Chockstone Forum

      Sponsored By
      ROCK
   HARDWARE

Chockstone Photography

Australian Landscape Prints

Chockstone Forum - General Discussion

General Climbing Discussion

Topic Date User

should burnley be reset as a traverse venue? 26-Sep-2013 At 7:57:43 PM Workless_climbmore

Message

Guilty - of good intentions and trying something new, with the knowledge that Burnley is an important place for a lot of people.

The last reset was catalysed by a generous grant from Parks for $4000 for new holds (thanks Uncarved Block), bolts, t-nuts and materials for the new volumes (thanks Macpac). A lot of people were involved in preparing the grant application, building the volumes and planning the reset, through the VCC and associated forums (facebook page and website). It's good to see chock stoners getting involved as well.

We decided to reset with a focus on up problems in order to get more new holds on the wall, use the volumes in interesting ways and manage traffic on the wall differently as noted earlier. All the setting by volunteers over the three day reset was really appreciated, and we have got some really good problems up with brand new high quality non polished holds. We have black traverses and black filler holds on walls 2 and 3 to try and get holds on every t-nut (still some work to be done here). This can be a challenge when trying to set traverses and up problems with limited colours and hold sets.

Happy to acknowledge that the new set up is a move away from the tradition, and it may not suit everyone's expectations. It is worth noting that a lot of people who use Burnley now have no knowledge of the origins of the facility. This doesn't mean traditions shouldn't be respected, but they are not immune from being questioned or pushed from time to time.

In terms of appraising the experiment, this thread is useful feedback. From the poll it looks like a fairly even spread, noting that an opt in forum does not make a representative sample. And the walls are certainly super popular - we had over 70 people attend the afternoon we reopened, and it has been pretty busy in the evenings I've been there. Still, it could be that traverses need better representation on one or more of the walls. My own view is that wall 2 lacks the height for really good up problems but works really well for traverses. Wall 3 has more height and the angle is great for power / power endurance problems. I'm sure it can be worked out through future resets.

A final note, 50 holds were stolen before they could be nutted behind the walls. Please keep an eye on the place and help to look after it.

Cheers,
Steve Pollard