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General Climbing Discussion

Topic Date User

Climbing on the horn NOT banned (but difficult) 7-Jan-2006 At 10:47:08 AM Kingerz

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Giving the authorities a list of other climbs - or even whole crags - that rely on railings or other man-made structures for a belay will just get them banned too, sooner or later.

The belay was removed from Ship Rock as well as all the bolts. Now the moss cover grows thick. Think it couldn't happen here? Elsewhere in the world crags have been banned all over for environmental reasons.

A pity that Australia is increasingly becomming a nanny state in all ways, and that it also extends to climbing, one way that people can still extend themselves outside of pedantic rule-enforcement.

Obviously the railing is totally safe and vastly better than 'body weight' or any other such unsound option: can we not get these people to understand that? Is the railing safe enough to stop tourists falling over the edge? Yes: so it can be tested and given a Kn rating. This will certainly exceed the strength of a typical belay.

I guess otherwise we could rely on some kind person to put in a couple of bolts and hope that the quiet life lets climbers go on climbing a little longer.