We are victims of our own success.
It鈥檚 a hot topic right now, from the pool halls to the legions, the cafes to the climbing gym. Everyone, everywhere is talking about how we have become victims of our own success real estate wise. Now that the world knows just how great a place the Sea to Sky Corridor is, the masses are descending upon us with their bags of filthy cash. Soon all the professional climbers will have to live either up on permanent portaledges installed about the Chief or at the yonder end of the 麻豆社国产Valley in a large commune of tents and vans.
I鈥檓 so sick of talking about this topic, yet today as I drove past the highway side parking lot of the Chief, which was filled to capacity at 9:30 a.m., a black cloud hung heavy on the forest in the form of a BASE jumper鈥檚 parachute lying still across the boulders and bushes beside the highway. A man was on his phone beside the chute, standing in the shoulder beside his parked car. This did not look good.
We are victims of our own success in a recreational sense as well. As 麻豆社国产grows into an outdoor lifestyle mecca, more and more people will be drawn here seeking out the incredibly accessible cliffs, the abundant boulders, the perfect rock and mild climes. Without owning a mountain bike I can only imagine the visible growth that activity has witnessed upon its trails.聽
There are more people hiking the Chief, climbing its trails, climbing its walls and boulders than ever before and one clear way you can tell is the amount of accidents happening in a given period. Over the past two weeks we鈥檝e had two helicopter evacuations from separate climbing accidents. On June 12 Josh Pelland fell 20 metres from a cliff in the Smoke Bluffs called Octopuses Garden for reasons unknown. He sustained major traumas and will likely be paralyzed from the waist down. Incredibly, he sustained no major head injuries and has full use of his arms, the fine line between tragedy and miracle. A crowd-funding site, http://www.tilt.com/tilts/josh-climbing-accident, has been set up to help cover some of the costs associated with the lengthy recovery ahead.聽
A second accident in that week saw a climber lowered off the end of his rope at the Top Shelf Crag, north of the Slahannay. He broke both heels and a fibula, and word has it that he鈥檚 on the road to recovery. Both these accidents might get criticism from the armchairs of the world, but I ask you how many of you climbers out there haven鈥檛 scrambled around at the top of a cliff just a little bit too close to the edge, more than you realized? Or do you always tie a knot in the end of your rope and double-check the lengths of climbs in the guide or Internet each and every time? Was it the chopped 70-metre or the over long 60-metre I brought to the crag today? Complacency is a sure killer in climbing, and these accidents can happen to anyone.
That brings us to Sunday morning. In the hailstorm of news and media generated from any event came the details that a BASE jumper鈥檚 chute failed to properly open, and he succumbed to serious injuries from the landing. My thoughts go out to his friends and family, to Josh Pelland and also the other unnamed climber whose feet are on the mend.聽
As an ever-increasing number of people every year come here to recreate at ever-increasing levels of risk, daring and performance, in our unique mix of front country meets back country wilderness, services are going to be stretched to their max trying to deal with the numbers of people and incidents. Whether that means search-and-rescue long-lining climbers off the Chief via helicopter, conservation officers dealing with aggressive grizzly activity because of garbage left from campers in provincial camp sites or simply overflow parking issues at the Stawamus Chief Provincial Park, there may come a time when regulation increases. It will be a price we pay for the fame we are now garnering faster than a debris flow of boulders and mud down the South Gulley of the Chief in a November rain.
