February Monthly Meeting Minutes 2010

PATC – Mountaineering Section Meeting Minutes
January 13, 2010
Approximately 14 in attendance
Court Zabel, Chairman
Current Members: 69
New Members: 4
Members Missing Liability Waivers: 16

The Chair opened the meeting by outlining his goals for the club in
the upcoming year. He presented the following goals to the membership
for 2010:
Expanding upon the Objectives outlined in the club’s constitution, the
2010 Excom has the following goals for this year:
1. To foster camaraderie among members & encourage climbers to expand
their circle of partners throughout PATC-MS
2. To reach out to the local climbing community & improve the
recognition of PATC-MS
3. To serve the climbing community through community service
4. To encourage the sharing of knowledge and techniques

Coordinators
Family Events: Solicits, coordinates, and organizes events geared
towards helping families enjoy climbing together.
Community Service: Solicits, coordinates, and organizes events geared
towards giving back to the climbing community. Maintains contact with
other volunteer organizations and encourages member participation in
volunteer activities.
Oral History: Works to document the history of the PATC-MS.


Old Business
• LSM anchor project—no news status is ongoing.
• Chris Warner has agreed to a presentation for the Section at the
National Cathedral School for March 18th. The show will be on climbing
8000m peaks. There is no direct cost for the Section other than
advertising. The club is looking for assistance in getting flyers
distributed. Check the website for PDF versions of the flyers that
members can print up and post. The club is also looking for help
posting a limited number of color and black and white posters in
climbing gyms and outdoor stores.
• Glen Denny show is March 24th at Georgetown University. Membership
is asked to continue to spread the word.
• Luciano Lima reported that the DAKS Big House Trip was a success. He
shared that there was fun and camaraderie to spare. He went on to say
how grateful he was for the membership’s generosity and patience.
Before the trip Luciano put out a request to borrow ice tools and
promptly received four offers. Members were also very patient as they
demonstrated rappelling from a V-Thread for Luciano since it was his
first time to rappel and only his second time climbing outdoors.
• Update on Great Falls and the NPS Workshop on Cliff Research:
Several club members attended the presentation given by scientists
about the existence of rare plant species and the impact of visitors
on them in the Gorge. Lora Polowczuk and Jeanette Helfrich gave an
overview of the results that were presented. Jeanette has posted a
link on the list serve for members interested in reading more about
the results of the research being done by Jeff Marion and his group.
Key points that were presented were: Most of the damage being done to
the plants is because of informal trails created by visitors not
staying on the formal trails. How often do we as climbers leave the
trails to set-up top ropes or to find the walk-downs to some of the
climbs? In general the scientists found little evidence that the top
rope set-ups themselves are damaging trees and other plants.
Membership felt good about the scientists and their outlook on
climbers using the park but felt that the NPS may not be so
understanding of our park use. Some members felt that while the report
states that climbers are not doing the majority of the damage
nonetheless because we are the least understood by the NPS we may
eventually end up being scapegoated. We as climbers will need to make
sure we are represented when it comes time to develop the Climbing
Management Plan.
• Mike Dannhardt reported that the New Trad Climbing Guidebook is
progressing. The section on Buzzard is finished and a Long Mountain
PDF file may be coming out on the website in the next couple months. A
link to an excellent blog guide to Old Rag was also recently added to
the website.
• Two pairs of BD stainless steel Saber tooth crampons were bought
last month.
• Jeanette Helfrich updated the club on the Oral History Project. She
shared that she and John Christian have collected 90% of the UpRopes
and are now having them scanned. Jenny O’Brien is working on the
details of scanning these volumes. Eventually the volumes would be
indexed and made publicly available. The next step is to begin
interviewing people and collecting stories.

Motions Voted On (Yes – No – Abstain)
• There were no motions to be voted on.


New Business
• There are a lot of trees down in Great Falls Park. It was proposed
that the club look into working with PATC to put together some work
crews to help clean the park up.
• A member suggested that the club look into adding information or a
sign to the climber’s sign-ins in Great Falls about staying on the
established trails to help address the informal trail networks.
• John Christian is trying to get Carderock declared a historical
site.

Motions
• Christina Cox proposed a motion to renew the SPI reimbursement
program for the first six climbers that complete the course annually
to help pay for the assessment fee. The motion was seconded and moved.
• Jenny O’Brien proposed a motion that the club purchase some ice
tools. The motion was seconded and moved.

Slide show and Trip Report
In place of the slide show or trip report there was a brief “show and
tell” by some of the ice climbers that were present at the meeting
about their equipment. Thanks to all the ice climbers that were
willing to take the chance and show us whether or not they were going
leashed or leashless.