Chockstone Forum

      Sponsored By
      ROCK
   HARDWARE

Chockstone Photography

Australian Landscape Prints

Chockstone Forum - General Discussion

General Climbing Discussion

Topic Date User

Trashing Tassie ... it's beyond salvation 19-Mar-2011 At 9:43:18 PM crazyjohn

Message

On 19/03/2011 nmonteith wrote:
>I actually think Jesus has a good point amongst all this randomness. Double
>standards about bolting in Tassie wilderness seems like a real issue. The
>slow eroding of old school trad crags into sport venues is happening all
>over Australua. Why is Ben Lomond picked as the one and only crag that
>should be bolt free?

This argument is kind of like Forestry Tasmania or Gunns logging a section of World Heritage protected forests and then saying,"Well I guess its not 'pristine' anymore so lets just cut it all down!" So the rest of Tas/Oz/The Whole F***ING PLANET is screwed up, why should we bother trying to preserve Bent? Thats the title of this whole thread. So the bolting in the rest of Tas sucks, therefore we should bolt at Ben Lomond? Absolute stupidity.

However, some idiots (Nick Hanc--k for one) were using the argument that since there were bolted abseils, that means it is not a bolt free zone, therefore bolted sport routes were acceptable. Gerry cutting the bolts was a reaction to this. Now that it has become a huge issue, I think ole' Gerry's ego is at stake as well. So its become kind of bogged down.

Keeping the Ben bolt free is important for climbing everywhere. As I said, personally I dont give a shit if people put in abseil bolts. Just as long as they are reasonable. I dont need them but I do not want bolted routes and if twisted individuals like Hanc--k are still going to use the idiotic argument that abseil bolts means go ahead for sport routes, then im fine with no bolts at all.

I have already said what I think of Hanc--k and his twisted logic. Apparently he has changed his opinion in his old age and believes The Ben should stay bolt free.

>I just wish (as usual) that people with strong opinions
>actually put their own name to their posts.
I agree which is why I put my full name when I called out Phil/Hex.

>running shows 82% in support of bolted rap anchors at Ben Lomond - with
>100+ votes recorded. One man abusing the world isn't a great way of getting
>support for the cause.

Yeah well its kind of just tough. It really is not a huge deal about no abseil bolts being there. I can see the frustration people who want abseil bolts but not sport routes have with Gerry and a few other climbers. Gerry and crew are probably not the majority. But thats kind of just tough luck at this stage.