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General Climbing Discussion

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Grampians Access 2019 8-Mar-2019 At 8:30:37 AM jacksonclimbs

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I'd note that as a climber, I'm often telling non-climbing tourists that taking their dog into the park, or using drones, is against park rules.

I'll often find myself giving them advice on things to do and see, pointing out wildlife or where tracks go.

Last year I spent about 40 days climbing in the Grampians, despite living in Melbourne. We regularly eat at towns along the way to the Grampians, like Ararat. We buy fuel and other necessities along the way, and eat in Halls Gap, and in Horsham. We do bush camp, but that's because 40*$35/night for camping would have cost $1400 for the year. I'd happily pay for an annual pass model that was more reasonable though.

Simon Talbot does bring up a good point about quality of experiences though - even if we have different ideas on what a quality experience is. Certainly if we were limited to 4 crags, that would significantly limit the quality of the climbing experience in the Grampians. Part of what makes it great is getting around and exploring the whole place and hiking in to some remote area to get up a stunning piece of rock - standing at the top and looking out with a perspective you haven't seen before. Closing off whole areas - like the whole South of the Gramps reduces the variety of the climbing experience. I think it's important that we're still able to go into areas across the entire region. i.e. important that crags within the SPAs remain open, even if some are closed for cultural or environmental reasons.

Hopefully next time Simon gets on the mic on the radio he might communicate that he has an appreciation for quality in the climbing respect - and not just riff off a statistic about the percentage of climbing locations that remain open.