Arch ascent was all about the climber

By Ray Grass
Deseret Morning News
Published: Wednesday, May 17, 2006 3:30 p.m. MDT
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I've received a number of e-mails and one phone call concerning the climb up Delicate Arch by Dean Potter last week. None favorable.

Ignoring rules in place to protect Utah's most recognized icon, he climbed Delicate Arch in Arches National Park not once, but several times, shot photos and then stood back and waited for the applause.

When the angry calls and complaints from the public and from within the climbing community started to pour in, Potter and his sponsor, the outdoor-gear company Patagonia, pulled back. Patagonia stopped calling media resources seeking publicity for the stunt, and suddenly Potter professed ignorance. He didn't read the rules.

Now that I have a hard time believing.

He claimed he'd been planning this climb for 12 years. In that time he never thought to check climbing regulations within the national park? This, now, from a world-class climber and part-time Moab resident who would no doubt check regulations were he to climb another country's national treasure.

The rules were clear and precise and easily available: No climbing named bridges and arches.

Within those 12 years he never thought to ask climbing companions in Moab about climbing the arch or ask why none had?

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He chose to climb in the wee hours on a Sunday, a time he knew detection would be less likely. By all accounts he kept his plans secret, even from other climbers. Several have expressed disappointment in Potter's climb and certainly would have told him so had they known.

He claimed he talked with park rangers. About what? The flora and fauna? Certainly it wasn't about climbing.

Potter climbed for one reason: personal indulgence. Oh yes, and publicity. His actions, before and after, show he cared little about the arch or the concerns people have for its preservation and protection. It was all about Potter.

Even now he shows no remorse. He defiantly says, "I'm not sorry," then tried to justify it by likening it to just another rock, even though he coveted the arch for 12 years. Then Patagonia comes out in support, saying it prefers to deal with people like Potter who don't go "by the book." Meaning what, it encourages its ambassadors to violate, in this case, the intent of the law to preserve a national treasure?

Potter said he didn't hurt the arch, "so what's the big deal?"

He did. Forget the scuff marks on rocks from his shoes and ropes. He hurt Delicate Arch in the very way park officials were trying to protect it — from climbers.

Do you think for a minute that his climb and comments to the media about this being his "most beautiful climb," and that the arch was "vibrating with energy," aren't going to entice others to sneak in before the light of day and climb?

As Potter found, the National Park Service does not have the money or the manpower to protect the arch 24-7.

But, if Potter and Patagonia think they can sell this to magazines and newspapers, and blow up life-size posters of the climbing ambassador atop the arch, and claim to the world that he is the one and only, they're wrong.

I have been told by a very reliable and respected source that it was free climbed earlier by a climber who chose to keep it a personal experience as opposed to a media event.

E-mail: grass@desnews.com

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