GCC Completes Land Stewardship Project at Peter’s Kill Climbing Area

In April, the GCC under the guidance of Minnewaska Park Ranger Jorge Gomez, took a first important step toward stabilizing the footprint of Peter’s Kill’s over-loved Bunkbed crag.

A crag with a short approach from the parking lot and a wide range of easy to difficult climbs with ready foot access to the top for setting up TR lines, the Bunkbed area is one of the busiest in Peter’s Kill.

In addition to independent climbers, the crag is also a favorite for guides shepherding groups of climbers from summer camp-goers to adaptive climbers.

In a word, the Bunkbed crag is (for good reasons) over-loved, leaving the ground along its base over-used and abused from the constant foot traffic.

Ethan Ladof looking down the eroded slope before improvements.

Much stewardship work needs to be done there to improve the access trail and mitigate extensive soil erosion issues, but as an important start GCC member Ethan Ladof and GCC board member Matt Logan improved the steep and eroding, tree-root entangled slope on the crag’s left side by building a stone stair right at the base of the rock face. Both Ethan and Matt are also volunteers at the Mohonk Preserve on the Climbers Trail crew, so they were able to make short work of the project.

The new rock steps down the eroded slope.

In order to ensure the fragile forest slope that has seen too much foot traffic over the years has a chance to recover, Ethan and Matt also cordoned off the area with cedar logs staked into the ground with rebar rods and rope lines at waist height to indicate where the new no-go area is.

Looking down at the new steps on the right and the roped off area.

This work was done as part of the GCC’s ongoing commitment to keeping the Peter’s Kill climbing area in a safe and ecologically sustainable manner.