Crews remove climbing bolts from Tahoe landmark

ZEPHYR COVE -- More than a year after a final order banning rock climbing on it was imposed, crews have begun to remove hundreds of bolts from a prominent rock formation at Lake Tahoe.

A contractor working for the U.S. Forest Service last week started removing about 350 bolts along 46 former climbing routes on Cave Rock.

Removing the bolts is part of the Forest Service's management plan for the once-popular climbing rock on Tahoe's east shore, where climbing has been banned since February 2005.

The final order banning climbing was issued in February 2008 after the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the agency's position.

The order ended more than a decade of legal battles involving the Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California and the Access Fund, a Boulder, Colo.-based advocacy group for rock climbers.

According to Washoe lore, Cave Rock was a sacred place where tribal elders communed with powerful spirits.

The Access Fund maintained the ban was unconstitutional because it gave a religious group exclusive control over public property.

Removal of the bolts is expected to take about a month, depending on the weather, the Tahoe Daily Tribune reported.

About 60 percent of the bolts to be removed are located in the cave.

Once removed, holes left by the bolts will be filled with specially made granite plugs, said Forest Service spokeswoman Cheva Heck.

Cave Rock, the eroded throat of a volcano, is cut by tunnels traversed by motorists on U.S. Highway 50.