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Author

Lower offs on Trad routes

.

28-Apr-2004
1:46:09 PM

.

Damietta

28-Apr-2004
1:56:07 PM

I put said bolts in there last year. We had a corporate climbing weekend and I installed the bolts so that there would be a quick safe anchor for toproping. I thought the existing anchors looked dodge.

Back in canberra I had also fixed up some poorly protected routes, hence my interest in the retrobolting discussion thread.

Damietta

28-Apr-2004
2:08:27 PM

Ha ha. But in seriousness it probably was someone running a commercial operation. We had a plague of that in the Berra about 5 years ago. Local climbing gym was taking people outdoors on weekends and placed toprope anchors all over the rock at Gibraltar Peak and Orroral Ridge. Some of the offending bolts were pruned, but once they are in the damage is done - a chopped bolt almost looks worse than leaving it there

nmonteith

28-Apr-2004
2:16:34 PM

Most (if not all) of the rap anchors at Arapiles have been placed by the NBF in the last few years. They usually replace manky slings, old pitons ect. The routes you speak about don't have an easy safe walk off so the rings make it easier and safer. They are not visable to people below and are generally appriacted by anyone climbing at Arapiles. They were NOT installed as top-roping anchors for climbing guides or instruction groups.

Damietta

28-Apr-2004
2:21:02 PM

OK, fair enough. I just wanted to ask though : who are the NBF?

nmonteith

28-Apr-2004
2:28:55 PM

Have a big read through all the posts in the Safer Cliffs Forum. There has been quite a bit of discussion about this topic in the past.

Damietta

28-Apr-2004
2:30:43 PM

I thought you were pulling my leg, but I looked up the Natimuk Bolting Fairies on the web and found quite a few references to them. Classic name

Has anyone ever looked into the legal ramifications of something like this ie is it an issue? If you place a bolt and it pulls on someone do they have any redress - if you could call it that. Just wondering...

dalai

28-Apr-2004
2:40:39 PM

Lower offs at Arapiles in many cases replaced rap anchors which were a mass of useless sun damaged webbing. These were dangerous and visible from much further than what the ring bolts would be.

Environmentally far less damaging having a few bolts than people being funneled down fragile gully ecosystems.

nmonteith

28-Apr-2004
2:41:29 PM

I will say again...

Have a big read through all the posts in the Safer Cliffs Forum. There has been quite a bit of discussion about this topic in the past. Add your thoughts there not to this topic.. and maybe the NBF might actually read it.

deadpoint

28-Apr-2004
3:16:07 PM

Hiya Damo,

Out of interest which poorly protected routes did you fix in Canberra

anthonyk

28-Apr-2004
3:20:21 PM

i was surprised to find some at the end of the first pitch of oceanoid too, the pro there is pretty thin but there's enough to make an anchor so i was surprised someone put the bolts in. maybe as a quick rap off instead of walking around (you can walk off that ledge i think) but i thought that hardly fit with the general araps ethos.

nmonteith

28-Apr-2004
3:24:04 PM

i am going to kill this topic soon - please copy and paste your (useful) posts into the Arapiles topic on Safer Cliffs Forum please....

Damietta

28-Apr-2004
3:28:55 PM

Deadpoint, I was actually just being a goose with that comment. The bolts mysteriously appeared at Mushroom Rock, the Cloisters and Tower Rocks by parties unknown. It was suspected it was done by a commercial operation

kieranl

28-Apr-2004
11:01:00 PM

I haven't seen most of the rap anchors discussed here but I don't have a problem with any of the ones that I've seen as they'll reduce erosion in the gullies that would otherwise have been used for descents.

vwills

29-Apr-2004
3:48:56 PM

Although not in favour of unnecessary loweroffs on trad routes, this thread has brightened my day by raising the possibility of some harder climbing this weekend. I'm enquiring about loweroffs above climbs in the 18-20 range at Araps, not for toproping but because this weekend I'm there with a partner who probably can only manage seconding Gde 16. Happy to do some low grade classics but would like to get my teeth stuck into some intermediate routes which I can self clean while rapping back down the route off rings or a retrievable anchor position.
Any suggestions?

joemor

29-Apr-2004
3:53:48 PM

tannin. ?
the wraith?
im a little dinosaur?
im a little asteroid?

The Blond Gecko

29-Apr-2004
3:58:03 PM

Garden Gnome
Slap the Philanthropist

HM33

29-Apr-2004
4:06:10 PM

Chinese algebra, comic relif, new image..

shiltz

29-Apr-2004
4:07:52 PM

Wasp, Aardvark

vwills

29-Apr-2004
4:39:53 PM

Whoa-
thanks, should keep me out of mischief and make the belay slave curse you all.

There are 20 messages in this topic.