RRC Archives

caribe wrote:

Howie Feltersnatch wrote:Oh Shit! People profiting from property they purchased!? How in the world could we ever let this shit go on?!

No problem with private land to make bank. However, the smoke and mirrors about intention and altruism when the land was purchased and the guilt trip on the climbing community for mistreatment were not necessary .

Didn't the Roadside owners get some money from the Access Fund or something like that as well?

caribe wrote:- Another aspect of all this of course is that the Red wins at the drama contest. There is no other climbing venue with the drama that we command at the Red. I can't wait to see how this story plays in the climbing mags. I am also wondering what the hell is next. Does this saga get weirder?

I suspect that this forum is the main reason that the Red is perceived that way. No other climbing area that I can think of has an online community as active as this. Not because it's a place inherently filled with drama, but because RRC.com has a strong base of users--it's been around longer than many guidebooks have. It's great, but people sometimes forget that real-world opinions are magnified in a forum, and stirring the pot is more fun on a forum than it is around a campfire.

The authors of those climbing editorials should be careful, though. Time and time again I read articles about the red that were last month's trivial topic of discussion here on RRC.com. Sometimes it's word-for-word! Seems kind of lazy to me. Do they participate in any real journalism, or are they all just sitting around on laptops trolling around climbing forums? I would sure like to read an article about roadside in a climbing magazine--but unless it's a face-to-face interview with either of the owners I'd rather not see anything.

Anyway, the soup is starting to crust over. Where's my spoon?

Saw this on climbingnarc and thought it was interesting....

Post taken from blog:
http://climbingnarc.com/2011/05/more-th ... n-general/

Obviously unknown to you is the fact that Natural Bridge State park and cabin developers were both actively thirsting over the Roadside area back in 2002/2003. One attorney had already tried to unravel the extremely complex network of owners (heirs) to the roadside area and he failed (he was not a real estate practitioner). Through diligent work spanning nearly two years I was able to piece this tract of land together and buy it up before the state park or cabin developers got to it. The legal fees alone in doing this would have been extremely cost prohibitive – I did all this work on my own time. The state park would absolutely close all access to Roadside to climbing, just as it did with Pocket Wall. The cabin builders would do likewise. My legal work and John and my $$$$ are what enabled you to climb at Roadside for the past several years and it still costs us a significant amount of money every year. We have never received nor asked anyone for one penny. So, contrary to your uninformed post, we most certainly have preserved climbing at Roadside, even in light of this closure. We will reopen it, but under a different operational paradigm than the laissez faire system now in place. We have invested many thousands of dollars so you can climb at Roadside. Unfortunately, it has become a trashed out area that defeats the overall intent of preserving it. Without our intervention it would only become worse and that is absolutely unacceptable to John and I, and it should be for everyone who visits there.

Peace,

Grant Stephens, Co-Owner
Roadside
Graining Fork Nature Preserve, LLC