Chockstone Forum

      Sponsored By
      ROCK
   HARDWARE

Chockstone Photography

Australian Landscape Prints

Chockstone Forum - Trip Reports

Tells Us About Your Latest Trip!

Topic Date User

TR: Alive in a Bitter Sea (Katoomba Cliifs) 16-Dec-2016 At 10:19:18 PM PThomson

Message

Nmonteith -

While Duncan and Dan's project next to Bitter Sea IS on ringbolts, but it's a LONG way from being a sport route. It has about 10 bolts over the 70m length, the rest of which is on gear, with climbing on the sections that have been freed purportedly in the 26+ category (and the rest of it STILL a Project, which might be indicative of its difficulty). Harder climbing on a less trafficked route with similar runouts still sounds very much like a Headpoint Route to me.

Secondly, while the bolts may NOT be visible from Honeymoon Point, I personally was buzzed by 3 drones operated from the Echo Point viewing platform, and observed 2 more being launched when I was above the route. Though obviously a substantially smaller proportion of tourists can see the wall, any actions taken on that wall (with respect to retro-ing, modifying, etc) ARE still potentially visible, and from a closer range. Furthermore, since the drones operate GoPro's, the -relatively- close-up footage of any in situ equipment on that wall is more permanent and more likely to be distributed.

My point being that I believe that any actions taken on that wall need to be done discretely, and with the goal of NOT drawing awareness to our presence in the area. I did my bolting and grinding at night for that reason. Extreme? Maybe... But *I'm* not going to be the one to get climbing banned in a sensitive area.

-Paul