Someone Covered Climbing Holds in Moab in Petroleum-Based Grease
There's a reward for any information about the incident
Someone smeared grease on climbing holds of popular boulders in the Big Bend Bouldering Area in February. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is offering up to $1,000 for information leading to the identification and conviction of those responsible.
Pro climber Steph Davis was in the area and posted a video of the holds on social media, saying, “[P]lease note that all the affected holds are on specific eliminate problems, while other nearby holds on the same boulder were not greased. These sequences and selected holds would not be clear whatsoever to someone not familiar with which holds are on which specific problems.”
It’s been proposed by Chris Schulte, board member for the nonprofit climbing advocacy group Friends of Indian Creek, that it wasn’t climbers: ““Ninety-percent of the comments or messages I’ve seen have been like ‘it has to be a climber.’ But any person would have to be pretty oblivious to not realize that there’s chalk on these boulders as soon as you stepped out of the car at Big Bend.” Read more here.
The BLM was notified that petroleum-based grease was smeared on the climbing holds at the area north of Moab along the Colorado River in Grand County.
“It is up to each of us to help keep public lands safe and clean for future generations,” said BLM Moab Field Manager Nicollee Gaddis-Wyatt.
“Our employees are out on public lands every day, cleaning bathrooms, maintaining trails, and engaging with the visitors. Even so, we don’t see everything. When incidents occur, we appreciate the public’s help in reporting information to the BLM’s law enforcement team.”
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