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After reading on this forum about recent problems with climbers at Torrent, Muir, and public lands in Kentucky, the postings might well be summarized as: “This sport is currently and desperately in need of a code of ethics.” Well, that’s easy. All you need do is Google “Climber’s Ethics” to call up several variations.

What is perhaps even more important than publishing rules and guidelines is to follow the advice of Steve Matous, Executive Director of the Access Fund to not just teach ethics but live them.

And, turning a blind eye to aberrant behavior is, in itself, a violation one of the basic tenets of the code. When we witness an act of recklessness or carelessness that is clearly an intentional or unintentional breach of ethics, we have the obligation to bring this to the attention of the guilty person(s).

In a friendly, non-chastising way, we need to talk to this party about the problem and see what can be done to resolve it. If we meet with resistance, we need to back away and report the incident to the appropriate authority, such as the landowner or law enforcement officials, if necessary.

Common sense should dictate the action to be taken. But, to take no action is unethical.

For those new to the sport of rock climbing, here is a link to our Muir Valley version of a Climbers’ Code of Ethics. Several variations of this have been around this area for years. I am sorry that I don’t know the name of the original author.

http://www.muirvalley.com/climbers-code.html

Rick Weber

i always thought this was very useful and interesting. it brings to light a lot of important topics and it's put together pretty well..

http://www.americanalpineclub.org/docs/ ... ration.pdf

My grateful appreciation to those individuals exercising leadership on this topic.

I think the truth should be part of any code of ethics.

you cant handle the truth

You can't handle that I can handle the truth. That is the truth. Can we get a ruling?

After reading The Tyrol Declaration makes you wonder if some sort of certification couldn't be earned; to where those who open their property or FS land could required those climbing there to have. And I'll use a example.
I run a Bodyshop in Cincinnati, and as for anyone who is in the business knows; anyone with the money can open a bodyshop and start fixing cars, there are no state or federal requirements to cut the front end off a car and weld it back together. Now with that seid if an individual wants to recieve business from certain organiztions such as insurance companies, dealerships, fleet companies, AAA ect they would be required to have certified individuals handle the different repair areas.

This maybe a little of the charts or in left field way of thinking, but climbing outside affects many different areas. Areas not all of us are educated in and for some of us we are learning by our mistakes and what we see other people do. I know the first time I went climbing the only thing I was shown was how not to back clip and what a clip stick does. Hell I worn socks with my shoes. Nobody told me not to shit in the woods or top rope through the anchors. Those were all things I either read about or was "Policed on" And with the size of the newbie community its no wonder there are so many problems. Not enough police to go around. And just to prove a point I challenge anyone to go to the crags on some really nice weekend that has an abundance of newbie climbers and count the number of top ropes through the anchors, dogs off leashes, trash laying out, cuss words being used, and inproper equitment usage, And then try and police those individuals at the same time. I bet you would come home feeling like a first grade teacher after a long days work.

I always top rope through the anchors and climb with my pants down incase I have to offload some luggage mid climb, if you know what I mean.

Ah, once again, those without anything better to do with their time try to derail a serious conversation.

Thank you to Weber and Paul and gullwing for thoughtful additions.

The benefit I see to a certification program is that it would get well intentioned people educations and be a starting point.

The problem, the FS doesn't have the man-power to stop break-ins or theft from archeological sites much less patrol climbers (although we'd be a much easier target for certain...."Dude you are off belay and on your own, the fuzz is here and I'm running for it!"). Or the time to teach it.... hmmm.

I like the idea if anything than to get people thinking before acting. Fisher's and hunters are required to have a permit and it is usually pretty cheap (<10$).

It's not about derailing serious conversations, its about lightening the mood on an otherwise cloudy thread. Rather than me post another "yeah good job we need a code of ethics" (which I think we do need one) I tried to post something out there. If you can't see past my sarcasm then I feel sorry for you.