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Chockstone Forum - Crag & Route Beta

Crag & Route Beta

Area Location Sub Location Crag Links
VIC Buffalo The Horn Environs (General) The Horn [ Horn Guide ] 

Topic Date User
Bolting at The Horn, Mount Buffalo 26-Feb-2013 At 4:46:58 PM Andrew Davis
Message
Wendy, Ive been away camping for a week so i will do my best to explain a few things that you have raised here publicly, which you could have misunderstood or even made a few assumptions which it seems is easy to do here.

Firstly there is the issue of which particular cliff user has the greater right. Is it the traditional climber, the sports climber, the commercial operator, the educator, the youth worker/youth development? Unfortunately the last 3 can get overlook due to clashes with the first 2. While I am an educator I personally would give slightly greater right to the commercial operator that is creating employment, contributing to the economy, paying off a mortgage, raising a family, paying licences and insurance and providing clients a great outdoor experience that they may otherwise never get. I realize that is just one opinion. Basically I think a fundamentalist is someone that has their nose pushed so hard up against the mirror they only see their own little world, their own opinions and those who reflect the same narrow view as themselves. They seem unable to take a few steps back from the mirror to take in the views of others. [Its odd that fundamentalists always have some type of creed they fight for and the extremists believe only they can interpret the creed correctly for everyone else] It would appear some people here rudely and abruptly voice their opinions as fact and attack others with different views. Its an approach that simply polarizes attitudes rather than informs, tolerates and respects all cliff users. Hence the fundamentalist slurs about me not being a real climber, take my mother climbing, or go back to my little welfare kids just proves how narrow and intolerant some people can be.

Secondly you address comments to me about learning to climb at Buffalo as if you have heard a little but not much about the UNI/TAFE climbing program in AlburyWodonga. Let me give you a little more information to base your opinion on but not necessarily change it, and while its not perfect I think over 13 years it has gradually developed to be a thorough learning program with ratios usually 1:4 which gives plenty of instructor tuition. The program goes for 3 years and starts the first year with top roping, seconding, vertical rescue: 1 day at Buffalo, 8 days Summerday/Arapiles, 2 days The Rock, 2 days Mt Pilot, then they loan out gear and need to do their own self-guided trips at the five crags they have been introduced to. Second year they head to Buffalo for 6 days (and yes most do lead grade 16, 17’s), then work and train at the local climbing centre while they log up min 500 metres of leading, (usually vics head to Araps, while nsw will head to Blueys/Nowra). Come November its back to Buffalo to organise and guide 2 outdoor ed climbing programs. In their third year they continue climbing and gain industry experience working for tourist and outdoor ed operators before graduating end of year.

Finally the Mt Buffalo plateau and surrounding Ovens, Buckland, and Buffalo valleys is a gem with so many opportunities for adventure. We are just a little grateful the Grampians and Arapiles is closer to Melbourne than Buffalo, while we only 130k away. We don’t even mind if some people spread the myth that Buffalo is dangerous and scary and really hard to climb, and while some fundamentalists may want that to be a reality i firmly believe there is room for everyone there. Just stand on top of the Hump and take a 360deg look around you will see more granite than you could climb in a lifetime. And clearly wherever there is a line that is safely and traditionally climbed then it should be most definitely be preserved that way for a lifetime, however there is plenty of room for all cliff uses


On 16/02/2013 Wendy wrote:
>On 7/02/2013 Andrew Davis wrote:

> You go for a week or 2 to Araps, climb milages of easy stuff, spend another
>few days in the gramps getting on stuff with more complicated route finding
>and less reliable rock to get ready for the reality of climbing at Buffalo.
>And even after that, there's not going to be that much your average climber
>is ready for at Buffalo, but you'd have a great time and learn heaps. It's
>just the nature of Buffalo and bolting a few easy routes is not going to
>change that.
>
>With Profanities, did someone say that was 17? That's not a bloody beginner
>route anyway.

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