UKC

This will be mostly relevant to people who have climbed in Squamish in the last 2-3 years but all help is welcome. Squamish is becoming more popular every year and starting to suffer acute problems with parts of its infrastructure, especially parking. The three major parking spots for climbers - the Smoke Bluffs, the Chief and Murrin- are all getting full by mid-morning, or earlier, in season, and there are few alternatives. The situation has been exacerbated by a new tourist attraction - the Sea to Sky gondola next to the Chief - which hasn't arranged enough parking capacity for itself and is overflowing to other car parks, one of which will be closed in 2017 for an industrial use. Also the provincial park rangers have begun aggressively targeting any illegally parked cars at the Chief and Murrin car parks, with the reasonable argument that they have to ensure access for emergency vehicles.

With this issue so prominent, you would think that the Squamish town council would be looking for solutions, like a shuttle bus service coupled with a park-and-ride location similar to Yosemite or Zion. However, unbelievably, they are instead about to lease space at one of the few well-situated car parks with any spare capacity so that a local businessman can set up a "ropes course" tower to pull in the kind of tourists who normally carry on driving to Whistler. This is at the Squamish Adventure Centre, by the main highway on the southern (Chief) edge of town, which was originally built ten years ago as a meeting spot and information hub for visiting climbers and other outdoor recreation users; and has been very successful in that role.

Both the local climbers' access group, Squamish Access Society, and the regional Climbers Access Society of BC oppose this development. The final public hearing at council is at 6pm on 17th January (which is early morning on the 18th UK time). Even at this late stage, it could make the difference for council to receive opinion from overseas fans of Squamish climbing, so we encourage anyone with the time and inclination to send an email. Use the address council@squamish.ca , use a clear subject title like "NO to Kristall Turm ropes course at the Squamish adventure centre" and note prominently that you are writing from the UK (or wherever else).

There is more detail on the issue here at the Squamish Climbing Magazine blog - most recent post first:

http://squamishclimbingmagazine.ca/business-proposal-adventure-centre-parki...

http://squamishclimbingmagazine.ca/public-comments-adventure-centre-parking...

http://squamishclimbingmagazine.ca/local-alert-high-ropes-course-considered...

Disclosure: I am a board member of Squamish Access Society.

Thanks for reading, Toby

In reply to tobyfk:

Bump.

In reply to tobyfk:

As a regular visitor form the UK I have emailed my concerns.
Hope it goes well.

In reply to TobyA:



A Toby in need is a Toby indeed?

In reply to tobyfk:

As I will have moved to Vancouver in 10 days, I've emailed too.

In reply to SenzuBean:

Us who have suffered childhoods of "isn't that a dog's name?" have to stick together!

Tobyfk is an old mate and climbing partner and obviously wanted people who know Squamish to have a chance to see this and have their say if they wanted to. I thought with the transatlantic time issues - Toby is posting from B - a quick UK morning bump for a major access issue wasn't too cheeky. Great to see a couple of people have now responded - keep it up folks!

In reply to tobyfk:

I've already had an email response from a Councillor of the District of Squamish, B.C.
so it's not too late to show support.

In reply to tobyfk:

Never been.

Whilst I sympathise with the parking ordeal and how it is set to get worse.

Boycotting the building of a new ropes centre to draw more new people to the sport who in turn would more than likely impact the climbing world in a positive way - in place for more parking is Ludacris!

Absolutely filthy idea.

In reply to SenzuBean:



Jealous!

CB

In reply to zimpara:
Fresh, steaming, bollocks. A commercial ropes course on the 'Go Ape' spectrum does sod all to introduce people to rock climbing, and will further exacerbate an obviously tenuous access situation. Attractions like the above can easily fund the creation of new facilities, something a local access team is definitely not capable of.