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Chockstone Forum - General Discussion

General Climbing Discussion

Topic Date User
Making Tassie Wilderness a Sport Climbing Venue. 29-Mar-2019 At 7:35:23 AM IdratherbeclimbingM9
Message
On 22-Mar-2019 One Day Hero wrote:
>On 22-Mar-2019 brent wrote:
>>No need to get overly emotional.
>
>Do you understand why this kind of stuff upsets people? We're talking
>about a world famous wilderness area which has a 50 year history both of
>climbing and people fighting epic campaigns to maintain wilderness in the
>face of vested interests who wanted to develop and exploit it. Many of
>the climbing pioneers were also involved in the environmental campaigns,
>some people have been climbing at Frenchmans for decades and feel that
>they are climbing custodians.
>
>Then you get some random frother show up for his first trip and go on
>a massive online spray about how many sport routes you could smash in,
>with topo photos and beta on where they could go. No interest in the history,
>no concern for what the locals think. In the same spray, he's going on
>about how amazing The Lorax is (put up by a bloke who's apparently a pretty
>farking serious greeny). Maybe get in touch with that guy and ask him what
>his thoughts are for the future of the area? Nah, fuch that. Old mate knows
>best, he's the Marco Polo of an area which has been previously scoped by
>a thousand keen climbers who somehow didn't notice the potential.
>
>And this shit is going on at every frigging crag in the country! Toolbags
>wander in, couldn't care less about getting to know the place, couldn't
>care less about the locals who have decades of experience at the cliff,
>and just get straight to work on how to make the crag better. It's already
>better! Because climbers with more discretion and taste than you have kept
>development down to a rational level, you gigantic narcissistic knob jockeys!
>
>>The author of the description is against
>>unnecessary bolting of routes and certainly wont be heading out there
>himself
>>to bolt any of these potential lines. He's merely sharing his excitement
>>for the place.
>
>He's planting the seed and paving the way for some other idiot with ocd
>to go in there and start slinging bolts onto all those topos he posted
>up. If you guys are any older than nineteen, it's your responsibility to
>understand how this shit works.

An excellent con-text treatise of where Australian climbing is currently at!

On 27-Mar-2019 shiltz wrote:
>ODH - I'm not sure why you always start with the assumption that you're
>the smartest person in the room and why you revert so frequently to personal
>insults. Something to ponder?

On 28-Mar-2019 One Day Hero wrote:
>Well, when you wander into an online discussion about climbing development, half the room seems to be eating paste and shoving crayons up their arse. Over time that's affected how I open. Ce la vie.

I too have pondered this.
I'm an older fart, ... and before I dissipate in the wind (thanks Kieranl!), I think this historical con-text stuff needs to be said - often.

Online discussions about climbing development seems to be the modern way climbers are exposed to where we have come from and where we are heading to, and although I don't always agree with ODHs' presentation style, the issues he succinctly points out are valid and I thank him for saying it. In my opinion ODH is one of those* in a fairly unique time-place. Old enough to have known mentors and climbing apprenticeship, but young and energetic enough to understand and care about how climbing is done these days.
(*There are others, and to keep the thread on track I'll mention the first Tasmanian one that comes to my mind - Tastrad ... though I appreciate the incongruity of lumping both those individuals under the same lable - heh, heh, heh.)

If old farts like myself rave on about how things are progressing we are written off as 'tradsters' and out of touch with the new reality, and our voices are too few these days anyway. I'm also noticing that the rabid bolters (thanks for the term E. Wells!), are unusually quiet at present too, as a few years ago the Chockstone discussions were much more vigorous when they defended their stance, so I can only assume that they have gone to ground as a result of the access issues presently affecting Victorian climbing. Fear of being outed, or suffering the oft threatened chopping retribution of their climbs? Doesn't matter, as we all lose if access goes against us...

There is room for all styles of climbing if respect by all involved; for each other, the environment, Aboriginal heritage, ... and our collective climbing history, is foremost in the way that we apply ourselves.

There are 17 replies to this topic.

 

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