Stoney Point is one of the country's most historic climbing areas. Kamps, Robbins, and Bachar are among the many leading climbers who have trained there. In fact, climbers were largely responsible for Stoney Point's status as a city park in 1981; climbers convinced the City of Los Angeles to acquire this 22-acre sandstone studded hillside. Apparently the City Department of Parks & Recreation (DPR) forgot this fact when they issued the permit to Warner Bros. to film there. The permit allowed the studio to paint over grafitti, but did not sanction the prying off of flakes and new bolts being placed where climbers had always used removable anchors.
Locals Wayne Belger and Mike McPherrin were among the first climbers to witness the studio's paint job. On April 4, Belger was asked to leave the site so that preparation for filming could proceed. Head Rigger and Joshua Tree guide Paul Borne assured Belger that painting over holds on boulder problems would be avoided, but when Belger came back later most of the Turlock and Boulder #1 boulders had a coat of slick paint. A park ranger at the scene seemed indifferent to the damage.
Belger and McPherrin, along with dozens of other climbers, called the Access Fund and were advised to inundate City Hall with phone calls. Assisted by longtime southern California activist Randy Vogel, they did just that. Meanwhile, the Access Fund contacted the Los Angeles Times and proposed a story on the controversy, which the paper published the next day (the story made the AP wires shortly afterward). Access Fund Communications Director Sam Davidson was also interviewed for a BBC radio report.
The response to all this publicity was quick, if not entirely satisfactory. The mayor's office issued huffy statements like "we have to learn to live with it (filmmaking)," while James Ward, maintenance supervisor for the DPR, said that while his department has a policy of working to keep the movie business in Los Angeles, "That doesn't mean we will sacrifice public property." McPherrin and Belger helped stage a climber protest on the last day of filming, to keep the pressure on the DPR to restore the park to its previous condition.
Ward later told the Access Fund that he was unaware of the damage paint would do to historic boulder problems. He pledged to clean the paint off the boulders with toothbrushes and alcohol, if necessary, to ensure that the park's fragile sandstone holds would be preserved. Moreover, Ward promised to communicate with local climbers in advance of any similar commercial uses of Stoney Point.
The remarkable climber response to the Stoney Point crisis is the silver lining of this debacle. A Stoney Point climbers network is now in place and Los Angeles city officials recognize the importance of the area to climbers. McPherrin said hopefully, "The future of Stoney Point might be a little brighter because of this."