Friction Slab Illegal?

[Clevis Hitch]

thats why you are the answer my friend. Why don't you go put in your resume' for the State Park?

[hamsco]

West Va. / TN /NC all allow climbing in their state parks, without the impact that Toad is worried about.
The Breaks Interstate park straddles the Ky/ Va border and has bolted and Trad climbing. They are run by an independent board that is not connected to the Ky state park system.
Ky state parks whine about not enough visitors, but yet don't an idea of how to change. Hugh's suggestion of writing letters is a good start.

[Clevis Hitch]

West Va. / TN /NC all allow climbing in their state parks, without the impact that Toad is worried about.
The Breaks Interstate park straddles the Ky/ Va border and has bolted and Trad climbing. They are run by an independent board that is not connected to the Ky state park system.
Ky state parks whine about not enough visitors, but yet don't an idea of how to change. Hugh's suggestion of writing letters is a good start.

Tell us the story about how climbing got shut down in the state park because of that guy. Tell us a bed time story!

I'll start it,"Once upon a time, there was this tool...

[KD]

from Ohio who wanted to show off for a bunch of scouts in his son's troop. Well one day they saw this rock and he said "lemme show you all how we used to climb these in Nam."

[the lurkist]

Clevis is patially right. What happened is the State Park Naturalist was good friends with a guy who wrote a really bad guide to rappelling and also called Torrent Falls is spiritual home (prior to Mark and Kathy's Dad, Fred Martin buying it). This friend's name was/is Tom Martin. He saw the development of the Red and Torrent in the blazing fashion that Porter introduced as a threat. He raised the alarm in a very loud way to the FS and SP. The FS stepped in and stopped all development. The SP never had allowed development or rappelling in anyway, but the naturalist, Wilson Francis, who became and maybe still is the superintendent of the SP took great exception to an unfortunate exchange that occurred between a climber who threatened Francis' friend, Tom Martin. That episode, along with cultural and generational differences between the new young and rather dirt bag climbing community and this group of older men who ran the SP and FS who were all one cohort, set the stage for the chilly relationship that we still enjoy today. To know the full extent of the connections of this group of local administrators, all lived in Powell Co, and Wilson Francis married Donny Richardson's (the FS Manager of the Stanton ranger district) daughter.
It is my feeling that this antipathy has been perpetuated over the years by the SP administrators. It isn't so much that they still hate climbers (although they may- the same guys are still around.) They just have no incentive to change. They could care less if they encouraged more visits to the SP. Climbers flocking to a cliff on their property would mean more work for them in terms of site supervision, law enforcement, etc...
I also wonder it it chaps them that climbing flourished to become the world class destination and the SP has missed the opportunity of its lifetime.

[toad857]

I also wonder it it chaps them that climbing flourished to become the world class destination and the SP has missed the opportunity of its lifetime.

Indeed! Only in government does a decision like that go unnoticed. In any other system heads would be rolling.

But you're right--ask anyone who works there on a daily basis if they'd enjoy having their visitation rate triple... can't say I would welcome that with open arms.

[Jay]

I'm not sure that their attendance would triple, but it certainly would grow. I've personally climbed in state parks in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, South Dakota, and Colorado. I don't think that in any of them climbers were the majority group, but they were certainly visible. I can't help but think that promoting visitors to Kentucky state parks could possibly be detrimental...

[the lurkist]

Only in Kentucky. Mark Twain said (about Missouri, but the same could definitely be said about Kentucky), "When the end of the world comes, I want to be in Kentucky, because everything happens ten years later in Kentucky."

[pigsteak]

do any of the other state park systems allow bolting, whether for anchors or sport climbing? I don't think Illinois allowed anchors, making every TRing off of trees or trad leads.

[bcombs]

do any of the other state park systems allow bolting, whether for anchors or sport climbing? I don't think Illinois allowed anchors, making every TRing off of trees or trad leads.

In Ohio I think it is allowed. There is the terrible top rope setup at John Bryant State Park. They are just anchors for TR. I think one route has a bolt or two but the park doesn't allow leading (I don't believe anyway). Too bad it is terrible choss.