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Chockstone Forum - General Discussion

General Climbing Discussion

 Page 1 of 3. Messages 1 to 20 | 21 to 40 | 41 to 41
Author
Abseilers. What are your opinions about them?

Par0043
20-Jul-2017
2:04:05 PM
What are your opinions on people who go to crags such as the arch at the Grampians or falcons lookout and abseil for fun but do not climb. Do you find these people irritating? Are you ok with it? Do you think there are places where it is ok and places where it is not? As an abseiler I am interested in a climber point of veiw.

Andrew_M
20-Jul-2017
2:11:33 PM
Yes
Jayford4321
20-Jul-2017
2:46:26 PM
On 20/07/2017 Par0043 wrote:
>What are your opinions on people who go to crags such as the arch at the
>Grampians or falcons lookout and abseil for fun but do not climb. Do you
>find these people irritating? Are you ok with it? Do you think there are
>places where it is ok and places where it is not?
>
They R a level abov bouldererz.
johnpitcairn
20-Jul-2017
2:57:00 PM
What are they abseiling from?

deadbudgy
20-Jul-2017
3:34:33 PM
They have as much right to be abseiling the cliff as you do climbing it. If that's how they choose to pass the time until they die, I see no problem.

Duang Daunk
20-Jul-2017
3:36:18 PM
On 20/07/2017 Par0043 wrote:
>What are your opinions on people who go to crags such as the arch at the
>Grampians or falcons lookout and abseil for fun but do not climb. Do you
>find these people irritating? Are you ok with it? Do you think there are
>places where it is ok and places where it is not?
>
For a first post to our forum you sound like a boulderer bro, and 'Just because' you posted here with a pseudo kind of negative flavour about abseilers won't change that, despite ticking gym and toprope in your profile.
kieranl
20-Jul-2017
4:26:14 PM
On 20/07/2017 johnpitcairn wrote:
>What are they abseiling from?

The troll-post at the top

Par0043
20-Jul-2017
5:27:22 PM
On 20/07/2017 Duang Daunk wrote:

>For a first post to our forum you sound like a boulderer bro, and 'Just
>because' you posted here with a pseudo kind of negative flavour about abseilers
>won't change that, despite ticking gym and toprope in your profile.

Hi, I know it is my first post. I was just wondering because as well as top rope and gym climbing I abseil a lot but don't tend to do it at wel known climbing areas because I have gotten a few negative comments from climbers about abseilers being route hogs. Was wondering what the wider community thought.
One Day Hero
20-Jul-2017
5:57:46 PM
On 20/07/2017 Par0043 wrote:
>Was wondering what the wider
>community thought.

I don't understand recreational abseiling.

Do you set up an abseil and then chuck laps on it? Do you move the rope over and abseil a different line? How many abseils can you do in a day before it's just like "what's the point of all this?"

I'm not even trying to be a dick, just never got how people can go abseiling more than about a dozen times without it getting old.

JamesMc
20-Jul-2017
6:32:09 PM
Each to their own.

Rocksinmyhead
20-Jul-2017
6:43:37 PM
Bloody abseilers! Excellent, a topic that doesn't make feel guilty after hardly climbing anything in the past 6 months.

Seeing you're asking ( and you get points for that), abseilers at established climbing areas are annoying. They clog up routes, wear down holds, drop rocks, cause additional errosion, bring on climbing bans, and give climbers bad press when they stuff up.

It might take a little more effort at first, but there's plenty of rock out there that's crap for climbing. It would be awesome if abseilers kept off the good stuff.

Thanks for posting, I feel so much better now.

Duang Daunk
20-Jul-2017
8:25:49 PM
On 20/07/2017 One Day Hero wrote:
>I'm not even trying to be a dick, just never got how people can go abseiling more than about a dozen times without it getting old.

You don't have to try bro. Chockstone'll give you a special dispensation.

Doug
20-Jul-2017
8:46:02 PM
On 20/07/2017 One Day Hero wrote:
>I don't understand recreational abseiling.
>I'm not even trying to be a dick

I don't understand why people think they need to "try to be a dick" (or tom or harry, for that matter.) Hey. Just be yourself. That should do it for you.
johnpitcairn
21-Jul-2017
8:07:11 AM
Abseilers at climbing areas are much like the scooter kids at a skateboard bowl. Often in the way and an additional hazard you need to keep an eye on.
Jayford4321
21-Jul-2017
9:07:41 AM
I luv tha plaques put up on tha cragz afta they end havin their advenchas.

IdratherbeclimbingM9
21-Jul-2017
11:56:23 AM
>advenchas

Hmm.

On 20/07/2017 One Day Hero wrote:
>On 20/07/2017 Par0043 wrote:
>>Was wondering what the wider community thought.
>
>I don't understand recreational abseiling.
>
>Do you set up an abseil and then chuck laps on it? Do you move the rope over and abseil a different line? How many abseils can you do in a day before it's just like "what's the point of all this?"
>
>I'm not even trying to be a dick, just never got how people can go abseiling more than about a dozen times without it getting old.

Par0043 sounds youngish (compared to an old fart like me), and we all start/ed somewhere in the many entry points to the climbing game.

I have a confession to make, and hope the Chockstone crowd can give me absolution!
I was once a recreational abseiler!
There, it's out, and I feel better for no longer being a closet dweller!
Heh, heh, heh.

ODH; believe it or not there's actually a certain amount of adventure to be found within recreational abseiling.

My first abseil was above ground near a cave entrance as learning prior to descending said cave. I was 11 or 12 years old at the time and was scared spitless after being hooked up, and looking over the drop and back at the rope which reminded me of the fact that my life thread seemed so thin... even with a second equally thin line attached to me as a belay!
I probably wouldn't have done it, except for the fact that a girl in the group went down the rope just before me, and my foolish pride wouldn't let me stay at the top and be embarrassed to death by that fact!!

Once having done it however I was hooked, probably by the adrenaline rush it gave me.

The abseiling in the cave was another new experience and I enjoyed the subtle differences.

Over time things progressed to increased technical difficulties which I further enjoyed. This included such things as; preparing and abseiling directly out of a squeeze tube into a significant drop; abseiling off protruding thin lip overhangs where there is no possibility of establishing ones feet on the wall beneath; bypassing knots on lengthy abseils; negotiating waterfalls while abseiling; being competent at the many methods of abseiling from classic through to mechanically assisted etc.

The group I was involved with did practice sessions above ground to get our systems dialed for the same maneuvers underground, and this led to discovering new outdoor places with good company. To keep the challenge up we looked for the biggest cliffs we could find so as to get longer length abseils, and I was committed to it enough to buy my first 200m rope to do it with. We then looked for the biggest overhangs, the biggest waterfalls, then the biggest overhanging waterfalls(!) etc. Darkness, rain, etc only added to the experience... along with Tyrolean activities, canyoning and such like.
Of course all this also often involved the prusiking (later jumaring) etc to get the full experience of Single Rope Technique, along with self rescue and assisted rescue techniques, within our bag of tricks.

This later paid dividends when I undertook serious caving activities in Papua New Guinea where joining 200 m ropes to descend into gaping dolines with multiple waterfalls cascading into them is not an unusual occurance.

So, yeah I can understand recreational abseiling, but you are right inasmuch as there comes a time about it that one could consider it an end point, and the variety offered by other activities like climbing becomes a greater attraction.

... and to give a response to the (I note now amended) original post;
>What are your opinions on people who go to crags such as the arch at the Grampians or falcons lookout and abseil for fun but do not climb.
>Do you find these people irritating? Are you ok with it? Do you think there are places where it is ok and places where it is not?
>As an abseiler I am interested in a climber point of veiw.

Back when I was a recreational abseiler we almost never saw climbers, and if we did, we used another part of the cliff to them. This is simple courtesy as no-one wants to be the wearer of anything dislodged by either activity.

These days I still expect that courtesy.
Any participants involved in either activity that have an ounce of adventure seeking within them would probably prefer a bit of seclusion to pursue it, rather than queuing up at a crowded venue, thus lessening their time to do it.
Most abseiling situations that have the potential for conflict with others are easily resolved with some communication with them beforehand.

PeterW
21-Jul-2017
12:42:35 PM
As people would have seen in my post in the 'Getting started' thread recently, I too started out abseiling before getting into climbing. And like M9, I too did a lot of experimentation with gear, methods, locations, etc. which stood me in good stead later in the "real world" of climbing. (Although unlike M9, none of it involved caves or waterfalls. I'm not unhappy about that...)

I don't consider those days as particularly dangerous as I was pretty OCD about safety, although I suppose modern gear and thinking would make some of it look a little less comfortable. As M9 also says, back in the day there were fewer climbers and climbing areas, so finding "quiet" places to abseil was easier. (Not to mention not always requiring rock - buildings, bridges, trees were all good!)

Being an experienced abseiler with obsessive attention to detail is probably the only reason I'm alive (or at least uninjured) today. In my early days of actual climbing as a teenager, I ran into difficulties on the first pitch of a climb at Hanging Rock. I couldn't go up or down or escape off, and there was no pro (which was a lot of the problem). For reasons that completely escape me now, I was carrying a Leeper skyhook. So I'm probably one of the few people in the world who has abseiled off a skyhook. It was a VERY smooth abseil...

And before the flaming starts - I consider this the most insane thing I've done in my life, and blame it on the usual teenage (lack of) sense of "invulnerability". I didn't think about it for many years, but as I got older I literally had panic attacks thinking back on it! :-)
Karl Bromelow
21-Jul-2017
1:43:25 PM
Whatever lights your candle, I suppose, but abseiling for fun/adventure whilst not being at all knowledgeable about the rock climb you are descending can cause problems.

I haven't come across "recreational abseilers" since migrating but in my previous life in the UK occasionally did and had to have words with them.
Abseilers without route knowledge are quite capable of messing up climbs. This could be temporary, as with the transfer of dirt down a crag and potentially onto crucial holds or permanent as with breaking of crucial holds by big booted individuals unconcerned about what they're kicking off. This becomes more critical if the line of descent is also a hard rock climb.
I saw this on gritstone where abseilers in hiking boots were chucking themselves down an E6 only possible because of crucial small pebbles.

Like ODH, I don't really get it as worthy activity for anybody other than middle aged office workers raising money for charity off the side of a six story building. I realise this is just my biased perspective akin to surfers vs the majority of SUPers. But amongst the climbing community "recreational abseilers" will always be considered rather goofy, sad and into it for silly fairground thrills or deluded perceptions of toughness rather than for any genuine physical challenge or the beauty of movement and the pleasure of complex problem solving in a usually magical environment.
Unless of course you are an SRT caver in which case it's totally valid. I've done that a few times but the abseiling was a means to an end, as it is in climbing, not the end in itself. Now if you wanted to take up "recreational belaying", I'm sure climbers would learn to get along with you much more readily.

JamesMc
21-Jul-2017
10:06:40 PM
I've done some pretty exciting abseils over the years, generally involving anchors that could barely be trusted to hold body weight. That's a sort of excitement I could do without.

Groveller
22-Jul-2017
7:44:16 PM
Went abseiling 20 years ago with a friend at Hanging Rock. Found it ho-hum and didn't continue. Friends and I enjoy abseiling off long multi pitch climbs rather than walking down. When people think I climb for abseiling its obvious they don't understand the joy of climbing.

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