Yosemite: Spray Paint in the Gunsight (!)

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Zander

Trad climber

Berkeley

Oct 7, 2006 - 12:50pm PT

My buddy Bob decided that it was a climbers job to clean up the Gunsight. Not wanting him to go without a belay his wife Dawn and I went along. We were joined by Keith from YOSAR. Sure enough, at the first steep section, there were the dayglo pink dots. We used Ken and Dirt's magic cleaner. We tried spraying it on, leaving it for a while, and blasting it with water. Didn't work. In the end we used the spray and a wire brush with plenty of rinsing with water. Got them all. The cleaned areas do not stand out at all. Since we had only one wire brush we had time to climb around and check out the Gunsight and to BS and tell stories. A casual and fun day.
The Gunsight doesn't quite have the Tolkienesque quality of the Middle/Higher Cathedral gully but it is a cool place and climb. I think the dots were put there by canyoneering types who thought it would be helpful. I've read a Gunsight climb description on one of the canyoneering websites and it fits that vibe. I took some pictures which I'll try to post later.
See ya on the rock.
Zander

Mighty Hiker

Social climber

Vancouver, B.C.

Oct 7, 2006 - 01:31pm PT

Thanks for the effort! A great help with the facelift. It would be fair if every kilogram of water, cleaner, brushes etc you carried up counted in the total "booty" for the facelift. The paint dots you "collected" couldn't have weighed much, but overall the effort was substantial.

It may help if somehow the individuals/community that painted the dots is informed of why they were removed. A bit of education. Although it may be hard to figure out who. Perhaps a discreet post to the caver's website you mention?

Anders

Toker Villain

Big Wall climber

Toquerville, Utah

Oct 7, 2006 - 05:25pm PT

Hip hip hooray,
Lobo's learned what to spray.

Karl Baba

Trad climber

Yosemite, Ca

Oct 7, 2006 - 07:10pm PT

Yes, Thanks and Appreciation for hard word that benefits us all.

Peace

Karl

scuffy b

climber

The town that Nature forgot to hate

Oct 20, 2006 - 02:17pm PT

Way to go Zander and Bob. Thanks a lot.
sm

dirtineye

Trad climber

the south

Nov 17, 2006 - 09:19am PT

OK a few things about the effort.

It's great you got the paint off completely. Getting to the paint while it is fresh and the binder is intact gives you a big advantage over say, having to remove old paint or paint that other methods have been tried on.

First, what was the temp when you say the method, which we know to work, failed? Temps above 70 are needed for Removall to work faster and better.

Second, you say you left it on a while. How long is that? Removall often takes hours to work correctly. On new paint it might take as little as one hour, but still an hour is a long time, longer than a while to most people.

Longer is better, and keeping the removal wet (with re-applications) is also important. This helps avoid shadowing, which is when the binder is gone but pigment is left down in the rock, typically forced into the pores by bad removal technique.

There is no quick and easy way to take graffiti off rock and leave the rock unharmed, that's why it is such a pain to do it right.

Wild Bill

climber

Nov 17, 2006 - 10:06am PT

Thanks for the levity, Ouch!

I have to deal with spray-painted graffiti occasionally, and the one item that works wonders is

COLD FORMULA EASY OFF OVEN CLEANER. The kind that doesn't require heating the oven to work. Stuff is wonderful and fast.

It may not be as "environmentally friendly" from a chemical standpoint as this other product discussed here. But maybe the harm is offset by the speed with which removal is accomplished, meaning less people/gear/rinse water needed.

We need a seperate thread about the shocking and amusing ways the "Euro's" peculiar relationship to mother nature manifests itself (i.e. painted markings, ten-foot high cairns on obvious trails, crapping on the trail then "covering" sh*t with a rock, etc.).

Another idea: let's sabotage the Gunsight painters! We'll re-direct the painted spots so they lead right over a steep drop, maybe one with a seasonal waterfall! Ha Ha Ha....that will teach them. Oh, wait - that IS already where the dots lead. Never mind.

Maybe re-paint the dots so they go straight up one wall of the gunsight? that will confuse the buggers....

Bill (saddened that someone has added aid gear to his first descent of the Gunsight)

EDIT - Zander, Bob and Dawn - you all rock, HARD! If you're ever feeling down, look in the mirror and remind yourself of the public service you jus performed.

Largo

Sport climber

Venice, Ca

Nov 17, 2006 - 11:00am PT

I missed this. Zander, that's great work you guys did in scrubbing off that paint. Middle C. is like a shrine to us who squandered our youth on the thing. Thanks a lot.

JL

Chicken Skinner

Trad climber

Yosemite

Nov 17, 2006 - 11:09am PT

They did a great job and Keith Lober helped them. Here is what it looked like. They removed about twenty of them.

The next day Dawn went and took care of some graffitti in the Lower Yosemite Falls Amphitheater.

Ken

dirtineye

Trad climber

the south

Nov 17, 2006 - 11:28am PT

Wild bill,

OK, haha very funny.

Now, imagine getting that stuff in your eye.

Laugh if you want, but this is a big problem in any paint removal situation. The caustic strippers are dangerous even in a controlled environment, and dealing with a spill on your skin or in your eye without a good supply of water is asking for big trouble.

If you've done much work with paint strippers, you've probably gone running to the sink or hose when you get that stuff on your face or any skin, cause you literally know right away it is a bad thing. It will begin to burn you as soon as it makes contact.

That's one reason Rmoval products are good-- even though it is not a wonderful thing to get it on you, when you do, you have time to act and the stuff is not going to be anything like the caustic strippers. We had Removal all over us a few years ago, painting it on graffiti at Sand Rock Al for hours, and while you do notice some effects, and you do want to get it off, it's MUCH safer that the bad stuff. Removal is not a caustic.

Typically, people want to use the tools at hand. they don't want to make the effort to learn anything new, or do research to find the proper way, they just use a wire brush or methylene cholride strippers and make a huge disaster, with products that can cause real harm to the workers as well as the rocks and surrounding plants. This is an uphill fight to get everyone to do the right thing, how about helping?

Please don't encourage people to do stupid things when dealing with graffiti.

There really is no easy, fast way to take off graffiti, other than prevention.

Zander

Trad climber

Berkeley

Nov 17, 2006 - 08:36pm PT

Damn Dirt!
You caught us. We only kept the dots wet for 15 minutes, not the one hour you recommend. Fortunately, the granite up there is so hard and beaten by the weather we were able to scrub with the wire brush without doing any damage. We'll be good next time, I promise.
Dirt, we still gotta date with Mount Goode when you are ready. A few more lines have been taken but there are plenty left.
Zander

Wild Bill

climber

Nov 18, 2006 - 09:18am PT

Dirt:
Not trying to be funny, so please don't think I'm minimizing your efforts to contribute to a solution. Hats off to you for your guidance and for keeping this thread focused on fixing things.

And yes, EASY OFF COLD FORMULA really works on spray paint. Try it sometime, if you have a less environmentally sensitive problem. Like the stop sign in front of my house, for instance. Works great on that.

--Bill

dirtineye

Trad climber

the south

Nov 18, 2006 - 10:27am PT

ZANDER!

Mount goodies is on the list, things are beginning to look up, and I am determined to get out there when the chemo is done and I can get in a little bit o shape.

Thanks for your great offer!

About the time thing, can't blame you for that. IT is tedious stuff. I'd say the fact that the paint was fresh, and probably not one of those flat paints helped you out, as well as the nature of the rock.

IF you attack any old paint or flat paint, do it in warm weather and be prepared to wait, wait, wait, and reapply. And wait some more, heh. With more porous rock, the danger is deep shadowing of the now binderless pigment. It can still be gotten out, mostly, but only with great difficulty and lots of time.

Wild BIll, with a name like Wild Bill, I sort of expect you use Easy Off as bug repellant, or rellish on your raw meat, haha.

Good to know it works on spray painted street signs.

Keep up the good work.

And I was sort of trying to work in my favorite movie line somehow, and that would be, "NO way kid, you'll shoot your eye out"