How to Re-open a Crag; the Corps Wall Story
By Rob Sullivan
The Corps Wall on Hanging Mountain, which the WMCC just reopened after a three year closure, is indeed a special place: it features some of the finest rock in the park in a picturesques and self-contained setting.
The direct approach to this crag – newly updated by WMCC volunteers – steers a climber up through a steep talus field under a dense canopy of hardwoods with a relatively clear understory. The rich soil surrounding the trail produces vibrant spring flowers like Pink Lady’s Slippers and Red Trillium while each step releases the perfume of wild ramps, which locals will often gather. A climber will reach the cliff breathless in every sense of the word. The rock itself, bone white and bullet hard, lay a dozen feet or so from the mouth of the trail and looms steeper and taller than it is, equal parts exciting and intimidating.
Climbers have been visiting this northernmost shoulder of Hanging Mountain intermittently for decades, at least since the 1960’s. Not only is this crag well consolidated and dense, but it is close to Route 8, and it remains the only part of the mountain on public land. It was taken by the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) through eminent domain; this parcel immediately abuts the Farmington River, and USACE maintains flood control in this watershed. The crag takes its name from this federal institution of engineers tasked with “building and maintaining America’s infrastructure” and is pronounced with a silent “p” as in apple CORE.
While climbing on the rest of the Hanging Mountain was closed, at the insistence of the private landowner, the latest wave of climber-developers (myself included) told themselves the Corps Wall was public land, and therefore open season, despite the fact that the USACE clearly forbade climbing. This type of under-the-radar-climbing, all too common in Western Mass climbing lore, is less than ideal: not only does it serve to shrink the community, but it can complicate both the development of necessary infrastructure (i.e. bolts, sustainable trails, guidebooks) and long-term access. In fact, access is sometimes jeopardized by such unilateral behavior; however, most of the iconic climbs in Western Mass, indeed most of the climbs period, were put up under just these conditions. This dynamic represents something of a paradox.
Eminent Domain, a .12a at the Corps Wall, is no exception. This obvious line starts on the far left side of the crag, and winds its way through engaging and sustained climbing on about 80 feet of impeccable, gorgeous rock. Climbers compress and layback up a pillar to a slab (with the only no-hands rest), then undercling and traverse through a series of big moves on good holds. After a hidden knee-bar rest at the approximate midpoint, a climber needs to stem and layback an imposing and strenuous dihedral before confronting a final boulder problem just before the anchor. Eminent Domain, like the cliff itself, is equal parts exciting and intimidating. I bolted and led this route before the WMCC purchased the 14 acres of Hanging Mountain not owned by USACE, but I was not the first climber on the route.
A local Great Barrington climber (who would prefer to remain anonymous) put in Eminent Domain’s anchor- along with a handful of others scattered across HM – years ago, and he and a couple of friends had been quietly using Hanging Mountain as a top rope crag. They left “lazy lines” of thin nautical string through the anchors. When one wanted to climb, they would tie a climbing rope to one end of the “lazy line” and carefully draw the rope up through the anchors. At the end of the day, they simply pulled their rope and left the lines behind.
The Corps Wall begged for face bolts. The clifftop is a terrifying maze of sloping ledges, stunted trees, and rotting leaves while the approach to the top is a long, circuitous and dangerous slog. The lazy lines were unsightly and more than a little unsafe: a top-roper only knew if the rope was threaded correctly when they arrived at the top. Additionally, the WMCC’s posture on face bolts has long been firmly anchored in environmental preservation. Ground up ascents reduce the impact of climbers by reducing the foot traffic and other factors associated with hiking to the top of a cliff and setting a top rope. Visit Ragged Mountain in Connecticut to see the effects of a bolting moratorium: soil erosion and concomitant vegetation loss are significant, despite the Ragged Mountain Foundation’s heroic efforts to combat it. Furthermore, face bolts reduce the amount of trail construction and attendant maintenance.
So we bolted the crag. Some lines were new routes; others were re-equipped, existing lines. When I say we, I mean Ryan Stefiuk, Dolci Mascolo, Chris Beauchamp, Jeff Squire, Tim Murdock and myself. We updated the crumbling cliffside trail with hardened belay platforms and a downright medieval stone staircase, which Jon LaValley designed. I chose the name – Eminent Domain – as a nod in several directions: first, to the history of the USACE’s involvement, second as an admission that this climb was once someone else’s project, and third as a signal that the professionals were now taking over. That last reason – a boast, really – would prove a bit premature.
Jeff and I soon approached the private landowner, and we began discussing a sale of Hanging Mountain (HM). Until finally, the WMCC, together with the Ragged Mountain Foundation (RMF) and the Access Fund (AF), negotiated a purchase of that 14 acre parcel. The RMF split the cost with us and the AF financed the loan; both remain invaluable partners. Right after we signed the papers, the pandemic hit. And while we expected the worst, Covid focused everyone’s attention just as it cleared everyone’s schedule. Yet another paradox in this story. Over the course of 18 months, a growing core of WMCC volunteers carved a brand new, climber-owned destination area from essentially nothing.
The institution seemed to swell from the effort. The fundraising, the driveway, trailwork, the rockfall, the MESA review, the falcons, the ferns and the fire department all injected energy into, rather than siphon energy from, the WMCC. We elected nearly an entire new board and established relationships with new institutions; membership and our reputation rose. Today, the WMCC has a paid employee, long range goals and an operating reserve. This is indeed a long way from a half a dozen friends meeting in my living room.
We officially opened Hanging Mountain to the public in October of 2021 simply by publishing a free guidebook to the area and taking down the chain across the driveway. Climbers quickly filled up the new parking lot with license plates from Connecticut, New York, Massachusetts and beyond. Within a few days the USACE reached out to us and told us that they needed to shut down climbing at the Corps Wall, saying that our guide “advertised” unsanctioned climbing on USACE land. This was absolutely true and not without a certain amount of irony: all our efforts had served to reverse the access situation. Before we bought Hanging Mountain, climbing was unofficially possible on Corps land, but closed on the rest of the mountain; once we had officially opened, climbers could climb everywhere except USACE property. Furthermore, if USACE had never used eminent domain and taken that northern shoulder of the mountain, we could have purchased it from the private landowner, but would we have even climbed there at all, since there would not have been a toe-hold of under-the-radar-climbing ostensibly public land? Paradoxes abound.
Jon LaValley and I immediately met with two representatives from USACE to discuss the closure. We chatted as we toured HM: we found them to be competent, cordial professionals tasked with implementing their institution’s policy. And although they were deeply impressed with what we had created – especially our trailwork – they reaffirmed the need to close the Corp Wall to climbing. They knew very little about rock climbing, but like most land managers, immediately apprehended the potential danger of rock climbing. Furthermore, USACE official policy forbade climbing on the property. In fact, these folks could find no USACE property in the Northeast that had any relationship with climbers. At one point they drew an analogy between climbing at Corps and swimming at the reservoir: people can drown in a reservoir where the level changes rapidly, so they simply ban swimming as a means of policing this; climbing can also lead to death, so they want to ensure that no one climbs here. Then they pointed out that USACE does allow boating on the water and both hiking and hunting where we were standing. Essentially, what he was saying is that there is a way to resume climbing, if we go through the bureaucracy. We apologized for violating their policy and pledged our cooperation in enforcing the ban. In turn, they promised to help us submit a “Formal Request” to the USACE’s Real Estate Division to use the Corps Wall.
At this point, a pair of bashful climbers quietly descended the medieval steps, dropped packs below Eminent Domain and started flaking a rope. The USACE folks asked us if we wanted them to take care of this, or would we. I said we would. Jon walked over and had a quick word with them, and the climbers immediately evaporated. This was both a potent symbol of climber cooperation and an apt punctuation mark for the discussion.
The WMCC immediately posted signs at HM and messages on social media closing the Corps Wall and asking for cooperation from climbers. The Access Fund sent us a climbing management plan for Summersville Lake in West Virginia, a USACE property, which we forwarded to our USACE contacts. The joint committee of WMCC and RMF folks who help run Hanging Mountain proofread the USACE paperwork I prepared, we submitted it and waited. Every two months I would send out a cordial email or phone call, practicing what one AF official called “persistent patience.”
About 24 months later, we had our answer: yes! Climbers can resume using this USACE property for technical rock climbing. The WMCC had to first inspect the existing anchors, reroute the central approach trail and repair existing trails, but then we co reopen the crag to the public. And so, three years after we had opened the first climber-owned area in southern New England – only to immediately lose access to one of the best individual crags – we can finally declare all of Hanging Mountain open to rock climbing. And at the same time, we have negotiated the first climbing agreement on USACE property in the Northeast. Hopefully, this deal will help other climbing advocates working throughout the region.
And as I re-read what I have written, the English teacher in me winces at the paragraphs pock-marked by acronyms, but I don’t edit them out. All of them – from USACE to WMMC to RMF to AF – signals the massive role institutions have played in all this land conservation. And I haven’t even mentioned MassWildlife or the town of Sandisfield or the various emergency service organizations. Recreation today – in fact most activities today – are mediated by or through institutions, not through individuals. The various government entities, corporations, and nonprofits that educate and feed us, protect and heal us, provide energy, information and infrastructure of all kinds, shape 21st Century life, for good or ill. In fact, I think the best thing we can leave to the next generation is healthy institutions.
While many of these institutions seem broken or captured or indifferent or worse, the WMCC is strong, healthy and effective. The Western Mass Climbers’ Coalition is your institution. Many folks think the WMCC represents Western Mass climbing areas, and in many ways we do, but who we really work for is said plainly in our name: we represent people who climb at the Western Mass climbing areas. You don’t have to live here, you don’t have to volunteer all the time, you don’t have to give tons of money, you just have to like climbing here and help out when you can
