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VCC and ACAV, together on the sand??? 21-Sep-2019 At 6:15:47 AM nmonteith

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On 20-Sep-2019 mountaineer wrote:
>>As far as I recall, when all the access stuff blew
>>up in the media and climbers were being portrayed as environmental vandals
>>the VCC president was completely MIA.
>It was a shit-fight sparked by Mike Tomkins. There was nothing to win.
>The recent Triple J piece was much better and there the VCC got involved.

I don't agree Phillipp - after months of media silence from the VCC this was what your President first said on national radio:

Paula Toal - "Climbers in ignorance have gone into places where we have done harm. That really upsets me."

Journo - "Did any of you, before this year, have any understanding of the cultural heritage of this place?"

Paula Toal - "No, i wasn't personally aware"

Mark Gould - "I experienced complete surprise in the beginning, gone through some sort of confusion, into anger and now I'm feeling, probably the strongest feeling is a sense of almost guilt and shame"

This is from the group who climbers invested in to lobby for and protect climbers rights. You are supposed to be the spokespeople for the climbing community. That's the gig like it or not. There was a chance to correct the record and project a positive spin but instead all we got was ignorance, guilt and shame. Guilty as charged your honor. We are sinners and let us take the punishment required. World's biggest bans was well deserved clearly. This is why so many climbers are upset with the VCC - including at that infamous Town Hall meeting. It's even more disturbing to hear that Paula said she was totally ignorant of the cultural heritage of the Grampians. That wasn't a good look and made me wonder just how much experience she had of the Grampians.