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Trashing Tassie ... it's beyond salvation 21-Feb-2011 At 9:58:10 AM jesus

Message

On 21/02/2011 Winston Smith wrote:
>I comprehend most of what Jesus is banging on about: having climbed in
>Tassie regularly over the past few years I also find the whole "no bolts
>at Ben Lomond but bolt the f*** out of everywhere else" quizzical to say
>the least.
>

>
>By the way, it is nonsense to have included rap stations in the most popular
>guidebook to the Ben - Climb Tasmania - and then chop/oversee the chopping
>of said rap statons, thus immediately making the guidebook outdated. It
>seems fairly self-defeating. (I know that the main Ben Lomond guide is
>up to date but I believe that most visitors use the older omnibus Climb
>Tasmania guide).
>
>Having visited most of the Northern, East Coast and North-West crags I
>must say that the number of mediocre, badly bolted routes is staggering.
>Bolting practices have been developed over years here on 'the mainland"
>but it appears that Tassie sport route developers have decided to reinvent
>the wheel.
>
>As a result I climbed routes at Hillwood where the crux was unprotected
>on several "moderate sport routes" and required additional gear to prevent
>a groundfall as well as routes where removable hangers had been epoxyed
>to carrots - in lieu of fixed hangers - only to have fallen off or have
>been souvenired.
>

>
>Blackwood Rocks was an interesting afternoon's diversion on soft sandstone
>where worn and breaking holds will ensure that some routes get harder with
>the passing of time.

Yeah .... and hopefully we won't see a repeat of wot happened at Fruhauf at Hobart when a few holds broke ............... a certain big(g) ego-ed person decided to ' restore ' the holds with a chisel ... this then ' inspired ' him to gouge huge jugs up the middle of the semi-blank main face , to establish what the locals now regard as ' classics ' ...
>While it's easy to knock routes and to sound ungrateful, despite the sheer
>amount of time and money spent developing crags, it's worth pointing out
>that every time a route is put up you're staking your claim on climbing
>history. With that being the case it's worth ensuring that they're quality
>routes.
>

AMEN !!!

: )