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Fire affected crags?

shawn

3-Mar-2009
8:14:57 PM

Hi everyone. My girl and I are heading south (from qld) for a 5 week climbing trip next week. I am hoping someone can fill me in on the victorian crags (particularly buffalo, gramps and araps) as to wether they are affected/ closed or whatever with the fire situation? cheers, shawn

Paz

3-Mar-2009
8:33:08 PM

They're all good

pharmamatt

3-Mar-2009
8:44:54 PM

what about ben cairn and cathedral ranges?

shawn

3-Mar-2009
9:12:54 PM

Awesome. Thanks for that.

bl@ke

3-Mar-2009
9:21:33 PM

On 3/03/2009 pharmamatt wrote:
>what about ben cairn and cathedral ranges?

yeah whats the deal with them? the fires were really close to the cathedrals but i dont know if they were burnt or not. i hope they wernt : (

davetheyounger

3-Mar-2009
10:58:57 PM

As part of my work with the D.S.E i was sent to the Cathedrals to start rehab work. The news is not good. The fire burned hot from the Jawbones south. The park will be closed for a considerable period.

patto

3-Mar-2009
11:50:08 PM

On 3/03/2009 davetheyounger wrote:
>As part of my work with the D.S.E i was sent to the Cathedrals to start
>rehab work. The news is not good. The fire burned hot from the Jawbones
>south. The park will be closed for a considerable period.

First comfirmation I had of that. I had figured as such. With all the fire around It would have been unlikely to miss cathedrals. :-( I loved that place.

Wendy

4-Mar-2009
6:50:09 AM

Check Buffalo with Parks Vic before you go - although not alight, it's been closed purely for high fire risk recently.

Pat

4-Mar-2009
10:10:11 AM

Parks Vic site has the status of Cathedral etc...

dalai

4-Mar-2009
10:12:00 AM

On 3/03/2009 davetheyounger wrote:
>As part of my work with the D.S.E i was sent to the Cathedrals to start
>rehab work. The news is not good. The fire burned hot from the Jawbones
>south. The park will be closed for a considerable period.

Any chance you were able to see if there is significant fire damage to the rock in the area? Thinking in particular of the bouldering around the Sugarloaf carpark...

davetheyounger

4-Mar-2009
2:25:05 PM

The rock looks ok, I walked to the sugarloaf boulder, and there didn't seem to be any fracturing or fire damage. with the rest of the range it will have to wait till we send a team along the range. I am based in Alex and am trying to be part of that group so that climbing has a look in.

dalai

4-Mar-2009
2:49:43 PM

Thanks for the details Davetheyounger...

NEVERCLIMBED32

29-Jul-2009
1:26:02 PM

Any update on the Cathedrals. Parks website is a little light on detail.

NEVERCLIMBED32

30-Jul-2009
1:45:58 PM

I'm just hoping Parks don't use the recent fires as an excuse to limit climbing in the Cathedral Range like they did following the fires at Wilsons Prom some years ago. (2004 I think). As far as I am aware the restrictions put in place then were never lifted and following last summers fires probabley never will be.
It would be an easy management option for Parks. No climbing allowed = no liability for them. Seems to be working for them down at the Prom.

Access T CliffCare

30-Jul-2009
10:06:10 PM

On 30/07/2009 NEVERCLIMBED32 wrote:
>I'm just hoping Parks don't use the recent fires as an excuse to limit
>climbing in the Cathedral Range like they did following the fires at Wilsons
>Prom some years ago. (2004 I think). As far as I am aware the restrictions
>put in place then were never lifted and following last summers fires probabley
>never will be.
>It would be an easy management option for Parks. No climbing allowed =
>no liability for them. Seems to be working for them down at the Prom.

Hi,

I am going to be contacting the Ranger at Cathedral tomorrow, so will let you know the latest. When I last spoke to him, he was keen to engage our offered help to get the areas open. They were just starting some of the risk inspections at that time and from some feedback I have heard, they have recently been doing some work in the area. As has been mentioned before though, the area was very badly burnt, particularly the jawbone area, so being prepared for a longer closure is being realistic about the situation. Climbing has quite a long and strong history at the Cathedrals and from my discussions with the Ranger, I certainly didn't get any sense that this would be a great opportunity for PV to end climbing there.

Cheers,

Tracey

Fish Boy

30-Jul-2009
11:29:26 PM

I know of some climbers who have climbed at North Jawbones one month ago. They said that the track up to the crag was had all the wooden steps partially burnt and the bridge gone at the bottom. The fire had reached the cliff base and plants were scorched up to half eight on Spiegals Overhang. They found a sling two pitches up SO which wasn't burnt....

Hugh

31-Jul-2009
7:52:10 AM

walked to ben cairn last week.. Didn't know the road was closed during the snow season... However, much to wet to get any real climbing in. As for fire, doesn't appear to have reached that far and the park is open

Access T CliffCare

19-Aug-2009
10:45:03 AM

Hi All,

Spoke to the ranger at Cathedrals. The target opening date is end of October. Cup weekend.
There has been a lot of work going on clearing trees and getting the park to a state where people can visit. Some tracks are closed such as Friends nature walk and possibly the track that goes through the Farmyard area. They are wanting to realign this track so work might or might not have started on that by then. You can still access North Jawbone where most people do which is by turning right heading up to the cliff base steeply, rather than continue left through to the Farmyard. Basically all the climbing areas are still accessible, its just some of the walking tracks which need work. Neds Gully and Mills Campground were untouched by the fire so camping is ok.
From what the ranger has said, the view is amazing!! As in, you can see everything across the park now. This obviously means that cliffs more difficult to access will be easier now. The idea to keep in mind is be thoughtful about the track you are creating. While a steep track might get you there quicker, the damage it creates once it gets used a lot is severe and sometimes difficult to repair once done. There will be no ground cover, making erosion a definite. The damage has been severe so be prepared to see a very different Cathedrals. As for rock quality, not a huge amount of inspection has gone on. Some of the boulders have some exfoliation on them. As quite a few of the climbing areas are heavily visited by groups there is not a lot of vegetation close to the cliff so this could have meant less impact heat wise. But as always, be aware that the area has been fire damaged and take care and precaution when considering what you are doing and what you are climbing.

When we get in there, we will get a better idea if anything needs to be done from a climbing and climbing access perspective. Possibly the steep track up to the Jawbones might benefit from a little stabilizing as it was pretty bad in sections before the fire. Maybe even a little consultation might work re tracks accessing uncovered cliffs.

Cheers,

Tracey

There are 18 messages in this topic.