Chockstone Forum

      Sponsored By
      ROCK
   HARDWARE

Chockstone Photography

Australian Landscape Prints

Chockstone Forum - General Discussion

General Climbing Discussion

Topic Date User

Ben Lomond Tat Free, Lazy Litterbugs Not Welcome 26-Mar-2008 At 12:26:43 AM Tastrad

Message

Would people please stop littering Frews Flutes at Ben Lomond with their tat. I’ve just spent a day chopping all the retreat slings off the Flutes. Recently, it has become common practice to only climb the first pitch, then rap off some slings. If people bail out because of danger, injury, bad weather or route difficulty, then fair enough. But I suspect that people are mainly doing this for several other reasons.
Firstly, there is fear of weetbix loose rock on some second pitches. There is some weetbix on lesser travelled climbs, but on the established classics this is not a problem. Get over it. If you can’t handle the possibility of loose rock, then don’t retreat after one pitch - rather, don’t attempt the route at all.
Some say only the first pitches are worth doing. If you accept the challenge of climbing at a traditional multi-pitch crag, then climb the routes properly and go all the way to the top. You can’t claim an ascent if you haven’t done all the pitches.
Now the rap bolts have gone, some lazy people don’t want to walk down, so they rap after one pitch. The rap station was mostly for convenience. People argue that the rap station saved the descent gully from erosion, but they forget that the approach gully is twice as trashed as a direct result of the bolts. Most climbers I’ve met are only token conservationists anyway.
An older generation of climbers happily climbed on the Flutes for 25 years before the rap station existed, and tat was virtually non-existent on the cliff. Some modern climbers are adopting their sport climbing, consumer friendly mentality to Ben Lomond and are trashing the place. They are either too inexperienced, too unfit, too scared, or too lazy to cope with the challenge. This is a serious, traditional crag requiring a high level of fitness, jamming technique, and some general mountain experience and navigational skill to descend safely. There’s nothing wrong with being inexperienced, unfit and scared, but if people don’t have the skill, fitness, experience or mindset to cope with these challenges, then they shouldn’t climb on Ben Lomond. And if they leave their tat simply because they can’t be bothered walking down, then lazy litterbugs like this are not welcome on the mountain. The cliff has been returned to its original, bolt free, tat free state, and will remain so.