Icypeak
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 p.1 #1 · Protecting the sandstone - A Hoodoo How-To | |
Fellow nature/landscape photographers,
It's been pointed out to me by a friend that my recent contributions to the forum, which include images of Bart, Deb, and I perched at various places in Coyote Buttes while composing photos, might potentially have an undesired consequence. Many of the amazing sandstone locations that are prized for their photographic beauty in Southern Utah and Arizona in particular, are incredibly fragile and easily and permanently altered or damaged by either the careless footsteps of a single person, or wear and tear in small increments by large numbers of visitors. The amount of people who are going to these locations has rapidly grown over the past few years, both because of the sharing of information and locations on the web and in newer guide books, and also the removal of navigational difficulties with the availability of good maps, Google Earth, and GPS units.
I have personally seen the effect of the increased damage and destruction to some amazing sandstone features, with toppling of capstones on hoodoos or the entire hoodoo, fracturing of delicate fins and ridges, black scuffs on slot canyon walls from hiking boots and tripod feet, and erosion of fragile soils. I would hate to think that by sharing my images, I was contributing to the perception that scrambling anywhere we please in these areas for the sake of a photo we are after was acceptable behavior, and hope to share a few pointers to consider while traveling in the American Southwest:
1) Be aware of your feet at all times! Don't step or climb on thin, breakable fins and ridges of rock. Look for alternate routes around these areas on hard, solid stone. If you must cross or ascend areas with thicker, but potentially breakable ledges, step with your feet sideways, not straight-on, landing on the whole foot at once rather than just the toe, and placing each step towards the back, thicker part of each ridge, rather than on the thinner, breakable, edge. Avoid even these if wet.
2) If scrambling or doing chimney moves in slot canyons or steep slickrock, I'd suggest not wearing 'approach shoes' with soft sticky climbing rubber, which tend to leave black scuff marks on the walls. These may be necessary for technical canyoneering however. Avoid scrambling on rock steep enough that you might have to 'slide down' on the descent, and avoid sliding or dragging the rubber feet of your tripod on rock walls.
3) Learn to recognize 'cryptobiotic soil', dirt which has a lumpy/bumpy surface created by colonies of micro-organisms that prevent erosion and take decades to hundreds of years to regenerate if stepped on. If a short crossing of such soil is absolutely necessary, look for old human or cattle tracks to step in, and follow each other's tracks, making as few new ones as possible.
4) While many of us do hike into locations in the dark before sunrise, unless you are very familiar with the area you're in, I'd suggest not entering potentially fragile areas until there's enough light to see what you're stepping on without the headlamp, which tends to blur shadows and details.
5) If you come across people who may not be familiar with how to travel in this type of environment without causing damage, try to politely educate them.
I hope that we all can continue to enjoy the freedom of exploring these areas without tight regulation, loss of access, or even worse, destruction of the very thing we are striving to capture in our images, by 'loving them to death'.
Sincerely,
-David Fantle (Icypeak)
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