Source.
Scott Silver, Executive Director,
Wild Wilderness
248 NW Wilmington Avenue, Bend OR 97701
Phone (541) 385-5261 E-mail: ssilver@wildwilderness.org