Remember the Tetons

Friday, December 18, 2009

By Henry Sweets

Jackson Hole, Wyo.-The Teton Boulder Project, a rock climbing park and climbers’ memorial proposed for the base of Snow King, has seen a creative overhaul and fundraising success since August, when the organizers behind it took the idea public.

Spirits are high among the planning team, who faced a $300,000 price tag and a bevy of unknowns when the project was proposed, spokesman Dave Simpson said. Now the group has raised $41,000, and a new schematic design expected to be unveiled next week has grown the project from a few boulders at the base of Snow King to a public park that offers something for non-climbers as well. It has also nearly doubled in size.

“Originally there was going to be a big wall - a 60 foot wall - that was going to be a bouldering traverse wall in addition to a couple of boulders out in the field,” Simpson said. “The wall is gone, and instead we are hoping to do between two and five boulders and the embankment is going to become an amphitheatre, if you will, with places to sit on the hillside and look down on boulders, a place to watch people being active and integrate the climbing with the historical and educational elements.”

The shift from a climbing park to a public space that features rock climbing could be reflective of a larger movement for public art, or artful public spaces, that is evident in the acceptance of public art into the town/county Comp Plan update, and in the library and airport expansions.

But the park itself will certainly be the first thing of its kind in Teton County.
After a September fundraiser featuring major climbing figures brought the project to the attention of the community, Jackson architect Nona Yehia, of the award-winning firm E/Ye, was hired to integrate the physical, memorial and historical elements into a space that can be enjoyed by people who don’t rock climb. It can also serve as a community gathering spot that also happens to educate visitors about a sport that has shaped this community, and how this community has influenced the sport.

“It is a very physical place because of the bouldering park, but since it’s a memorial it also has to be a very cerebral and private place so you can go and remember someone you lost,” Yehia said.

An amphitheatre will be composed mostly of sod, gravel, larger rocks and some concrete, Yehia said, and it will flow the length of the park on the hill that now separates Phil Baux park from the Snow King Ice Arena, on the south side of the proposed climbing park. It will have places to sit and landscaping of native ornamental grasses and other plants that will reflect the changing seasons.

The memorial space was patterned after “The Enclosure,” a circle of rocks located on top of a breathtaking peak near the Grand Teton that are believed to be placed there by Native Americans for a sacred ritual, although the exact use and purpose of the rocks is still shrouded in mystery.

“Whenever I talk to anyone about ‘The Enclosure’ they talk about what a sacred space it is,” Yehia said. “How it’s remained the same for hundreds of years and how much of a special place that is, and I think we kind of latched on to that energy, and the memorial is going to be kind of a modern version of ‘The Enclosure.’ It’s not an exact replica ... but kind of takes the formal elements of ‘The Enclosure’ so that you’re in the park in a large sense, but in this very more intimate space when you’re in this circle.”

A request for proposal has been issued to several companies that specialize in constructing synthetic boulders, and a team of local climbers headed by Hans Johnstone have dedicated themselves to making sure the product provides world class climbing, ranging from 5.4 to 5.14 skill levels.

“The goal is to make it the most innovative and best climbing of its kind,” Simpson said.
The budget of $300,000 will limit the number of boulders to between three and five, which will become more clear in the coming weeks.

Yehia said that local artist Ben Roth, and perhaps others, will help bring the schematic plans for the historical and memorial components into reality in a way appropriate for the Jackson Hole community.

More fundraising events are planned for the future. JHW

Courtesy E/Ye design
A computer-generated image of the proposed memorial climbing park.

PERMALINK:
Remember the Tetons | Planet JH News Article: General News

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