Fall 2002
Limiting the Impact
by Alex Brun
 |
|
A tent set up on a durable rock slab on Mount Challenger is a good example of low impact camping. |
Alder branches in one hand, ski pole in the other, climbers use the branches like jungle vines to swing themselves across swift-moving mountain streams. Farther down the path, exposed tree roots serve as handholds, helping climbers scramble up a steep polished glacier slab. Once up the tough incline, climbers thrash through a mile of avalanche debris to get to Boston Basin - one of the premier snow and rock climbing venues in the United States.
The North Cascades are known for a wide variety of high-quality climbing routes and amazing scenery, yet many climbers concentrate in popular areas like Boston Basin, overcrowding and damaging the fragile landscape. Overcrowding affects ecosystem functions and erodes the range of landscapes that draw climbers and hikers from around the world.
Todd Newburger, a Western Washington University geography graduate student and biological technician for the National Park Service, studies human impact throughout the North Cascades. He said subalpine plants, like heather, are more at risk in popular climbing areas than plants growing at lower elevation areas. The short growing season combined with the cumulative effects of many people walking on heather limit the plants' ability to repair old branches and grow new ones, he said. Broken heather branches serve as an indicator of the extent of human impact in a climbing area.
Newburger is part of an effort by the Park Service to monitor and map popular climbing areas to see how climbers might impact wilderness areas.
Scientists and wilderness managers will use the maps to monitor human impacts such as unofficial trails, fire rings and bare ground.
"Monitoring will help North Cascades National Park create a baseline to measure future impacts," he said. "The goal of the monitoring program is to alert the park as to when intervention is required."
If the monitoring program indicates overuse in an area, one possible solution is to reduce the number of climbers that can use the area.
Galen Stark, a retired wilderness district ranger with 25-years experience working for the Park Service, said the park has never reduced the number of climbers simply out of concern of overuse in an area.
"It's politically difficult to attempt to limit the number of users visiting an area," Stark said.
Kelly Bush, wilderness district ranger for the park, said the current number of people allowed to visit these subalpine areas is based on limits set in the Wilderness Management Plan. The plan was written 14 years ago when fewer climbers used the park.
Today, the Park Service would have to conduct an Environmental Impact Statement - a document outlining the effects of proposed activities on the environment - in order for wilderness managers to permanently lower the number of climbers allowed in the park.
As it is now, the Park Service allows six groups of climbers into Boston Basin each day, a maximum of 72 people.
Western senior Seth Hobby, an avid climber and mountain guide for the Bellingham-based American Alpine Institute, said he agrees with wilderness management and he would like to see smaller groups of climbers visiting climbing areas.
Hobby guides clients on Mount Baker, which is outside of the park's boundaries. Since the area is not as well regulated as the park, climbers often leave their waste instead of packing it out with them. He said the presence of human waste on Mount Baker is frustrating because peaks like Mount Shuksan, which is inside the park, are much cleaner. The park has four climbing rangers to enforce park rules, whereas Mount Baker has only two rangers.
"Considering that the mountains are my office in the summer, human feces on the snow bothers me the most, because that is where I get my drinking water from," Hobby said.
Solar toilets - small plastic receptacles that use the sun's energy to break down human waste into organic material - are not as readily available on Mount Baker as they are in the park so climbers have to carry their waste with them.
"Although it's inconvenient to carry out your own waste it's well worth it," Hobby said. "I think it should be really strictly enforced or we need to increase the amount of solar toilets out there."
Tim Shultz, a Western lecturer and mountain guide, conducted a study that, in part, dealt with increasing the number of solar toilets in mountain areas. Shultz completed his master's in geography in 2001 with a thesis exploring how much waste climbers were willing to accept on Mount Baker.
Shultz said he found that a majority of climbers would be willing to see receptacles for human waste on Mount Baker.
But human feces aren't the only problem. Don Slack, president of Skagit Mountain Rescue, said guidebooks could be the reason climbers are overusing particular climbing routes.
"When Beckey's guide came out I saw more climbers in Boston Basin and we did more rescues there as well," he said.
Slack is referring to the first edition of Fred Beckey's "Cascade Alpine Guide: Climbing and High Routes: Rainy Pass to Fraser River," published in 1980.
He said this and other guidebooks are responsible for climbers repeatedly visiting areas instead of climbing hundreds of other potential routes. By staying on the same routes climbers have a huge impact on the wilderness, he said.
Professional photographer, author and former mountain guide Alan Kearney said guidebooks, like his "Classic Climbs of the Northwest," lead to increased usage in areas like Boston Basin. He said he feels mountain guiding companies have a bigger impact on sub-alpine terrain.
"Guide services zero-in on the select climbs," he said. "Guide services have more of an impact than books, by taking a person by the hand and taking them to a place they possibly wouldn't go by themselves or couldn't go by themselves."
The side effect of people climbing in the North Cascades is they leave behind the signs of their presence.
"Climbers are anarchists," Kearney said. "When you're out at the end of your rope you're kind of doing whatever you want. Climbers need rules."
Hobby said the issue of impact is one that all climbers must take seriously so other wilderness enthusiasts will follow in the same path.
"If we're not watching our footsteps and not following good outdoor ethics, we are not setting the stage for backpackers and we're setting a bad example," he said.
Senior Alex Brun studies geography at Huxley College. This is his first published piece.