Be Heard!

Help the Adirondack Park Agency define who we are as Mountaineers. If you don’t,  they will define who we are for us.

As climbers, we have until Friday, Dec 5th 2014, to submit comments to the Adirondack Park Agency. See info below.

The History

The Adirondack Park State Land Master Plan (APSLMP) defines permissible activities on Forest Preserve land in the Adirondacks.

The APSLMP was written in 1972, but there have been no major amendments despite the increased popularity of mountaineering activities, such as rock climbing, ice climbing, slide climbing, bouldering, and ski mountaineering. Due to recent Adirondack land acquisitions by the State of New York the APSLMP has been opened up to negotiation for the first time since 1987.
The current mention of mountaineering appears as such:
The following types of recreational use are compatible with wilderness and should be encouraged as long as the degree and intensity of such use does not endanger the wilderness resource itself:
— hiking, mountaineering, tenting, hunting, fishing, trapping, snowshoeing, ski touring, birding, nature study, and other forms of primitive and unconfined recreation.

Proposed Change

While the term mountaineering is interpreted to include multiple activities, a more specific definition would formalize this interpretation. Although some State officials may be aware of these activities, many more don’t know the difference between non-technical mountaineering (hiking) and climbing.
As bouldering, rock climbing, ice climbing, slide climbing, and ski mountaineering become increasingly popular, highlighting these specific activities could help managers identify mountaineering resources that are present in the Park. Therefore, a group of climbers has been working together, with guidance from APA officials, to draft an expanded definition:
Mountaineering includes, but is not limited to, the following forms of climbing: rock climbing, ice climbing, slide climbing, bouldering, and ski mountaineering.
Other climbing-related issues (i.e. fixed anchors) have been discussed, informally, with the APA and DEC. This is not the time, however, to formally address other climbing-related issues. Our first step is to be recognized as a diverse user group that fits the definition of mountaineering.

What you can do

Write a letter that includes the following about you:

• 1. Name & user group(s) with which you associate (rock, ice, bouldering, etc.)
• 2. Organization/business (if relevant, i.e. guide, shop/gym owner, instructor, author
• 3. Address
• 4. Email Address
• 5. Support of the expanded definition, as written below:
  Mountaineering includes, but is not limited to, the following forms of climbing: rock climbing, ice climbing, slide climbing, bouldering, and ski mountaineering.
• 6. Justification for how the expanded definition will help the Department of Conservation (DEC)
  For example: Highlighting these specific activities could help managers identify mountaineering resources that are present in the Park
• 7. Justification for how the expanded definition will help climbers
  For example: A more inclusive definition of mountaineering will help unify climbers into a more visible user group, a group that wishes to cooperate with DEC in managing mountaineering resources (i.e. erosion control at heavily used cliffs, maintaining access trails)
• 8. Say something positive about Adirondack climbers.

For example: We are a growing user group that is able to support guides and college programs
· We spend money throughout the Park and throughout the year, we attended annual festivals/events
· The Park has loads of mountaineering resources that attract climbers from downstate, out of state, Canada
· We cooperate with DEC in Peregrine monitoring and volunteer rescues
· We are conservation-minded, responsible and low-impact

Please submit written comments to:

Deputy Director, Planning
Kathy Regan
PO Box 99
Ray Brook, NY 12977

Or via email:
PublicComment@apa.ny.gov

Source: Jeremy Haas