Visitors to Moab’s Big Bend Bouldering Area on Saturday noticed something unusual. Someone had smeared petroleum-based grease on the holds of multiple boulder problems.
The story gained traction over the weekend via social media broadcasting by Moab locals like pro climber Steph Davis. Davis’s post shows the vandalized condition of the boulders, and a later edit posits the theory that someone familiar with the area, and the specific problems and moves, committed it.
“[P]lease note that all the affected holds are on specific eliminate problems, while other nearby holds on the same boulder were not greased,” the post reads. “These sequences and selected holds would not be clear whatsoever to someone not familiar with which holds are on which specific problems.”
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However, the boulders’ acutely high-traffic location makes them visible to virtually anyone who drives past. Located right off State Highway 128, the group sits alongside the Colorado River near the Big Bend Campground.
The juxtaposition means that a theory virtually opposite of Davis’s is equally plausible: that a disgruntled nonclimber vandalized the blocks as an easy target.
Greased Boulder: Moab Climbing Sabotage
Moab’s long history of overlapping interest groups underscores what promises to be a tangled investigation.
Chris Schulte serves on the board of directors for nonprofit climbing advocacy group Friends of Indian Creek, and he has climbed prolifically in Moab and Indian Creek. He spoke to the issue’s complexity after receiving a wide array of messages via his own social media coverage of the incident.