On 1/20/2010 11:58 AM, Matthew Kulas wrote: > I'll keep climbers in it. Their impacts are both physical, such as > the degradation of the rock and associated slopes and in terms of > wildness. You can't tell me that North Conway's Cathedral Ledge is > the same as it was 30 or 40 years ago, or that their is no difference > between climbing at Rumney and some remote spire in Wrangell/St. > Elias. > Climbers' damage is mostly incidental and a side effect of a few footprints. Skiers' damage? Well in the West it's one thing. In the East it's another: willfull epar and plunder of the natural environment. The mass alteration of the environment on entire mountain faces, and a solipsistic, self-serving denial that this is even a problem (which has originated from you, explicitly, in fact), coupled with a bizarrely pious point of view that if we merely maintain the status quo of secrecy, our souls will be slightly cleaner. You'd do well to substitute your outrospection with introspection. N - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - SkiVt-L is brought to you by the University of Vermont. To unsubscribe, visit http://list.uvm.edu/archives/skivt-l.html