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Chockstone Forum - General Discussion

General Climbing Discussion

Author
Roadside rock exhibits exhaust spooge, sacrebleu!

arniearms
12-Jun-2012
11:40:25 AM
There's a sneaky bouldering rain cave next to a busy road on the Sydney Northshore, rock good, climbing good, spooge bad.

Rock is mostly very solid, smooth slopey ledges. The problem is the rock is covered in exhaust particles that leaves a greasy feel to the rock.

With all this rain lately I was thinking of spending a few hours cleaning up problems.

Has anyone tried cleaning product on rock before (in this case to remove road grime), I dont think just plain water will work in this case as the grease is a build up of layers over many years.

At the moment I can think of 3 cleaning options:

* Dishwash
* Floor cleaner (eg earths choice grey water safe)
* Carwash (non waxing)

Strategy would be using minimal detergent, maximum elbow grease, a sacrificial towel and rinse thoroughly with water when finished. I just want the rock to be nice and clean afterwards and not trash the environment for other future generations to enjoy (haha, probably as an extra lane for their car).

Anyone tried anything like this? Alternatives etc...



benjenga
12-Jun-2012
12:42:43 PM
Degreaser?
Try a test patch of all your suggestions with a stiff nylon brush and seen what works best.
Photos?

nmonteith
12-Jun-2012
1:06:09 PM
Be careful of bleaches - some of the 'color' of the rock is usually microscopic lichen and moss which get killed by harsh chemicals.

Big G
12-Jun-2012
2:16:23 PM
sounds grim.

solutions....try another cave?

deadbudgy
12-Jun-2012
4:00:23 PM
Really? It must be pretty special because that sounds like alot of effort.
One Day Hero
12-Jun-2012
4:32:54 PM
I think that the reason I got into climbing was because of the opportunities offered by the sport to travel the world and scrub exhaust residue off poxy little crumbleblocks which are situated within 5m of a major road.

Actually, that's only half of the story. I also dreamed of climbing disintegrating choss in Melbourne above a landing of discarded needles.

dear Shortman and Arniearms..............rockclimbing; you're doing it wrong!!

arniearms
12-Jun-2012
8:44:45 PM
Anomaly detected, must launch piss on parade sequence.

42ml of rainfall yesterday, rain again today, new (rain) cave mostly dry (some seepage, but will hold up nicely after light/moderate).

Rock climbing = fail, what because I logged off chockie, went outside & did something that involved climbing (scoping new lines, spraying a bit earths choice GP cleaner, washing with water and dabbing with paper towels).

It was a fun arvo, and will offer about 10 boulder probs from easy --> mutant.

Rock is actually well above average for sydney chossstone, but yeah being 5m from the road dosnt help it's appeal, however being a stones throw from a river does :)

Its good to have new options instead of sessioning the same hunks of rock that I was hugging 10+ years ago.

Hero, I will send u a post card from NZ next month when I'm scrubbing up a 'new' pile of choss in a sea of 10000 boulders.


shortman
12-Jun-2012
10:08:03 PM
On 12/06/2012 One Day Hero wrote:

>
>dear Shortman and Arniearms..............rockclimbing; you're doing it
>wrong!!

Well it's funny you say that.

I was thinking about this on the weekend. Keep in mind that for no particular reason I just one day started to climb things. This was probably about 6 months before I'd ever walked into a climbing store. Anyway, I remember the first time I ever saw a guidebook with lines and routes and grades and shit and I remember even more clearly thinkin this is wack. You just look at whatever you wanna climb and climb it. All the other shit just makes it confusing.

I climbed a few things solo on the weekend around Melbourne and the climbing was generally shit or easy but f--- it was fun doing it wrong.

So the whole reason I'm tellin you this Damo is that I had to clean rat shit, piss and grease off a beam on the underside of a bridge that I self belayed off of on the weekend. And in my sad and sorry little existence it was strangely satisfying.


shortman
12-Jun-2012
11:05:51 PM
On 12/06/2012 arniearms wrote:
>There's a sneaky bouldering rain cave next to a busy road on the Sydney
>Northshore, rock good, climbing good, spooge bad.
>
>Rock is mostly very solid, smooth slopey ledges. The problem is the rock
>is covered in exhaust particles that leaves a greasy feel to the rock.
>
>
>With all this rain lately I was thinking of spending a few hours cleaning
>up problems.
>
>Has anyone tried cleaning product on rock before (in this case to remove
>road grime), I dont think just plain water will work in this case as the
>grease is a build up of layers over many years.
>
>At the moment I can think of 3 cleaning options:
>
>* Dishwash
>* Floor cleaner (eg earths choice grey water safe)
>* Carwash (non waxing)
>
>Strategy would be using minimal detergent, maximum elbow grease, a sacrificial
>towel and rinse thoroughly with water when finished. I just want the rock
>to be nice and clean afterwards and not trash the environment for other
>future generations to enjoy (haha, probably as an extra lane for their
>car).
>
>Anyone tried anything like this? Alternatives etc...
>
>
>
I reckon the secret with stuff like this arniearms is to just go out and do ya thing. Don't even bother mentioning it on Chockstone and have fun in ya shitty little cave that no one else climbs at. Clean it, climb it, smoke a bong in it, whatever. Sounds like good times.
One Day Hero
13-Jun-2012
12:16:17 AM
On 12/06/2012 arniearms wrote:
>
>Hero, I will send u a post card from NZ next month when I'm scrubbing
>up a 'new' pile of choss in a sea of 10000 boulders.
>
Castle Hill? Excellent, you'll have an awesome time. Make sure to go back to your exhaust boulder immediately upon your return, and see if it still seems like a worthwhile objective. It's amazing how extended exposure to good climbing will reset your threshold for the minimum acceptable standard.
One Day Hero
13-Jun-2012
12:24:10 AM
On 12/06/2012 shortman wrote:

>So the whole reason I'm tellin you this Damo is that I had to clean rat
>shit, piss and grease off a beam on the underside of a bridge that I self
>belayed off of on the weekend. And in my sad and sorry little existence
>it was strangely satisfying.
>
Shorty, I know we disagree a little on spiritual stuff, but you gotta listen to me on this. We were not put on this earth.......well, we weren't put on this earth at all, it's evolution and all that shit, but that isn't the point!

.......if we were, in some way, put here, it sure as fuch was not done so that we could scrub piss and rat shit off some poxy bridge! There are better ways to spend your climbing life, go find 'em!

arniearms
13-Jun-2012
6:44:51 AM
Ha, it's a slow week on chocky, wasnt expecting too serious an answer, but this kind of thing surely has crossed other climbers minds (eg cleaning birdshit off a climb). Anyway I provide a solution (GP eco friendly cleaner), and the usual chockstone antics provided amusement.



>I reckon the secret with stuff like this arniearms is to just go out and
>do ya thing. Don't even bother mentioning it on Chockstone and have fun
>in ya shitty little cave that no one else climbs at. Clean it, climb it,
>smoke a bong in it, whatever. Sounds like good times.

Miguel75
13-Jun-2012
12:39:55 PM
On 13/06/2012 One Day Hero wrote:
>Shorty, I know we disagree a little on spiritual stuff, but you gotta
>listen to me on this. We were not put on this earth.......well, we weren't
>put on this earth at all, it's evolution and all that shit, but that isn't
>the point!

ODH you are wrong, you are so wrong!

If you haven't seen Prometheous yet you should get on it. It'll answer all the 'evolution' questions once and for all! ;)

EDIT: I'm with Shortman on this, climbing is fun. It doesn't need to be Araps/Gramps style radness to qualify as fun. I say clean it, climb it and laugh about climbing in your own private Idaho....
One Day Hero
13-Jun-2012
1:08:46 PM
Ergh, don't get me started on Prometheus.

Has Ridley Scott's brain dropped out? He's going to make Bladerunner 2!?!?

BundyBear
13-Jun-2012
3:08:50 PM
Has anyone checked out the roadside bouldering next to the Helensburgh exit sign on the F6 freeway. Pretty Cool ! Good stop for a piss break after 6 subbies on the way home from Nowra..
dalai
13-Jun-2012
3:17:30 PM
On 13/06/2012 BundyBear wrote:
>Has anyone checked out the roadside bouldering next to the Helensburgh
>exit sign on the F6 freeway. Pretty Cool ! Good stop for a piss break
>after 6 subbies on the way home from Nowra..

Might need stronger cleaning products than those used by Arniearms if others have also used it as a toilet...

Miguel75
13-Jun-2012
5:09:33 PM
On 13/06/2012 One Day Hero wrote:
>Ergh, don't get me started on Prometheus.

I didn't mind it at all. It certainly wasn't as masterful as Alien or Aliens but pretty good none the less.

>Has Ridley Scott's brain dropped out? He's going to make Bladerunner 2!?!?

Bladerunner should be heritage listed and left alone!


arniearms
13-Jun-2012
5:23:04 PM
On 12/06/2012 benjenga wrote:
>Photos?

All in good time, need a bit more sunshine.

Phil S
15-Jun-2012
6:36:41 PM
>bouldering rain cave next to a busy road on the Sydney Northshore, rock good, climbing good, spooge bad.

Nice description. I'd like to guess the venue...

Burns Bay Rd at Linley Point?

When Smog takes over the world your research efforts will be appreciated by us all.

There are 19 messages in this topic.

 

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