Chockstone Forum

      Sponsored By
      ROCK
   HARDWARE

Chockstone Photography

Australian Landscape Prints

Chockstone Forum - Crag & Route Beta

Crag & Route Beta

Area	Location	Sub Location	Crag	Links
All NSW	(General)	(General)	(General)

Topic Date User

Rings on 16-Aug-2012 At 7:25:59 AM davidn

Message

Actually M9, I am into cleaning. I've been exploding a *lot* of holds lately. I prefer to do that *before* I put myself in danger, because exploding holds have a fun habit of sometimes launching you backwards rather than downwards. Since I know it's your pet subject, yes, I'm 'primarily a boulderer'. I don't see much difference between cleaning the top of an 8m boulder problem and the first 8-10 metres of a route, particularly where you're going to be in a position you can't downclimb from. Grabbing moss at a high top-out is more than 'oh shit' moment, it's potentially death in some situations.

Cleaning a slabby grade 14 on which you can rest while you dig out shrubs is completely different to cleaning something vertical to overhung on which you might be resting on a hand jam in a dirty wet crack, at best. Or hanging off a free-standing 1 ton block.

So, this is getting weird, but Damo and I agree again.

Let's not confuse legitimate cleaning with an excuse for pre-inspection. One is done because you have a reasonable apprehension that you're going to get seriously hurt or killed; the other is because you think the route is too hard and wanted to 'just go brush off that hold a bit' (yeah right).

Speaking of cleaning, anyone used oxygen bleach to destroy (massive quantities of) moss? Apparently it biodegrades as salt.