Scaling the rock

Climbing on the Brac is rated highly by enthusiasts.

Sixty-year old vacationer Inez Drixelius climbs the Bluff
Photos by Lawson Wood

Friday,  July 22, 2005

In 1994, an avid rock climber from the US flew over Cayman Brac and instantly recognized the Bluff as an ideal limestone cliff face for this fast growing worldwide sport.

Skip Harper’s chance discovery has lead to a steady trickle of climbing enthusiasts ever since, but the opportunities to expand Cayman Brac’s tourism have not been taken advantage of by the Department of Tourism (DoT), and ignored by successive Tourism Ministers.

“I have, on three occasions, put together what I would consider decent Masters theses on climbing on Cayman Brac,” Mr Harper told Cayman Net News.

“These were complete presentation packages, including climbing photos, route guides, maps and graphics, textual descriptions, testimonials from climbers of international repute who had climbed there, estimates of climbers per year, and full legal analyses as far as I could take it, including references from lawyers who climb and are active in the field.

“Each time I was told that it was just a matter of time until the Government allocates money to support this effort.”

The last presentation package that Mr Harper gave to DoT was particularly detailed, he said, and added that he was told it went straight to the desk of Lania Rittenhouse, then Director of Tourism, and her staff.

“The fact is, I took it personally to her office and presented it. It must have weighed two pounds or more! I also worked with one of Ms Rittenhouse’s photographers, sending several shots of climbing and climbing areas.”

The whole process came to nothing, and the DoT continues to drag its feet on promoting this increasingly popular sport, with huge potential on one of the Cayman Islands. Mr Harper is loath to embark on another round of information gathering.

“Surely the material that I have previously sent must be around somewhere!” he said. Meanwhile, other destinations are beginning to tap into the rock climbing market, and the ten year lag that the DoT has allowed might cost the Caymans dear.

Mr Harper has been to Saba and St Maarten to survey for climbing at the invitation of the Government, and has been asked to survey a private climbing reserve in Thailand.

“There is definite potential for climbing and caving on Saba, and I submitted a detailed plan as to how to develop it. Bonaire is now boasting climbing, as is St. John. St. Eustacius is another place it could easily happen.”

Mr Harper first went to Cuba in 1997 and returned a year later to put up the first routes. Since then, the island’s rock climbing “has grown like crazy”, he said.

“Thailand is now a major climbing destination - they flock there by the hundreds, if not thousands. None of these places has the attractions that the Brac has, all compressed into such a little area. It is a marketable phenomenon. I still believe this one hundred percent.”

An article by Mr Harper and Craig Luebben in the leading US climbing magazine Rock and Ice set the ball rolling in September 1995, and introduced Cayman Brac to the climbing world.

Mr Harper wrote a second article about climbing the Bluff, which appeared in the December 1997 issue. He is also the author of Adventuring on Cayman Brac, a guide to great adventures on this small Caribbean Gem, a travel guidebook with a comprehensive chapter on climbing the Bluff.

“Adventure travel, including climbing, just continues to grow. The Brac has three big things going for it: the climbing which is definitely world class, the diving which is unsurpassed, and all the other features available on the island, such as caves, birding and hiking, that can all be taken advantage of.

“I can’t help but recall that quote in one of the books on the Caymans that went something like ‘You can do everything there is to do on Cayman Brac in a day.’ Oh, my! How wrong can someone be!”

Once they discovered Cayman Brac, climbing enthusiasts mapped out a number of routes on the Bluff, and these were marked by stainless steel bolts driven into the side of the cliff. Climbers go from one bolt to the next, making this a much safer sport than it might appear.

The original bolts that were used, however, couldn’t stand up to the harsh marine environment on the Brac. So, in November of 2000, a small team of people blitzed the island with new titanium bolts, developed specifically for marine environments. These should provide safe climbing for decades to come.

John Byrnes, who is part owner of Bluff View House, a small guest cottage for rock climbers on the south east coast of Cayman Brac, said there are 46 re-bolted routes of every grade at 7 areas.

Some of the routes are now avoided because they are too close to Booby Bird nesting areas. However, Mr Byrnes claims there are about 20 more routes that could be re-bolted, and plenty of new routes that could be developed.

Everything is in place for the growth of rock climbing on the island as far as infrastructure, he said.

“Climbers don’t need anything special besides the climbs themselves. That being said, a few more climbs would be an advantage.” Rock climbing’s contribution to the growth of tourism could be significant with a bit of promotion, he believed.

New, easier routes are possible, but they will never be plentiful because of the way the rock is formed.

“This is not a problem for experienced climbers, only for the divers that want to climb on their decompression day. For these people, some easy climbs could be built on an artificial climbing wall at the resorts,” he thought.

Mr Byrnes pointed out that every cruise ship has an artificial climbing wall and there is a climbing gym in almost every US city with a population of 100,000 or more.

Mr Harper concluded, “I believe completely in climbing on the Brac. If done right, it would be nothing but addictive.”

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