Chockstone Forum

      Sponsored By
      ROCK
   HARDWARE

Chockstone Photography

Australian Landscape Prints

Chockstone Forum - General Discussion

General Climbing Discussion

Topic Date User

A Rant about my day in The Quarry! 9-Sep-2004 At 5:25:33 PM oweng

Message

Having climbed since 1995/6 (back when the Spice Girls and Backstreet Boys roamed the earth) and with the stupid things I did whilst learning to climb almost forgotten in the dim past, I feel eminently qualified to bag the crap out of a group of 'newbie' climbers I saw operating on the weekend.

The scene of the crime, Waterworks Quarry in Hobart, for those not in the know this is a dolerite quarry not to far from the center of Hobart which provides about a dozen crimpy sport routes, on rock that has variously been described as "chossy", "manky", "scary", "friable", and "an accident waiting to happen".

Having had my weekend interrupted by work on Saturday morning, I was keen to knock over a couple of routes with some friends on Saturday afternoon. We hadn't been climbing for long (thus far only one leader fall caused by an exploding foothold had occurred), when a 4 wheel drive jumped the kerb on the frontage road, weaved through the clumps of bushes and the remains of an old fence and pulled up 20 metres away in the middle of the quarry.

(Owen Bitches about #1) New climbers shouldn't be driving big flash 4wd's. They should be driving 20 year old Datsun's that they can get into remote, corrugated and shoddy roads only through the simple fact that the car couldn't get any more trashed than it already is. Hell, they shouldn't be able to afford a big 4wd. They should be poor students, or surviving on the dole.

(Owen Bitches about #2) Is it really necessary to drive across a kerb, across a footpath, through some bushes and into the base of the cliff? Especially if doing all this saves you from walking the grand distance of 55 metres....

A short time later a second shiny 4wd pulled up, drove over the kerb, over the footpath, through the fence, through the bushes and into the quarry. Refer to my bitch points #1 and #2 above. Also I should add that spinning the wheels and doing half a doughnut whilst your pulling up may not endear you to other climbers already at a crag.

The reason for the manly display of 4wd mastery soon became apparent as the cars disgorged their occupants. The two drivers were accompanied by two friends of the female variety, who had come along to watch the days climbing.

(Owen Bitches about #3) New climbers shouldn't have members of the opposite sex interested in them. They should be far too obsessed by climbing to worry about any of that shenanigans, and the only members of the opposite sex that should be interested in them should be other climbers.

After exchanging loud introductions, a rack and rope were pulled out of the back of one of the 4wd's. Wisely they had bought helmets, to go alongside the nice new rope and set of a dozen shiny identical quickdraws.

(Owen Bitches about #4) New climbers shouldn't have a complete set of hi-tech quickdraws. Quickdraws should be cobbled together out of the cheapest karabiners and pieces of sling that can be found in the discount bins at the local outdoor shops. Any rack of quickdraws that doesn't have at least 5 separate brands/styles of karabiners represented simply reeks of arrogance.

The fabulous four then began preparations to climb (well the two guys began preparations, the two girls sat on a rock and prepared to look impressed). It must have been decided amongst them that the sound of birds chirping and trees rustling was not really in the spirit of the experience they were after, as in quick time the 5 doors of one of the 4wd's were thrown open, and the stereo turned up 'to the max' so that the sounds of heavy metal music filled the quarry.

(Owen Bitches about #5) I realise we were climbing in a poxy quarry in a semi-residential area, we're not talking about the unspoilt wilderness here, but does anyone else find this amazing? I mean, three other people were climbing 20 metres away, and these guys didn't even ask if we minded if they played some music. It was loud enough that we had to shout to talk to each other! Hell, as stated in bitch #1 new climbers should be driving Datsuns. This wouldn't even be an issue then, with a single speaker mounted in the dash, connected to a feeble AM radio, the worst damage you could do is to have a bit of static filled football commentary or talkback radio wafting through the area.

Anyhow after an hour and a half of swearing and grunting, the fab four departed, to a chorus of "thank god for that", and other choicer expletives from myself, my friends and from another group of climbers who had arrived in the meantime.

So be warned, the 4wd driving, beer swilling, expletive yelling part of our society may have discovered climbing. Soon the crags in the Grampians may begin to resemble the main street of Horsham at 10pm on a Saturday night!