Hard substance sprayed on boulders

[Mmmigz]

Hi,

I just saw a posting elsewhere about the film crew currently working in the Grand Wall boulders. Evidently they have been spraying some popular bouldering routes with a hard shellac-like substance, possibly for the purpose of masking chalk. There's a few photos at this link:

https://imgur.com/a/u3RyI#3mPkss3

Does anyone know anything about this? The original poster is interested in knowing if anyone has experience with this substance and how to remove it without damaging the rock. Thought I would share here to get some more eyes on it.

Apparently a few climbers are meeting with the film crew tomorrow, but the fear is that they won't take it seriously or care enough to remove it without damage.

[Jonny5]

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot? How many boulders are affected? Will they at least divulge what they are spraying? Isn't this a park and therefore protected in some manner? Just a few questions that spring to mind...

[Mmmigz]

Yeah, I wish I had more answers...I'm not sure which/how many boulders have been impacted so far. I would hope that once the parks service is involved they will put a stop to it, but who knows if it's reversible.

[BK]

I suggest you get a hold of the BC parks liasson. I'd be surprised if whatever it is (if it is true at all) will not be totally removed before they are done.

Worth checking on though, just to make sure the system isn't going sideways.

BC Parks has guidelines for filming permits which generally means nothing gets fuked up, or else. Its in writing, ask for it.

[natsdad]

Worth checking on though, just to make sure the system isn't going sideways.

I agree that it is very worth following up on. Sometimes the film industry is careful about returning places to their previous condition, and sometimes not. A lot depends on the integrity of the crew involved. (I worked in the film industry for a while and saw good and poor practices.)

Steve

[BK]

the fear is that they won't take it seriously or care enough to remove it without damage.

They must take it seriously and care, by the terms of the park use permit.

However, consider for a moment the vast majority of film productions are very sensitive to this requirement and they demostrate it.

I think I saw Perry's truck down there the other day, I bet he'll be keep close tabs on the whole deal if so and if not him, there's bound to be a few other climbers working there. Don't go in guns a blazing.

[BK]

Hey, what the hell.... I just heard on CBC radio that someone is moaning about " The film industry shouldn't be allowed to use the park for two weeks" or words to that effect.

We don't need that sort of whining coming out of our community. It makes us look like a bunch of entitled navel gazers. Its only two bloody weeks. Go boulder somewhere else.

[natsdad]

I heard that story too. Here is a bit more coverage:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-c ... -1.3126156

http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/bcparks/explor ... /stawamus/

http://squamishclimbingmagazine.ca/loca ... e-10-2015/

Anyone in Squamish have more insight into X "claims the company cut down two trees in the park and spray painted boulders.”?

Steve

[pbeckham]

Per BK's comments, it's true I'm working on the film set near Kacademon Rock.
As part of our work, I've rigged a camera high line from 80' up a nice fir to the top of Kacademon as well as a lower utility line for moving a camera crane onto platforms in the boulders.
It's been challenging work made very stressful by the negative behaviour of some of the bouldering community and misrepresentation in the press.
The media is reporting we cut down two trees.
We have an arborist assisting us and he took down a 30' rotten snag that posed a significant overhead hazard as well as a diseased 8" cedar that conflicted with the utility line.
I trimmed a number of dead limbs as well as a few live ones in order to ensure safe access and operation of both high line rigs.
All in all, very little vegetation has been impacted by our work particularly if I reference it agains the impact we as a climbing community are having in the park.
In the past decade the understory of the Chief from the Bulletheads to the North Walls has been visibly hammered by braided trails and erosion with the development of bouldering.
Removal of vegetation and moss is obvious to even the most obtuse observer and every decent nugget has chalked routes.
Route development on the Chief is obvious from downtown Squamish with scrubbed stripes from bottom to top and major crack systems excavated of dirt and trees.
Erosion of the backside trails from the thousands of hikers every weekend is reaching alarming proportions in many places.
Add to this the fact that BC Parks has done a lot of tree work to facilitate the campground and that BC Hydro has cut a swath the entire length of it's right of way (in the park) along the base of the Chief.
I guess we can reference the Sea to Sky Gondola's right of way while were at it.

It would appear it's OK for climbers and other user groups to significantly impact the Chief's ecosystem but not OK for a film crew to take down a snag or two and trim a few limbs.

A familiar refrain has been that there should be no commercial activity in provincial parks.
Guiding, gondolas and ski lifts are OK but filming isn't?

The Stawamus Chief Park is as near and dear to my heart as it is to anyone.
I've spent a huge part of my life on it and take great pride in having participated in it's creation.
I have a vested interest in it's care for all users whether it's for climbing, guiding, hiking, base jumping or some film work that brings a bit of economic benefit to our community.

I'm at a complete loss as to how to reconcile the shrill outrage and hypocritical behaviour of a user group that feel their interests should trump that of other user groups.

Thanks for letting me share my thoughts.

PB

[natsdad]

Thanks for letting me share my thoughts.

PB

Hey Perry,

Thanks for letting us know what is actually happening. It's good to get your first-hand perspective. The media reports tend to emphasize drama and conflict. I appreciate the time you've taken to update our climbing community.

cheers,
Steve

[jamest]

Here is Location Manager, Kendrie Upton's follow up to an unbalanced report by CBC about some filming that occurred at The Chief in Squamish..

Here is the message that goes with it.

I’d like to enquire about why has the CBC printed this article, based entirely on conjecture, without including the film company’s side of this story. This is such an emotional topic for so many BC and Squamish residents and is bound to inflame people as it’s so imbalanced. This story is based on the word of a small group of very vocal park users from within the climbing community who’ve made it sound as if the film crew are in this park doing whatever they please and creating a slew of damage in their wake. This is absolutely not true nor does this article reflect the experience or opinions of of all the people who used this park during filming.

I’m a Location Manager in Vancouver and I have filmed in Stawamus Park. I can assure you that working in BC Parks is not without serious limitations, restrictions and hoops to jump through and that park is heavily protected as it is actively being remediated following years of abuse by tens of thousands of parks users, some of whom essentially lived in the park at one time. I spoke to the Location Manager on this production and she explained to me what happened from their point of view and, as you might expect, it’s nothing like the very negative and invasive picture that’s been painted by this small but vocal group.

The person doing the so called "tree cutting” was a well known member of the climbing community who is also a rigger in film. He’s also a long time resident of Squamish. He was supervised by a Park’s rep. BC Parks often allows cutting of dead wood, clearing of debris and some, judicious and very limited, trimming to facilitate rigging and for safety purposes in association with film activity. They do similar work in the parks themselves to keep them safe for park users so when a film company pays to do this in a BC Park it saves them a bit of money within their extremely tight budget. Permission for this cutting was granted within the park use permit which, by the way, this small, displeased group were granted permission to to look at for their information and which they in turn photographed and posted to the net.

This article proliferates misinformation. No trees were cut down. The specific incident of trimming that was being reported upon involved two sections of limbs, one was four feet of a twenty five foot branch and one was less than a foot long. It also reads, "Residents say the film production company has shut down the Chief hiking trail.” That trail was never closed. Even the title of the piece implies that the film crew have engaged in some wrongdoing.

In addition to printing these fabrications your article completely ignores the massive benefits of hosting a large feature film within a town like Squamish. Many crew are being accommodated in town and this brings a sizeable financial influx to local businesses. I worked on a television show that filmed in Squamish last year and we got an amazing amount of positive feedback from both the district and locals.
Please bring some balance to this story.

[BK]

I have yet to see a concise, detailed description of the "hard substance applied to rock" event - how it happened, intentional or by mistake, effectiveness of removal, how such an event is handled by BC Parks process, etc.

That appears to be the only thing that deserves a legitimate complaint, yet all the discussion seems to revolve around revenue to Parks, twig removal and a general all around "harrumph" about the percieved elbowing out of a handful of entitled mal contents who feel the boulders belong to them.

I'd say they have a point with the "hard substance". So whats the dealio with that?

[pbeckham]

BK,

To the best of my knowledge, the hard stuff in question was limited to one hold on one boulder where a cave set was built.
It could have been an adhesive for dressing out a chalked hold but I can't say for sure.
Maybe just an honest bonehead experiment by a stressed out scenic artist.
The amount of attention and obsessing that this bit of adhesive generated was impressive.
Can't image what the reaction might have been if you widened a parking lot, gladed a campground, installed ladders on the summit slabs or cleared a gondola right of way.

I wonder what we do if the recreating public complains about the white substance all over the boulders in a Class A Park?

[BK]

Can't imagine. White stuff.... do they keep it in a sock? Sounds like Barley to me!

Reminds me of a time Dave Alexander and I were down at Smith rocks at the hieght of the sport climbing freakout. We were doing laps on a classic 11a in the middle of "the big scene" or whatever its called. A whole bunch of celebrities were hang dogging all over the place on various nightmarish tweakfests and we were grooving on it, checking it all out.

Next thing you know a couple of sporto's come up to us and without so much as a "good morning" start pestering us to move along and free up their warm up. We graciously point out we ain't going anywhere but we would be happy to share the adjacent "Pigs in Space". I swear, the two of them nearly hit the roof. Imagine that... a couple of Canadian hillbillies removing from their menu their favored warm up, then offering up an almost identical climb which they didn't have wired into submission.

Noses in the air, they harumphed off to sulk. Meanwhile, one of the nearby hang doggers started swearing expletives after pitching off for the 100th time, alarming all the grannies, toddlers, scout troops, dogs and fishermen, all unaware that certain individuals were entitled to such vocal expressions when unable to pull on a greasy pebble.

Too Tall was there and for a second I thought i was about to watch a punch up. What a scene - Smith Rocks in the eighties. The height of the lycra fashion statement and as Roddy muckGowan would say, the beginning of the neo fascist sport matrix!