Background and Logistics The Vantage climbing area is owned by several different state and federal agencies. These agencies have joined in an MOU that (in part) states that the WSFW will ³manage² the area. So while the WSFW does not own all of the ground, they are responsible for managing it. Robert Kent is the Land Manger for the Quincy Wildlife Area, a 200,000 acre area of which our climbing area is only a very small part. If you want to see where all this stuff is listed, go the WSFW web page and you can look it all up. The WSFW call our climbing area ³Old Vantage Highway². Robert has managed this area for over 20 years so he is very knowledgeable about the area and changes that have occurred. When we first started climbing at Vantage (13 years ago), there were only us, Russ Johnson and one or two teams from Seattle on Sunshine Wall on any given weekend. In 1991, the first commercially distributed guide book came out and the number of climbers at Vantage increased a lot. With each successive guide, the numbers of climbers likewise has increased significantly. So, during each of these increases, Robert was there and could see the increasing impact that the climbers were making. In 1997, our Washington State Access Fund representative, Andy Fitz talked with Robert. Robert at that time express concern about the increase impact and that it would help Robert manage the area is a climbing association could be formed. Robert had and still has the vision of a climbing association doing most of the ³climbing management² for him since he has neither the time nor personnel to micro-manage climbing at Vantage. The 1997 meeting impacted us very little and we didnıt know about it until much later. The only thing that happened to us was Andy asked us to install rappel stations on the tops of cliffs to decrease the amount of foot traffic and number of trails on top of the cliffs. Now we role the clock forward to the end of December of 1999. I was informed that a line of bolts had been placed within two feet of Chapstick (5.5) on the tilted pillars at the end of Sunshine wall. I went over there and saw them, soloed Chapstick and decided that these bolts were on top of an established route. The person that had placed the bolts was Kevin Pogue. Now here is a place where there is controversy. Kevin felt and to my knowledge continues to feel that the bolt line was separate from the crack line. I did not and do not agree with this opinion and its one of those things where I believe that Kevin and I will never agree. Since I felt that some one had ³retro-bolted² an established route I chopped the bolts (the only line of bolts I have chopped in 25 years of climbing) and sent Kevin an e-mail informing him of my actions. Several e-mails between us followed with Kevin ultimately threatening to ³write anyone who would listen² in an effort to close Vantage to climbing if I didnıt immediately allow him to either re-retro-bolt the line or claim the first ascent of the crack line. I couldnıt understand how some one would want to claim the first ascent of a line they didnıt do and knew they didnıt do the first ascent of. We settled on my returning his hangers. If you go to the Vantage e-group you will see a message posted by Kevin that he was only trying to ³scare me² into ³proper² action and that he would never have actually carried out his threat. Since I had no idea that Kevin was not serious about his threat, I had been sending copies of the e-mail traffic to Andy so that the Access Fund would be aware of what was going on at Vantage. In January of 2000, Andy arranged a meeting at the restaurant ³George and Marthaıs² in George, Washington. During this meeting, the idea of a climbing association for Vantage was introduced to the group and thus the Frenchman Coulee Climbing Coalition (FCCC) was born. At this time the group (about 12 people that have climbed at Vantage) was told about Andyıs 1997 meeting with Robert and some of the concerns that Robert had. So, you can either give Kevin and I the credit or the blame for precipitating the FCCC. After this meeting the Vantage e-group was created and not a lot happened for several months. If you look at the early messages, the most significant accomplishment for the e-group was a name change from Vantage e-group to Frenchman Coulee e-group. Eventually a draft MOU was posted on the e-group. The only problem that I had with the draft MOU was it was based on the information Andy had from his 1997 meeting. To me, it was quite possible that due to changes in conditions occurring between 1997 and 2000 at Vantage Robert might have other concerns that the MOU wasnıt addressing and some one needed to talk to him. Here comes the next controversy. On my own, I decided to talk to Robert. He is a public official and a very friendly and nice guy so it really wasnıt difficult to get him to meet me out to Vantage and talk. I took time off from my job and met Robert on a Wednesday afternoon in July, 2000 and had a marvelous talk with him. Andyıs description of Robertıs concerns was very accurate with the only difference being that Robert was even more concerned than in 1997. If youıve been climbing at Vantage over the last 5 years, you will have noticed the increase of climbers. On a typical weekend day in the spring or fall there are now between 25 and 60 climbers somewhere on the north side of Echo Basin (the basin that contains Sunshine Wall, etc.) Robert told me that there was significant habitat degradation due to the number of climbers and that he would like to see the number drop to something less than 10 on any day. Before anyone gets stuck on the numbers, I specifically asked Robert about his numbers and to him anything above 20 is ³bad² and anything below 10 is within an acceptable range. When Robert told me this I thought at first that what the problem occurring was the concentration of climbers around such places as Air Guitar, Sunshine Wall, River View Park Wall, etc. So I asked him if spreading out the climbers would help. This is exactly opposite of what he wants. He does NOT want any further expansion of the climbing area. What he then explained is that to certain species of hawks (he named some but I didnıt write the names down) having ³too many² people anywhere in Echo Basin would drive them away. Itıs Robertıs feeling that the number which equals ³too many² is 20 or greater. During this conversation Robert told me that there was an ³Advisory Board² scheduled to tour eastern Washington lands that were administered by WSFW. He expressed concerns to me about his ability to accurately describe climbing at Vantage. At that time, he wasnıt sure if the Advisory Board would visit Vantage or not. I told him that if the Advisory Board wanted to visit Vantage I would be available to talk with them. At the end of the meeting I gave Robert my e-mail address and the address of this web page. I then went home and did an action which at times I have regretted, I told the e-group of my meeting with Robert. I got a lot of shit for being ³aggressive² enough to go talk to a public official. Right now (March 31, 2001), Iım really not sure if it was wise to tell people. But, be that as it may, I did tell the e-group, and got a ration of shit. I did not tell the e-group about the potential meeting with the Advisory Board, I felt at the time that having more than one person there would confuse the Board and it would make the Vantage climbing community appear incoherent thus impossible to engage in management of the climbing. Robert sent me an e-mail message that the visit would happen and in the first week of August, 2000 I showed up to Vantage at 10 AM (yes, I had to take time off from work) expecting to meeting 3 to 6 Advisors. Robert had never said how many people would be on the Advisory Board and I had just assumed a small number. A full sized bus showed up and over 30 people got out. I didnıt know a single person there except for Robert and Robert only introduced me to his boss and later his bossıs boss. No one wore name tags, so I had no idea who these people were. Robert wanted to take them over to the east corner of Sunshine wall (near MF 206ıers). Robert led the way and I took up the rear guard so that no one would get lost. During the walk it was obvious that some of the people were wildlife biologist (one person talked about the different grasses, another talked about local bat species, etc.) while others were administrators. We got everyone down the approach chimney (that was fun), Robertıs boss stood near the boulders below MF 206ıers and said,² This is the Vantage climbing area and we have a local climber to tell us about the history and environmental issues of this climbing area. Take it away, Bill.² I had all of about 15 seconds to prepare what I was going to say. Neither Robert nor any of his bosses had told me what they did or didnıt want said. Thus I launched into a recitation of the climbing history of Vantage as described in the guide books. Then I reached into my pack and pulled out a piton (yes, luckily I had brought ³show and tell² stuff) and explained its use. I then pulled out a #4 Camelot and explained its use. I then pulled out my Bosch gun (yes, I do own one and have used it on lead to place bolts and its what we used to put in our rappel stations) and demonstrated on a small rock how a bolt is placed. All of that took about 15 minutes and at the end I asked if there were any questions. Two people that had some level of familiarity with climbing asked technical questions. They asked about; placing pitons (why we left them and why we use soft iron), chopping bolt routes (why I didnıt unilaterally chop the bolted routes on Sunshine wall. I told them it would only start a ³bolt war² and that without the WSFW requiring the bolts to be removed no unilateral effort by anyone would be effective), and about a ³Bolt Advisory Committee² (I told them that Bolt Advisory Committees had been established at places like Boulder, Colorado and Wichita Mountain in Kansas and that the committees appeared to be effective at managing rappel bolting). We all hiked back to the bus and they left. To this day I donıt know who most of those people were. Robert, his boss and his bossıs boss all thanked me for taking the time to talk to the committee and that I had made a ³positive² impression on the committee in regards to climbing at Vantage. The bus departed about 11 AM, afterwards I went back to breathing. I then went home and reported on the meeting to the e-group. Can we say, ³Double ration of shit?² Sure you can, try (all said in Mr. Rogerıs voice). If you want to read some truly ³interesting² e-mail, read the post meeting e-mail on the e-group. But time wounds all heals (or something like that) and we moved on. The FCCC has had two meeting since last summer and is now a real organization (YAH!!!!). At the end of February, two people from the FCCC and Andy Fitz from the Access Fund met with Robert and had a good discussion. From what I am told, Robert is pleased that a real organization exist. Now we have to wait for the draft Management Plan. Robert told me that he had planned to release the draft by the end of March but since it hasnıt shown up yet that didnıt happen. I hope that it is released soon. Robert also told me that he plans to have a 3 to 4 month ³comment² period during which he will be accepting written comments. Hopefully, this all will go smoothly and by the end of 2001 we will have a climbing management plan for Vantage. So, that is what has happened out to Vantage over the past 1 1/2 years.