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Last year, about 150 routes (trad, mixed, and sport) were set in Muir Valley. For the most part, this worked out very well, due to the efforts and supervision of a group of route developers who have become known as "Team Muir."

Next year, we anticipate at least another 150 high quality routes being established in the Valley.

Any experienced route developer who would like to set a route here must follow a few reasonable rules. First and foremost, you need to contact Tim Powers (t_bone on this forum) and tell him of your experience. If he approves you for setting routes, he will provide you the rules and guidelines necessary to safely set up routes in the Valley.

NO blanket permission will be granted to set routes wherever you please. ALL approval of routes will be given on a route-by-route basis. Pirate route setters will be banished. The guidelines are very reasonable. Please follow them.

To avoid trampling of delicate flora, such as wildflowers, mosses, and ferns, please stick to the existing trails. Please do not bushwhack or “Rhodothrash” to explore new areas. BEFORE new wall sections can be bolted, approach trails, or at the very least, trail right-of-ways to the wall in question, must be approved and established. We all wish to preserve the natural beauty of the Valley as much as possible. It only takes a few explorers taking off willie nilly across country to spoil some of this landscape.

There will be plenty of crags to develop, and Tim will provide you with approach information.

If you are not experienced in route development and wish to learn the craft, let Tim know, and he will try to arrange for you to apprentice with some of the more experienced developers.

Only the highest quality hardware available will be approved for use in the Valley.

Within a couple days, there will be a simple form for route developers to fill out before setting new routes in the Valley. You can either download this form from the www.muirvalley.com website or email the information requested on the form to Tim Powers in a PM on the Red River Climbing forum.

We are very impressed with the quality of routes set so far, many of which are true classics. And, we look forward to seeing new lines developed in ‘05.

If you have any questions about Muir Valley, please don’t hesitate to PM me here.

Rick

Great news, Rick. WAHOOO!! I'm not much interested in setting routes, but I love falling off of them. That's what I do best.

And everything I've climbed in Muir Valley has been wonderful!

Thanks, ZSpider

Thanks again for the wonderful gift you have provided and your guidelines are sound, hope things in Muir Valley remain as great as they were in 04.

Thanks Rick, The approval process applies to all forms of climbing. Trad, Sport, and Bouldering. Feel free to contact me any time. Tim

I have a feeling that the best is yet to come...

J-Rock wrote:I have a feeling that the best is yet to come...

I understand you picked up on some of those bolt-shooters like Sly Stallone used in the beginning of Cliffhanger. That should really make the job easier.

ZSpider

That would probably save a lot of time. If there were such a thing then we would probably have more than 300 routes at Muir Valley already. I wonder how powerful the drills will be in another 20-30 years...

What are the numbers like concerning harder routes (over 12) in Muir? Who's been developing on that end of the spectrum?

With the online guide changing and not always up to date how can I know if what looks like a potential trad route has been officailly done? What if you can't see the top to see if there are anchors?

John E, our routes are up to date on rays online guide. There some new routes that been put up over the winter. They will be added to the online guide when these areas are open to the climbing public. Stix, there are several climbers putting up 5.12 and up climbs at muir, some of which are at these newer areas. They will be open this spring once official trails have been established.