Some recommendations to climbers

As with many outdoor activities, climbing is a sport which is carried on, for the most part, far from the areas in which the climbers normally live and work. However, even though these areas may be distant, they are not uninhabited and, unfortunately, ``friction'' can develop between the local population and the climbers. Even though one must not overlook certain reactions based on a rejection of ``different'' outsiders, of which the climber is certainly one, it must be said that the behavior of the climbers is largely responsible for these situations.

While it may be more or less true that, while climbing, the only elements involved are the climbers themselves and the protection of the environment (see below), it must be emphasized that many crags are surrounded by land under cultivation, forests, or even commercial areas. In short, the climbers are far from the only ones having rights to these areas which, in fact, provide the source of income for the local inhabitants. Put another way, it is up to the climbers to act as discrete guests and not as ``conquering warriors''.

This is the reason that, in cultivated areas or on forested land, we expressly request climbers to use only customary rural accesses and, if absolutely necessary, land lying fallow to reach the crags. It is not unreasonable to increase an approch walk by an hour or to abseil down in order to avoid walking across a cultivated field.

Given that many climbers are from urban areas, we feel justified in briefly mentioning several rules of rural existence. In the city, one is aware that fences are not climbed over, this being against the law; on the other hand, any area which is not fenced off can be walked across (the sign ``private property'' is not a legal imperative in France) as long as no damage is done.

This situation, however, does not prevail in rural areas. Even if it is not bounded by a fence or wall, a field of hay or a cultivated field must never be walked across. It is no excuse to claim that urban dwellers cannot always distinguish between a field whose hay has not been cut and fallow land. In addition, there are two types of fences which are often indistinguishable. There are those designed for cattle, which can be crossed as long as they are left undamaged (being sure to close the gate after passing through) and those which are designed to prevent intruders from crossing them. We cannot emphasize strongly enough that climbers should ask locally about the tolerated accesses to a given crag before simply choosing their own path ``on sight''.

What has been said above applies even more to cars. In the first place, a vehicle must never be parked outside of designated parking areas. While people on foot may cause negligible damage to a field lying fallow, vehicle parking causes long-term damage. Furthermore, a car parked along a narrow track will undoubtedly leave enough room for another car to pass, but this may well be insufficient for farm machinery and forest vehicles. Finally, over-driving of rural tracks may hinder agricultural work if passing in opposite directions is difficult.

Do not bring the whole of your food, buy it locally, preferably in the same commune as the crags. If you can afford it, spend some money in the local bars and restaurants. Remember that, in case of conflict, economic considerations are the climbers' best advocates.

Another important remark concerns garbage. Many climbers feel that they are respecting sanitary and ecological conventions by carefully leaving a sack of garbage, neatly tied shut, at the entrance to a parking lot or along the road, presuming that it will be removed the next day by the garbage truck. To do this is to be unaware that most rural communities are financially poor and do not have the means of paying for general garbage collection along their entire system of roads. In the best of situations, garbage collection is limited to the center of the village but, in general, most of the village inhabitants take their garbage to the public dump or burn it themselves. Neither is it always appropriate to take garbage to these local dumps, since they may be sufficient (with the problems which this entails) for a village of 100 inhabitants, but not hundreds of climbers coming every Sunday. Furthermore, do not put too much confidence in garbage cans or containers which have been set up: experience has shown that these tend to be too small and too infrequently emptied. We suggest that you do not use them for your own garbage, in this way leaving room for someone less conscientious that those of you who are taking the time to read these lines. It is best to respect the following golden rule:

TAKE ALL OF YOUR GARBAGE

(and a little more if you can)

WITH YOU WHEN YOU LEAVE.

If you happen to live hundreds of miles from the crag, you can dump your garbage (in closed bags) in the garbage cans found in a large town or in highway service areas and which will be collected on the following day. In sites where there are no toilets, which is, unfortunately, usually the case, bury your toilet paper to facilitate its decomposition. If there is too much and if it is safe to do so, burn it. As a last resort, collect it with your garbage.


These concerns for the local population aside, the climber does not have exclusive rights to use the crag or boulders. In the first place, there may be important archeological remains or special vegetation which has been deemed necessary to preserve and, as a consequence, certain areas may be made off limits to the climber. Nonetheless, vegetation and prehistoric remains can only be damaged by climbers if they are trampled upon or torn up. On the other hand, the very presence of climbers can seriously disturb the reproductive patterns of birds nesting in the crags. And while homo erectus (sapiens tending to be somewhat of a misnomer) and its hybrid primate variety, the climber, flourish massively, certain species of birds are in serious danger of extinction.

These endangered species include the peregrine falcon, the golden eagle, the Bonelli eagle, the griffon vulture, the eagle-owl, and the rook, which nest in climbing crags. At best, there are no more than a few tens of some of these birds in the whole of France. All that it takes is to bother a pair of birds during the nest-building and breeding periods (in general, from February to June) and one clutch will be lost. This amounts to the destruction of one-tenth of the future population. Obviously, one can claim that extermination of these species is the result, to a very large extent, of pesticides, hunting and stupidity, but it would nevertheless be dreadful to say that climbers had given the coup-de-grâce to any of these species.

For this reason, rather than being forced to establish extremely stringent regulations concerning climbing on certain crags, we strongly advise against climbing on crags other than those designated as site sportif from February through June (inclusive) unless the crag in question has been studied for several days with binoculars and an otherwise serious attempt has been made to ensure that no nests are present.

It is to be noted that in certain départements (Ain, Doubs, Jura, Côte d'Or), local decrees prohibit climbing on most of the major crags, from February 1 to June 15. Note that the bird protectors usually organize a permanent watch of these crags and immediately call the authorities in the case of infractions. No mercy can be expected from these authorities and fines range from 2 000 FF to 60 000 FF (1986).



Concerning sport climbing sites (sites sportifs d'escalade), the FFME (in agreement with its federal mission) decided that their upkeep belongs to the competence of its Département Committees, which in turn often entrust local associations (mention ent in the inventory) with this charge.

Therefore, when a route is declared to be ``pegged'' (équipée in the guidebooks), this means that the number of pegs in place is sufficient for a climber whose standard would be that of the route. Other climbers must not change, even temporarily, the pegging of the route, as it deteriorates the rock. For ``pegged'' routes (and in general in the sites marked site sportif) we ask that climbers bring neither pitons nor a hammer on the route. The only gear necessary is a rack of nuts and tapes. This means that climbers should check out local grading practices and ascertain if their guidebook is up-to-date. And finally, a visual inspection of the route is a good idea to check that the officially indicated protection is still in place. Any climber not able to do the route with the normal protection must either find a way off the route, or have a top rope thrown to him, down-climb, or abseil off the route. No pitons are to be added. On the other hand, the COSIROC and the FFME emphasize that the persons who maintain the condition of the fixed protection on the crag should take into consideration the level of the climbers for whom each route is designed, rather than only that of the strongest climbers of the area.

When a route is declared to be ``unpegged'' (non-équipée) or ``possibly a few pitons needed'' (``quelques pitons en-cas'') (COSIROC considers this an unfortunate situation on sites sportifs d'escalade crags) we recommend that either the climbers should equip the route after consulting the persons who generally maintain the crag or the local Département Committee of the FFME or, alternately, they should avoid, insofar as possible, the use of rock-damaging pitons and rely on ``clean'' means of protection. Generally, these routes are infrequently climbed and it is best to overestimate the difficulties before beginning the climb.

In the terrains d'aventure, the rules are necessarily not so strict, but we recommend that climbers limit their intervention to the replacement of unsafe pegs, without systematically re-equipping the route before consulting the local Département Committee. In fact, the absence of equipment in certain long routes often results from a decision to maintain it in the original exposition condition. Conversely, removing grass, thorns and unstable rocks is still a useful task... provided nobody can be hurt by them falling and you do not destroy protected plants.



Unless absolutely necessary, we recommend that chalk not be used. While certainly useful for absorbing sweat and, temporarily, increasing the adherence of the hands to the rock, unfortunately this ignorant substance cannot distinguish between the noble sweat of the climber and the ambient humidity. As a result, once on the rock, it imbibes water and provides the adherence of a bar of soap while smoothing over the natural roughness of the rock. For this reason, ever greater amounts of chalk are necessary not only to absorb sweat but the dew of previous nights. Instead of chalk, we recommend using rosin (``pof'' in French climbing jargon -- on sale Au Vieux Campeur and SOS escalade), still called ``colophane'', which does not absorb water, increases hand and foot adherence and, finally, is bio- and helio-degradable. Chalk is soluble in diluted hydrochloric acid.

Finally, we cannot overemphasize that ``visiting'' climbers to a certain area show a modicum of modesty towards their local counterparts who, while they may not climb quite as well, were responsible for having discovered, opened and equipped the routes in the area. The disdain of certain climbers has led to an unfortunate deterioration in the climbing atmosphere in certain areas. At best, the ``high and mighty'' climbers will be on the receiving end of jeers and cutting remarks. However, this reaction often extends to all outsiders to a given area with occasionally unpleasant consequences such as: a refusal to reveal the location of climbing areas, routes which are well-known to local climbers being deliberately graded easier than they are, intentional attempts to lead climbers into impasses, false information about the protection on a given route. The purpose of this, ``in principle'', is to see if visiting climbers are, in fact, as good as they claim to be...

We feel that most climbers will understand the sound basis of the above recommendations. Remember that climbing is still a fringe sport whose practice is liable to run counter a certain number of established notions of prudence and conformism. Minor property damage, a few accidents or incidents, coupled with a slight xenophobic reaction, is all that it sometimes takes to convince a mayor, the elected representative of the local population and not of the climbers, to close all or part of the area under his jurisdiction to climbing. It already happened.

Unfortunately, no law has been yet drawn up in France establishing access to climbing areas as a right. However, even were such an article of law or a government decree to exist, it might suffice to force an isolated, reticent landowner to allow climbing on his property, but it would never be sufficient to prevent a hostile and determined local population from getting rid of troublesome intruders.


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une collaboration COSIROC et www.kairn.com
© CoSiRoc [Taupin]  06/07/2005