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General Climbing Discussion

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Fixed gear guidelines in the Grampians 13-May-2018 At 11:09:35 AM armstp

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I quite like Wendy’s guidelines because they take into account the different considerations required on cliffs in different areas. Which is the difficulty with trying to come up with one size fits all guidelines. What you would take into account when deciding whether to add a bolted route to an urban cliff like say Kangaroo Point with no real environmental or aesthetic qualities is vastly different to the considerations involved in bolting a line on the left hand side of Central Gully at Araps. As it should be. And you can find those considerations in these guidelines if you are sensible.

However, it does require judgement and an understanding of the norms at each cliff. I think in general self regulation works in Victoria because there are really only a relatively small number of new route developers using bolts and they are for the most part reasonably imbued with an understanding of traditional climbing norms and are mostly responsive to the views of other climbers. In quite a number of cases they are the old trad climbers who were establishing routes 30, 40 or 50+ years ago. And most of them have always used bolts as they saw necessary.

However, as noted, someone arriving from outside of the area with a bolt drill may well bring a different understanding of those considerations. As indeed may someone with an urge to de-bolt climbs.

On a different point, the PV legal argument is actually pretty toothless. When you talk to Rangers they believe it is too hard/too expensive/too time consuming to prosecute people for almost any kind of infringement. They find it much easier just to ban whole activities as they can do this administratively without having to use the unpredictable and expensive court system.