The Annual Rifle Cleanup

On the 21st of August, local climbers organised the annual Rifle Cleanup.

The day consisted of various work tasks, undertaken by a host of volunteers. I have never been part of such a successful crag clean up before. There would have been at least five bolting teams undertaking rebolting and fixing of old routes. I teamed up with Joey Kinder and we got four routes fixed in just a few hours. In all, about 30 routes got fixed on the day! New bolts, new anchors, new permadraws. Beautiful to see :)

What was really stunning was the degree of support from the sponsors. We had literally thousands of dollars of Petzl, CAMP and ClimbTech hardware in big boxes for the taking. All to improve the state of the routes at Rifle. As Joe said as he stuffed his pockets with free bolts "It's like Christmas man!" And, like Christmas, this happens every year!

Not only routes got the treatment. A posse of chainsaw wielding maniacs went ballistic on some huge fallen pines and created ten (yes, ten!) benches for crag comfort.

That night, there was a big climber party with food and drink and prizes. There was perhaps 100 people at the party and everyone got a prize. The calibre of the prize givaway was better than the prizes at major Australian climbing competitions. And Lynn Hill was there. What more could you want?

Let's face it, they know how to do this stuff PROPER in the USA.

BJ Sbarra's excellent site SplitterChoss has a great write-up of the event, including all the routes fixed. Joe's blog contains a bunch more pics.
 
I was pretty psyched to be a part of this event.

It's like Christmas man! -- Joe Kinder getting his bling on

Boxes and boxes of goodies! Thanks sponsors!

Sweet permadraws from ClimbTech

Ready to go!

New benches for your comfort

Me showing 'em how we do things Down Under. Rebolting Forgotten Years 5.11d.

From bad to good - Joe in action!

Me supervising as Joe hooks up his first glue-ins ever. BOMBER! Glue-ins are the future, get on board.

Check the wear on this biner

Not super inspring!! Needless to say this was replaced.

Joe is the man

Climbers gather for food, beer and prizes. Spot Lynn Hill if you can.