Blog from December, 2008

I would like to contribute to access debates concerning rap stations on Ben Lomond in a constructive manner and highlight other responsibilities we climbers should take into consideration. I think it was Dirty Harry that said, "Opinions are like arxholes, everyone has one." I'm not here to beat my chest or show anyone disrespect. I want to utilize this great resource to highlight new(?)debate.

There are aspects of our chosen sport/pastime/lifestyle which can have implications upon the greater community. Every time we engage in risky behaviour around cliffs (especially remote areas) and things go wrong, emergency services are required. These services are required by the broader community for life-threatening emergencies also and by people who haven't put themselves at risk by choice. I'm not saying that climbing is unduly risky, but we have a responsibility to minimise risk, for the sake of the greater community. I say this after witnessing 3 ambos being occupied for several hours to sort out a solo climber who had fallen in an area difficult to access recently.

This ties into the great Ben debate in respect to fast retreat, due to uncontrolled factors, not necessarily climber inexperience or lack of ability. We know how rapidly weather can change here, most guides to most crags warn of the Tasmanian weather. The higher the crag, the more severe the weather, the more risk to the party. Rap chains are obviously rap chains, a bolted climb is a bolted climb. A safe, quick descent minimises risk and environmental damage. GPS is a marvellous tool, as is the internet and online guides which utilize these technologies (love your work). A bolted-climb-free zone is reiterated in every bit of climbing literature relating to Ben Lomond! Visiting climbers would surely be aware of these ethics for the area. Additional signage by National Parks could put it beyond doubt.

As climbers we have responsibility to fellow climbers (past, present and future), the amazing environments we play in and the greater community. Egos within the climbing fraternity must remember that groups are frequently judged by the actions of individuals. Some people view bolting as blatant disregard for a pristine natural environment, others think we are crazy to be on mountains/cliffs in the first place. Being "hard" can be seen as irresponsible in the bigger picture. How we conduct ourselves should reflect the commitment and passion we share in our sport and environment. With the proliferation of printed and online guides, additional climbing traffic is inevitable. The fact that Ben Lomond is a day trip destination can only contribute to this also. The impact of this traffic requires cohesive debate and management from all areas.

I hope my rant acheives a small part to further constructive debate and hasn't bored anyone into a coma. Help could be further away than you hope!

Heading down to Tasmania for 2 weeks from the 30 dec to 11 jan to visit family and am keen to do a bit of climbing. I am climbing about a 20. Dont have much experience leading trad but will happily toprope, clip bolts, second or to be your belay slave, just want to get out a bit

So if you are looking for a partner or just someone to belay you on that mega hard route let me know.

We are a climbing family from France; we are planning to stay in the Freycinet area during Christmas / New Year. Is there any moderate sport climbing (max French 6b, sorry not familiar with Aussie grading system yet) crag there? (Not to keen on trad climbing with the kids). Any recomendation for a guide to show us around?

Lately printing the guides at lulu.com hasn't been so attractive, due to the price being in US dollars, and them putting up postage heaps.

So we found a new printer in South Australia: Digital Print Australia. Quality is about the same, but because they are local it's in Australian dollars and postage is cheaper ($4-$10 - standard Aus Post rates).

We currently have in order for 160 guides for the local shops that should arrive in the new year. But they also have an online store where you can buy direct. Once postage is factored in, it will probably be about the same as retail.

Note for colour versions and PDF downloads you still need to use http://stores.lulu.com/thesarvo

Here's the links to the various books:

For those with a penchant for history, Deano has put up his index to the CCT circulars in the library here: CCT Circulars Reference (its in the CCT space, you need to be logged in).
Has some interesting stuff in it.

We´re a Norwegian couple who started climbing only half a year ago and haven´t gotten into trad climbing
yet. We will be exploring the Grampians and Blue Mountains later, but first we´re going to Tasmania in
our van and definitely want to do some sports climbing there. Any suggestions on where to go to find lots
of low grade sports climbing in Tasmania? And also in all of Australia?

Cheers
Gitte and Ben

Some inspirational news from Sam in font;

"Trip report. Weather is rubbish, food is rubbish, coffee is rubbish and our dollar is rubbish, climbing is awesome. The Island is done"

For the uninitiated the Island is V15 and has only seen two ascents!

He's looking forward to the Jackmans bakery and a boulder at Hansom's!

All tracks to the various crags at Hillwood have now been cut. Unfortunately this is a yearly task with the jungles of stinging nettles and thistles that overgrow the tracks.

Just wanted to no if anyone has a satellite phone that they would be keen to hire to me for about 2 months??
or have hired them before and can recommend anybody?

Any of you boulderers planning a North American road trip? I have a bouldering guide to Squamish that is surplus to my needs. Let me know if you want it ...

At 5.30am on Sunday the 30th of November a ragged bag of misfits; Jake "the snake" Bresnehan, Kim "office boy" Robinson, Doug "the bold and the beautiful" McConnell and Deano "rodriguez" Rollins, left Hobart for a day trip to Cape Raoul.

All of us had done Pole Dancer before, so the plan for the day was just to try and head out to the end of the Cape and have a little bo-peak at some rocks, and then maybe climb some of them. We were particularly interested in checking out the pillar at the end of the cape, and seeing if there was a route to do up there.

A bit of background info:

In the CCT Circulars there are a lot of old trip reports to Cape Raoul. On one such trip, the team went out along the ridge, right out to the base of the Last Pillar (it is about 15m high and starts from a wide ledge about 50m up). They realised that to get to the top, they would have to drill a bolt ladder (like they had previously done for one of the other pillars), and so did not do it. They thought that they weren't good enough to do it without bolts - and so they walked away.

So i suppose that they had hoped that any future parties would give the same consideration to that particular piece of rock (no bolt ladder just for the sake of aiding to the top). And ever since reading that, i too had always hoped that if someone went out to try it, that they too didn't put any bolts in it (not that there's anything wrong with bolts in general, especially at Cape Raoul) - just to respect the decision and efforts of the previous party.

That pillar has been just sitting there for sooooooo long.
Obviously, the best way to make sure no one goes out there and bolt it is to go out there and do it without bolts first!

The perfect day:

We made it to the far side of the Wedding Cake without any issues and were then about to head along and back up to the ridge to continue the involved scramble out to the end. But a spur of the moment decision saw us rapping off the western side of the ridge to the shore platform below. Within 10 minutes we were all standing in the sun at the base of the cliffs at the very end of the cape on an unusually calm day. After saying hi to a couple of seals we turned our attention to climbing rocks.

We ended up climbing from seal level at the end of the cape to the very top of the very last pillar - three pitches (18, 22, 24) and zero bolts. A bit of everything... squeeze chimneying, hand jamming, finger locking, and a bit of face and arête climbing to top it all off. There is even a cool gap to jump across on the scramble out as well.

Doug took the honours (first class!) up the final pillar - a mighty fine lead. In the end, all four of us were up there on top at the same time, each of us in shock at what had just happened...

Another line bites the dust!