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Chockstone Forum - General Discussion

General Climbing Discussion

 Page 1 of 2. Messages 1 to 20 | 21 to 27
Author
Someone trashing Lake Huntley

JamesMc
24-Jan-2012
6:47:58 PM
Seems someone has been giving us a bad name at Lake Huntley in Tas.

link here http://bushwalk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=8778

Please clean up your act people
widewetandslippery
24-Jan-2012
7:35:22 PM
I know of a large buch of BASE people there recently. Not pointing fingers as I doubt my contact would be cool with such shit but any big group it only takes a few toi make a mess.
tas alex
24-Jan-2012
7:42:07 PM
thanks for assuming the worst without knowing the full story.

Climbers (that i've been associated with, which is most that climb at the tyndalls) have generally been very environmentally conscious when at the tyndalls (read the guidelines on thesarvo.com for example). This summer and a couple of summers before there have been groups of base jumpers head up there (20 at a time this season), which has caused most of the problems.

I have lots of gear, ropes, food, cooking equipment etc up there stashed, but it is all in rafting barrels or dry bags hidden from public view and i doubt it would have been counted as rubbish and carried out. This is the same for all the climbers i know, each having a gear stash away from the cave and using the cave only for accommodation.

The base jumpers last year cut a track to the base of the wall, marching up there with saws etc and chopping down the vegetation over a couple of days. This was fiercely disputed by myself and other tasmanian climbers who were up there at the time (thread on thesarvo last year), but was to no avail. On that trip they left pink tags tied to trees at the base for a landing zone (which they were asked to remove, but did not), cut the track and toileted on the surface metres from the fresh drinking water source used when at the cave.

I have not been up there this season but climb with people that have, and a group of 20 base jumpers headed in there for a few days. Reports afterwards were that the tracks had significantly degraded with this much traffic and there was again no respect for the place. Parks were notified about their plans before they left, but as far as we know nothing was done at the time.

As for the firewood comment, i think if they looked closely they would realise that the wood is not actually used for fires, in fact im not even sure why its there. It was cut by someone years ago and for a guess is meant for emergency use, having not been touched in at least the 4 years ive been going up there. I could be wrong about this if it has been burnt this season, but i doubt it.

You only need to go to the Tyndalls once to see how amazing the place is, I and other climbers in Tas have no interest in trashing the place and its quite an insult to be labelled 'feral climbers' by someone who has no idea about the situation.

Alex Lewis



nmonteith
24-Jan-2012
8:15:28 PM
Jump on the bushwalking forum and re-post that Alex. Good to get it cleared up that you guys aren't to blame.

shortman
24-Jan-2012
9:02:19 PM
That place looks friggen amazing!

JamesMc
25-Jan-2012
6:27:26 AM
Appolgies Alex. You're right. I've changed my post.

JamesMc
surfinclimb
26-Jan-2012
10:21:57 AM
Those bushwalkers are a pretty "holier than thall" bunch of tools.
You should read some of the comments. such as "its certainly not bushwalkers" and you should be using poo tubes and were not allowed to do food drops so your not allowed to stash stuff in the bush sort of comments not to mention the classic "thier the sort of people that go to those crusty bike shows". Can someone tell them that theres a world outside of their bubble.

Phil S
1-Feb-2012
8:56:57 AM
I don't get it surfinclimb. Are you suggesting that trashing a unique wilderness is OK? Or that it's bound to happen sooner or later so we should all just accept it? I don't accept it! I have not been to the Tindalls yet but when I go I would very much like it to be absolutely pristine.

In terms of user group size, base jumpers represent a tiny proportion of people playing in the bush. Climbers are a larger group. Bushwalkers are absolutely legion. Yet alterations to wilderness initiated by or installed for bushwalkers is pretty well limited to marked tracks, dunnies and the odd camping platform. Climbers cut tracks too. Climbers install bolts (many routes at Lake Huntley are sport routes) which many non-climbers consider offensive. Basejumpers cut tracks and apparently clear swaths of bush for use as landing areas.

It seems to me that the impact of fringe activities in the bush inversely proportional to their size. We all have an impact but shitting next to water sources and leaving rubbish by the pack-load in a wilderness area is deplorable.

On 26/01/2012 surfinclimb wrote:
>Those bushwalkers are a pretty "holier than thall" bunch of tools.

Get off your hypocritical high-horse surfinclimb. When you use language like that you make us all sound like a bunch of tools.

climberman
1-Feb-2012
9:17:28 AM
Phil - Not sure I agree. Bushwalkers have a range of infrastructure, especially in tassie... duckboarded tracks, huts with coal flown in, tent platforms, helicoptered dunnies, tracks across many hills and gullies and the like. I don't think there's a problem with that at all. It's great. But they do get much 'holier than thou' about other user groups they don't understand. The Tindalls won't ever be 'absolutely pristine'. I mean, WTF is 'absolutely pristine' ? Devoid of human influence ? devoid of any influence except what you find appropriate ?

That said, there's fuk all excuse for poor toileting practices and litter.

Phil S
1-Feb-2012
9:48:30 AM
Huts with coal flown in? Where? The Overland track?. I think it's a bit different out there - it's a bush highway. I was thinking more of the South West (in which The Tindalls lie), which is a priceless region and insainly fragile. It's true that my generalisation about bushwalkers' impacts is simplified but still, duck-boards and helicopter dunnies are very much in the name of impact reduction.

My main point is that as a minority user group we need to be very careful about the impacts we impart. The smaller the group, in many ways the more conspicuous are their actions.

>The Tindalls won't ever be 'absolutely pristine...

True, not in the same way as truly remote ranges like the White Monoliths, but it can and should be pretty damn close to pristine. It's a world heritage area (for what it's worth). I'm talking an unmarked track into the range and that's about all.

Bolted routes, I'm sure are unacceptable to many other users but at least fixed hardware is relatively undetectable (but lets not get into that debate again). But clearing bush for landing sites, assuming it has in fact occurred? I, personally, don't like it.

>devoid of any influence except what you find appropriate

It's true, surfinclimb does not have a monopoly on hypocracy.
kieranl
1-Feb-2012
9:51:32 AM
On 1/02/2012 Phil S wrote:

>>The Tindalls won't ever be 'absolutely pristine...
>
>True, not in the same way as truly remote ranges like the White Monoliths,
Wow, someone else has heard of the White Monoliths.

Phil S
1-Feb-2012
10:01:28 AM
On 1/02/2012 kieranl wrote:
>Wow, someone else has heard of the White Monoliths.

Yeah. And Chapman's included a few paragraphs in the SW Tas 5 Ed guide so in a way it's not as remote as it once was.

nmonteith
1-Feb-2012
12:09:33 PM
On 1/02/2012 Phil S wrote:
>True, not in the same way as truly remote ranges like the White Monoliths,
>but it can and should be pretty damn close to pristine. It's a world heritage
>area (for what it's worth). I'm talking an unmarked track into the range
>and that's about all.

The track into the Tyndalls is signposted, well worn and easy to follow.
climberman
1-Feb-2012
2:38:58 PM
Phil, it's not that I think being a basic turd-head is ok in regards the bush, I just think that bushwalkers ARE 'holier than thou', quite often. It shits me. Quite a bit.
ben wiessner
1-Feb-2012
6:14:49 PM
On 1/02/2012 nmonteith wrote:
>The track into the Tyndalls is signposted, well worn and easy to follow.

Jeez. Things may have changed, but I was there 12 months ago and it was nothing like that. Either a GPS or someone who has a good memory of how they got there before is essential if you want to find the cliffs, even in good conditions (unless you have a lot of time and enjoy wandering).

nmonteith
1-Feb-2012
6:25:49 PM
On 1/02/2012 ben wiessner wrote:
>On 1/02/2012 nmonteith wrote:
>>The track into the Tyndalls is signposted, well worn and easy to follow.
>
>Jeez. Things may have changed, but I was there 12 months ago and it was
>nothing like that. Either a GPS or someone who has a good memory of how
>they got there before is essential if you want to find the cliffs, even
>in good conditions (unless you have a lot of time and enjoy wandering).

Ok ok - I may have been exaggerating. Finding the cliffs when you get onto the plateau itself involves some basic navigation (I don't remember having any problems and I went there before the print guide came out) - but walking up the hill you are following a well used track, and down low in the swamp its the usual muddy trench rapidly eroding away. I was just making the point that it isn't an area that is 'off the maps' - it is a recognized walking area with a reasonable amount of people hiking up there every week from the track I saw.
aoraki
1-Feb-2012
10:22:18 PM

> It's a world heritage area (for what it's worth).

No its not. Its not even in a national park. Its covered by two reserves, Tyndall Regional Reserve and Lake Beatrice Conservation Area.

See the map: http://tinyurl.com/6o85zye

Not that takes away from its beauty, fragility and need for respect. It probably just highlights that it needs better protection.
j.l.d
2-Feb-2012
12:23:18 AM
And the "tindalls" are most certainly not found in the south west Phil.

But I agree, anyone that is cutting down King Billy Pine or Fagus should be fined the maximum amount that is legally possible.

For anyone that doesn't know, King Billy is an endemic species of conifer found only in sub-alpine/alpine regions of Tasmania and grows at an extremely slow rate. We have lost over 60% of the entire population since European settlement. In an enviroment like the tyndalls, it probably would grow at a rate of less than 2mm in diameter per annum, probably much less.

"Fagus" is one of the most amazing trees in the world (also endemic to sub-alpine/alpine areas of Tas). The only cool temperate deciduous tree in Aus and one of the oldest vascular species on earth (it was the dominant species in Antarctica and Patagonia in the days of Gondwana).The idea of harming any one of these ancient trees is beyond belief. I hope Parks track these arseholes down and prosecutes. But I doubt they will.

Phil S
2-Feb-2012
9:23:12 AM
On 2/02/2012 j.l.d wrote:
>And the "tindalls" are most certainly not found in the south west Phil.

I stand corrected on both location and spelling. The range is a lot further north than I'd realised.
onsight
2-Feb-2012
9:50:46 AM
I visited there last April and saw absolutely no signs of the rubbish, trashing or fires that they refer to. Nothing. Pretty much close to as pristine as I could imagine. Climbers certainly weren't trashing it. If the place has suddenly started copping a hammering then I really think it is some other user group. Sad.

 Page 1 of 2. Messages 1 to 20 | 21 to 27
There are 27 messages in this topic.

 

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