Couple Questions regarding camping changes

[daveh_cdn]

I see here that the camping fees have changed:

http://www.rockclimbing.com/cgi-bin/for ... age=unread

I have a couple questions. Hopefully someone's stayed there lately

1) That post says that a "party" is 2 people. The BC Parks site says that it is 4. It seems like there is an exception for Stawamus. Can anyone confirm this?

2) They say that you can only stay 14 days in a calendar year. I'm going to be there for 3 weeks with my gf there for 2/3 of it. Do they enforce this? How do I get around it if they do?

Thanks everyone,
Dave.
www.ottawaclimbing.com

[damien]

1) They charged me 10 for two people at Squamish

2) Usually this is not an issue. Unless you are loud obnoxious drunk and unruly, they typically let you stay as long as you like. That said, the demand on the Campground seems to be more than ever before. Previously they seemed to be happy to have anybody there; now they could always be a little more picky.

Note: that unless you have prepaid for the site (they scrapped self-registration which seems to have been working everywhere in the world for a long time) they come by in the morning and wake you up to pay. This basically sucks a$% and I don't envy having that task as my job, nor would I appreciate getting woken up. You can see why, with the increases in camping rates and minimal facilities (no shower/no swimming in Oleson Cr.) why people are going to other places to camp (Malamute!).

[smallman]

The reason the self registration system didn't work is that climbers are only sport in which being the cheapest, moochist, dirtbag is a badge of pride. People were acting like thieves so you get what you deserve. Plus it is 5 $ / night!!!! two tents on site with 2 people.

[damien]

I liked the old system: it had justice.

You self-registered and they left you to you own devices.
You didn't register, you got an early morning wake up call to pay-up.

[MGarcia]

There are plenty of places to legally camp for free, but not at the party places. It depends if you need to stay with the crowds.

[jefffski]

The new price structure helps reduce impacts on the campsite by limiting the number of tents on one site--there is no value in crowding onto a site because each additional tent, person or party of two adds another $10 to the fee. No more tents spilling off the platforms onto the fragile surroundings.

They have also added a water tap by the cook shelter, improved the water filtration system to meet provincial standards and are adding more tent sites.

It is a great campsite with a friendly communal atmosphere, a manager who climbs (hard), little theft and a very low price. Compare that to other managed campgrounds--can you say camp 4?

You can prepay for future nights on the first morning they knock (scratch?) on your tent thereby avoiding more early morning wake ups.

[Trick]

There are plenty of places to legally camp for free, but not at the party places. It depends if you need to stay with the crowds.

Where?

[Dru]

You may legally camp anywhere on Crown land, subject to the appropriate regulations:

http://www.bclaws.ca/Recon/document/fre ... 6_2004.xml

It's getting harder to find accessible camping on Crown land within a reasonable distance of Squamish - up the Mamquam past the power station is the closest to the Chief in any event.