On the Access Fund website:
After decades of work, the Access Fund received notice yesterday from National Park Service (NPS) that the agency has issued final national policy authorizing fixed anchors in wilderness. This policy—Director's Order #41—affects many of the country's most important climbing areas such as Yosemite, Grand Teton, Zion, Joshua Tree, and Canyonlands National Parks. The NPS included many of the specific provisions Access Fund advocated for during our 20+ years of work on this issue, such as programmatic authorizations (which allow new bolts by zone, not just case-by-case permitting for individual routes/bolts) and interim fixed anchor permitting prior to the establishment of dedicated climbing management plans. We are still analyzing the new policy, but first impressions are that this direction is good for both wilderness climbers and NPS managers. Stay tuned for more in-depth analysis in the near future.Link to the entire document:
http://www.accessfund.org/atf/cf/%7B1f5726d5-6646-4050-aa6e-c275df6ca8e3%7D/DIRECTOR%27S%20ORDER%2041%20SIGNED%205.13.13.PDFNote: This affects Southern Yosemite in many ways. Wawona, Mt. Starr King and Bunnell Point are all within Yosemite NP and are directly governed by this policy.
Don't forget, all of or part of Balloon Dome, Disappearing Dome, Squaw Dome, East Fuller Butte and many more formations are within Wilderness areas and fall under the sometimes strict, yet difficult-to-interpret rules of the Wilderness Act. Regardless of the fact that this particular policy only affects Wilderness within National Parks, lets all agree to avoid drawing attention to the area by challenging any parts of those rules and keep this area as wild as can be.
I am pretty sure that most people are unaware of just how much of Southern Yosemite is within Wilderness and may need to be reminded. Some key issues that could come up in the future regarding climbing could be about power drills, overnight stays, fixed anchors, etc. but don't need to be if we govern ourselves before someone from the government shows up some day and decides to do it for us. No one wants that.
