Notes from All Over:
–A Bristow, Virginia, man was sentenced Monday to 10 years in federal prison for killing his rock-climbing companion at the Carderock Climbing Area in Montgomery County, Maryland, in December 2014. To read more, click here.
–Earlier this year, under pressure from local anti-climbing activists, the Bitterroot National Forest in Montana expanded a generally accepted, one-year bolt moratorium at a developed front country crag to the entire Mill Creek Canyon drainage area, which includes incredible potential for backcountry first ascents. To read more, click here.
–Moss Rock Preserve is home to a collection of giant sandstone blocks hidden in the woods of Hoover, Alabama outside of Birmingham. It has long been one of the Deep South’s best and most historic climbing areas. However, when the Access Fund-Jeep Conservation Team rolled into Moss Rock in late May, they were shocked at what they found. “The park was in really bad shape. There was graffiti on nearly every rock, trash throughout, broken glass, remnants of illegal campfires, and evidence of severe erosion and soil loss,” says Lindsay Anderson of the Access Fund-Jeep Conservation Team. “It was alarming, and it took a while to get past the eye sores and see the former glory of the place underneath.” To read more, click here.
–Denali National Park officials are planning a “soft opening” next week of areas that had been closed because of a problem grizzly bear. The bear near Savage River last month charged vehicles along the park road and on June 22 obtained food from a daypack that a visitor threw to district it. Park officials closed the area to private vehicles, bicycles and hikers for five days. To read more, click here.
–The New Yorker published a nice article on getting lost in the woods. Check it out, here.
–A bill floated Wednesday that would allow mountain biking — and the use of some motorized tools — in wilderness areas is already raising hopes. And hackles. The Human Powered Travel in Wilderness Act, offered by Utah’s Republican Sens. Orrin Hatch and Mike Lee, would allow local land managers to decide whether to permit bicycles in wilderness areas. It also would allow those land managers to decide when it’s OK to use modern tools, like wheelbarrows and chainsaws, for wilderness-area trail maintenance. To read more, click here.