Last weekend the park administration for Bon Echo Provincial Park in Ontario, Canada, banned a couple climbers for not wearing helmets and for sassing the park's superintendent. Gripped, a Canadian climbing magazine, said, "Witnesses report that park officials confronted the un-helmeted climbers and requested they use helmets or stop climbing."
The climbers then basically told the park officials to shove it since there is no rule or regulation at the park that requires mandatory helmet use by climbers. David Lue with the Alpine Club of Canada said in an email sent to members: "Misha and Karl were asked about the lack of helmets by the superintendent who was passing by, words were said that led to a very pissed off super who promptly drove over to the hut to tell the custodian to get them off the cliff, that he wanted their names and was going to ban them."
Later after seeing a couple more climbers without helmets, the superintendent threatened to close the park down for the rest of the weekend to rock climbers. After getting off their climb, the two helmet-less offenders visited the park super and apologized and accepted their ban.
Bon Echo Provincial Park is one of the best rock climbing areas close to Toronto and Ottawa in eastern Canada. The park offers granite cliffs rising out of Mazinaw Lake, including the mile-long, 300-foot-high escarpment of Mazinaw Rock.
All the climbing is traditionally protected with gear and climbers follow rules established in a Memorandum of Understanding between the Alpine Club of Canada and the Bon Echo park authorities. These include rules against new routes; no fixed protection and bolts; no rappelling or belaying from trees; following trails to and from the cliffs; obeying raptor closures; not leaving gear behind; and not climbing near ancient Indian pictographs--all common sense rules to help protect the park's natural resources.
Nowhere in the rules, however, does it say anything about wearing a helmet or anything else regarding personal climbing safety. Most climbers have it pretty good at most climbing areas. What we do and how we climb is usually left up to the individual climber. Each of us can decide how we accept personal responsibility for our safety on the rocks. We have the right to either wear or not wear a climbing helmet. There are lots of great reasons to always wear a helmet when you climb, but it is a slow erosion of our climbing freedoms when management bureaucrats begin arbitrarily dictating climbing safety.
Photograph above: Mazinaw Rock offers trad climbing in a peaceful lakeside setting in central Ontario, Canada. Photograph courtesy Panoramio
Comments
The point you’ve completely glossed over here Stewart and willfully ignored is the the climbers’ attitude towards the park official- personal climbing practices outside have nothing to do with the ban.
I agree Garrick…the climber’s attitude might have had something to do with their banishment. I don’t know, however, what was said between the two climbers and the super. I imagine they were pretty cheeky. On the other hand, the super might have just been having a bad day. No law against back talk or bad talk though. It shows some class though that the climbers did apologize and accepted the ban…which says they probably realized they crossed a line. Stewart
As a taxpayer and insurance buyer, I’m going to have to help pay for the ride in the helicopter when you get a head injury falling. And the medical care. And whatever else it’s going to cost to pay for the damage done if you don’t wear a helmet. The freedom to unnecessarily risk bashing your head in on public lands at great cost to others is really not something you should proudly fight for.