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General Climbing Discussion

Topic Date User

New anchors at Araps - What do you reckon? 9-Jan-2017 At 2:43:44 PM kieranl

Message

In general I don't get too fussed about abseil stations. I'd rather people end up back at the base without having to go down descent gullies and trog back to the base.

Let's say you do Yo-Yo to Flinders Lane, leaving bags at the base and go down Alis First you and your team walk to the base. Now you do the climb and descend Alis. Now you go down the eroded trail past the Fang buttress and all trog back to the base to get your gear. Now walk back to camp.

You've covered the track between Bard buttress and base of the climb 3 times and the track past Fang once. If you'd abseiled down Ab Fab you would have only covered the track from the base of Bard to Yo-Yo twice. You'ld have reduced your erosion impact on the place significantly for this one climb.

I know that I can walk down from the RWF faster than I can abseil it, but I choose to abseil it to reduce my contribution to erosion.

And I have to disagree with Simey about the condition of the Mitre descent routes. The track down past Hells Bells, where a lot of work has been done in the past, is falling apart and the Deacon side has tracks going everywhere.

During the cooler months I've regularly seen parties simultaneously on Ab Fab, Skylark and Kestrel so demand for the rap anchors can be quite high. I'd also be happy if someone put proper hangers on the Kestrel anchor instead of using the chain-links as make-shift hangers. Gives me the willies that does.