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Werribee Gorge Nobs 7-Jul-2008 At 2:42:04 PM Paul

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On 7/07/2008 ado_m wrote:
>Paul
>
>I was at Werribbe Gorge when your group with the portaledge came in -
>I understand that this was Monash?

Yes
>
>Agree using a single anchor (however bomber) is lazy, not something I
>would do. But, personally, I think taking a lead fall on some of the rusty
>bolts at Werrribee or leading anything on trad at that choss pit is significantly
>more dangerous than bringing up a second on a single belay pilon.
>

I found the natural gear avaliable there mostly solid and more than adequate and most of the bolts there that I saw were newish looking stainless.

>Next time your group is there, there are a few things that could be done
>better to smooth over things with the other climbers there:
>
>- the leader has a quiet word to the people who are already there, to
>let them know which routes your group plans to work.

We did this at both the top and bottom of the cliff.

If you're out with
>a mate for a quiet day out, having 15-20 people with 5 top rope setups

Actually we had 10 people and 3 top ropes, I think it is possible that you are confusing the monash group with other people who were there as well.

>and a crazy portaledge slung down SPQR is a bit grating. We moved to the
>side wall asap to get away from the circus.
>

I did wait till the end of the day before stting up my ledge and asked whether anyone else wanted to climb on that particular face first.

>- the guys setting up your anchors should be very careful both not to
>kick stones on people leading routes. I had a stone kicked down upon me
>when the guy setting up the top rope didn't even bother to look over and
>check if I was there.

Not sure who this was, but I admit that I did knock one small stone over the edge when checking a top rope and anchor which I had allready setup and was suprised to find someone had started leading bellow. It is not difficult to accidentially disslodge loose rocks from the top of werribee gorge as there is a lot of loose rock near the edge and you need to be near the edge to see over it. If it was me wo disslodged the small stone onto you I appologise however the person who I disslodged the 20c size stone onto did start leading where there was obizously an existing top rope setup.

>
>- when someone is waiting to lead a route - and that's been made clear
>to the leader of your group - wait until they have finished and cleaned
>the route (ie. 30 minutes) before throwing down the top rope as a matter
>of courtesy.

One of the routes which we setup a top rope on had people leading on it, we waited untill they had finished, I then from the top of the cliff asked members of my group to ask whether anyone else was waiting to lead it. The responce I got was that some people were waiting but they had changed their mind and decided to climb something else instead. I then proceded to setup a toprope. after doing this I went to check the anchors setup by other members of my group. After this I returned to put some rope protectors on one of the top ropes only to find that someone had pulled our toprope down from the bottom and began leading the climb themselves. It is possible that there could have been a misscommunation, but members of my group said that permission was not asked to do this, very poor form indeed. I do not know whether this was you or some one else and I mean no dissrespect.

>
>There was a distinct bad vibe between your massive group and the other
>climbers on the cliff - no doubt from contributions both way.

I spent a bit over half an hour of that day removing stuck pieces of gear from the rock for others not in my group, good or bad vibe? Remember that a lot of the participants in group top roping are beginers and therefore may not be completely up to speed with general climbing ethics but they have to start somewhere.

A bit of
>friendliness and conversation upfront would really smooth things over.
>
>
>Adrian
>
>
>

We did send someone down the bottom of the cliff to do this at the beginning of the day before we started setting up to communicate with the climbers who wre allready there.

I do not believe that there was anything wrong with the way in which I or members of our group conducted them selves while they were around me, however it seems clear that you are unhappy with some of the happenings during your day climbing at the gorge so please accept my most sincear appologies for any way inwhich myself or the group which I was climbing with contributed to this.

regards Paul