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Chockstone Forum - General Discussion

General Climbing Discussion

Topic Date User
death bolts and tree cutting at Earlwood 8-Mar-2010 At 3:09:29 PM aforrest
Message
G'day, this is the other "Andrew" in question. I hadn't realised this topic had raised so much much interest in what has happened down in little old Earlwood so I'll throw in what I know to shed some more light on the story. (Thank you Mike for starting up the topic).

I came across the recent dodgy bolting and tree removal a few weeks ago. I contacted the NPWS to alert them of these actions and organised a meeting to discus their removal. The bolts were that poorly set that we were able to unscrew a couple of them simply by hand on that day. The remainder (with the exception of the one Neil removed) were taken out the following day by the ranger.

We assessed the entire cliff top for other signs of disturbance and found that it had been limited to this one site. I highlighted how poorly and dangerously the placement of the bolts were both in the setting of them and in their positioning in relationship to the existing bolts. I then showed the ranger what a sound bolt should look like from the existing ones at the top of the cliff . There was never any discussion of testing the existing bolts nor to their removal and I don't believe this to be cause for concern.

Baffled why the new bolts would have been so poorly positioned to the existing bolts/anchors in terms of providing a back up anchor we could only surmise that whoever did this job had such limited knowledge of bolting safely that they likey be some local teenagers who would have liked to try their hand at it. I think this even more likely when you stop to think how the trees and bushes cleared from the top were indiscriminantly and recklessly lobbed over the edge to be found strewn across the track. It could be a fellow climber but its hard to imagine any climber could display such reckless and criminal behaviour in a national park.

Personally I'm appalled by these actions having climbed at this spot and enjoyed the only bit of bushland around the region for the past 18 years. I could not stress strongly enough to the rangers that these actions are not representative nor accepted by the climbing community.The guys responsible for the park know this and are grateful that there is a local climbing community proactive in the preservation of these areas. While they also appreciate the fact that there is self policing on these kind of matters they were also thankful that this problem was brought to their attention. Personally, I think working together with the land care groups helps foster a good long term working relationship between preservation and recreation within the park.

If you know who might have done this PM me and I can discuss it with the rangers further. I know they are keen to get to the bottom of it so that these death bolts don't reappear somewhere else.

Cheers






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