Comment from Roth, Samuel

I support Wilderness. I also support climbing in Wilderness. Because rock cliffs are often contained within Wilderness areas, climbing and Wilderness often coincide. Discrete, sparing anchor placement on Wilderness cliffs is a very low and reversible impact on the Wilderness. I would compare the impact of anchors to trail signs or tent pegs in the ground. I also support regulations preventing over bolting, sometimes referred to as "sport routes" in the Wilderness. Sport routes create a climbing gym like route, which is not desirable or appropriate for a Wilderness experience. I appreciate that the policy protects existing climbing routes that were developed before the PARC Act was passed into law. Legacy Wilderness climbs should remain available in order to preserve America’s rich climbing legacy. I have experienced terrifyingly dangerous situations being forced to rappel off of old anchors that were in imminent danger of falling out of the rock and sending me plummetting to my death or remain on a ledge to die of exposure. Replacing an anchor usually involves putting a new slighly larger bolt into the existing 1/4-inch hole in the rock, which results in almost no new impact to the Wilderness. A rescue or recovery operation to pick up the mangled body from a fallen climber creates far more impact to the Wilderness.