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Chockstone Forum - Trip Reports

Tells Us About Your Latest Trip!

 Page 4 of 4. Messages 1 to 20 | 21 to 40 | 41 to 60 | 61 to 78
Author
Werribee Gorge Nobs
gfdonc
7-Aug-2006
11:48:08 AM
Just for the record, Werribee was very pleasant yesterday. Only 4 climbers there. Sunny at times. No wind. No dogs in sight ('cept perhaps for those 2 stuck at the 4th bolt on Snatch 'n Grab ;-).
- Steve

Brad;)
17-Oct-2006
12:41:39 PM
BAck to the more important issue of this forum; RIP biscuit! IS this True?!!

rhinckle
17-Oct-2006
1:09:11 PM
what about some perspective.

think about the amount of carbon dioxide being dumped into the atmosphere by climbers climbers driving to crags?

When you think about it they are heros:
droughts = less revegetation on trad routes, more climbing days and when the sea level rises, hey, we're climbing mountains!

plus when our agriculture goes belly up, the really expensive food will make it easier to lose weight.

Climboholic
17-Oct-2006
4:42:45 PM
Ahhh, this is the funnest thread I've read in a long time. Hours of entertainment for all.

On 17/10/2006 Brad;) wrote:
>BAck to the more important issue of this forum; RIP biscuit! IS this True?!!

If it is, the climbing community has lost its greatest inspiration, and I've lost my role model. (sob sob)

But I do believe Biscuit has a son to carry on her legacy!

On 4/08/2006 neb wrote:
>And before I cop it for being a tree hugging hippy

I wouldn't dream of it! I've never met a hippy as uptight as you.

On 2/08/2006 NEVERCLIMBED32 wrote:

>People like you cause access problems for everyone.
>Sorry just dosn't cut it I'm afraid.
>Your excuse is pathetic and so are you.

If your disproportionate reaction to Sally being at Weribee Gorge is supposed to be some sort of joke, the humor is lost on me. Otherwise you need to chill out and get some perspective. In case you didn't realise, most people like dy are disregarding nebs cynicism with a bit of light hearted humor.

It's people like you that cause access problems by making such a fuss about something like this.

Billy admitted it was wrong to have his dog there. Personally I would have been a lot angrier if I saw the dog locked in the car. Apparently Sally didn't destroy any of the pristine wilderness in Weribee Gorge. There are much bigger issues to get so worked up about.

As for punishments:

On 2/08/2006 NEVERCLIMBED32 wrote:
>If you are as you say the president of the RMIT Outdoors Club then you
>should resign as by your actions you have shown you are not fit to hold
>such a position.

I couldn't agree more. Billy should throw himself on his sword. He is dragging the good name of a highly respected organisation through the dirt. Just look at the street cred they have with activities such as the annual (have way too many c--ktails, squeeze into a filthy spa until there is no room to move then get naked at random intervals during the night) spa party.

But that's not taking it far enough:

On 2/08/2006 simey wrote:

>I think the club president's genitalia should be lopped off and fed to
>the dog.

Sally doesn't have any genitalia that could be easily 'lopped off'. Neither does Billy.

>Meanwhile any virgins who are members of RMIT Outdoors Club should be
>sacrificied in a quest to appease the Werribee Gorge Gods.

I think this is a punishment that the RMIT club might just be able to live with.

Paradise
18-Oct-2006
11:28:32 AM
On 17/10/2006 rhinckle wrote:
>what about some perspective.
>
>think about the amount of carbon dioxide being dumped into the atmosphere
>by climbers climbers driving to crags?
>
>When you think about it they are heros:
>droughts = less revegetation on trad routes, more climbing days and when
>the sea level rises, hey, we're climbing mountains!
>

I'm looking forward to deep water soloing at Araps :)
pity we will have to endure all the hot, windy, crap weather in the mean time. I don't think climate change is going to be kind to us climbers :(
dalai
18-Oct-2006
11:29:57 AM
More dry warmer Winters??

IdratherbeclimbingM9
18-Oct-2006
11:32:10 AM
On 18/10/2006 dalai wrote:
>More dry warmer Winters??
... offset by scorching waterless summers?
dalai
18-Oct-2006
11:59:02 AM
On 18/10/2006 M9iswhereitsat wrote:
>On 18/10/2006 dalai wrote:
>>More dry warmer Winters??
>... offset by scorching waterless summers?

What's with the negativity?

...always look on the bright side of life!

IdratherbeclimbingM9
18-Oct-2006
12:02:36 PM
You are right.
... and now I have that tune running through my head; ... which has distracted my focus from the little whoppa tree found only in Vic National Parks, & which is easily damaged by inflammatory comments in cyberspace !
Paul
6-Jul-2008
10:48:18 AM
I'm just using this thread because it allready exists (I'm not calling anyone a nob)

While climbing at Werribee Gorge yesterday I was shocked at the number of climbers who were using only a single bolt for their belays, with no form of redundancy. I would hate to see a fellow climber suffer an injury or worse from a preventable mistake like this.

On a different note. I took my home made portaledge substitute down to the gorge to try out, it worked with mixed sucess, but I wasn't looking to carrying between 5 to 10 kg of aluminium back to the car. When we were ready to leave I noticed a sling hanging half way up the cliff. The group next to us had a cam which was overcammed and stuck. After they had had a series of unsucessful attempts to retrieve it and failed I offered to have a go and ended up being sucessful in retrieving it. They were very greatful and asked what the cost was. I said that they could carry the frame of my home made ledge back to the car for me. I didn't actually expect this to hapen. But they did and I didn't get the chance to say thankyou as they had left by the time I got to the carpark so thankyou whoever you were.

Paul

IdratherbeclimbingM9
6-Jul-2008
11:50:57 AM
Thanks for posting this Paul. It is good to hear positive posts / good karma.
Also good to hear that the spirit of innovation & adventure is still alive and healthy. Your ledge sounds like it will reward your efforts.
Are you considering making a rain-fly?
If constructing on the cheap, then you may find that the plastic covering off a double mattress; sometimes available from mattress stores (or their bins, heh, heh, heh); makes a fair 'emergency one' for light rain conditions.
Paul
6-Jul-2008
6:02:53 PM
On 6/07/2008 IdratherbeclimbingM9 wrote:
>Thanks for posting this Paul. It is good to hear positive posts / good
>karma.
>Also good to hear that the spirit of innovation & adventure is still alive
>and healthy. Your ledge sounds like it will reward your efforts.
>Are you considering making a rain-fly?
>If constructing on the cheap, then you may find that the plastic covering
>off a double mattress; sometimes available from mattress stores (or their
>bins, heh, heh, heh); makes a fair 'emergency one' for light rain conditions.
>

Working on a rain fly, I will probably use a tarp or the fly off an old tent (or I will just wait untill summer to use it).

ado_m
7-Jul-2008
12:58:29 PM
Paul

I was at Werribbe Gorge when your group with the portaledge came in - I understand that this was Monash?

Agree using a single anchor (however bomber) is lazy, not something I would do. But, personally, I think taking a lead fall on some of the rusty bolts at Werrribee or leading anything on trad at that choss pit is significantly more dangerous than bringing up a second on a single belay pilon.

Next time your group is there, there are a few things that could be done better to smooth over things with the other climbers there:

- the leader has a quiet word to the people who are already there, to let them know which routes your group plans to work. If you're out with a mate for a quiet day out, having 15-20 people with 5 top rope setups and a crazy portaledge slung down SPQR is a bit grating. We moved to the side wall asap to get away from the circus.

- the guys setting up your anchors should be very careful both not to kick stones on people leading routes. I had a stone kicked down upon me when the guy setting up the top rope didn't even bother to look over and check if I was there.

- when someone is waiting to lead a route - and that's been made clear to the leader of your group - wait until they have finished and cleaned the route (ie. 30 minutes) before throwing down the top rope as a matter of courtesy.

There was a distinct bad vibe between your massive group and the other climbers on the cliff - no doubt from contributions both way. A bit of friendliness and conversation upfront would really smooth things over.

Adrian



Paul
7-Jul-2008
2:42:04 PM
On 7/07/2008 ado_m wrote:
>Paul
>
>I was at Werribbe Gorge when your group with the portaledge came in -
>I understand that this was Monash?

Yes
>
>Agree using a single anchor (however bomber) is lazy, not something I
>would do. But, personally, I think taking a lead fall on some of the rusty
>bolts at Werrribee or leading anything on trad at that choss pit is significantly
>more dangerous than bringing up a second on a single belay pilon.
>

I found the natural gear avaliable there mostly solid and more than adequate and most of the bolts there that I saw were newish looking stainless.

>Next time your group is there, there are a few things that could be done
>better to smooth over things with the other climbers there:
>
>- the leader has a quiet word to the people who are already there, to
>let them know which routes your group plans to work.

We did this at both the top and bottom of the cliff.

If you're out with
>a mate for a quiet day out, having 15-20 people with 5 top rope setups

Actually we had 10 people and 3 top ropes, I think it is possible that you are confusing the monash group with other people who were there as well.

>and a crazy portaledge slung down SPQR is a bit grating. We moved to the
>side wall asap to get away from the circus.
>

I did wait till the end of the day before stting up my ledge and asked whether anyone else wanted to climb on that particular face first.

>- the guys setting up your anchors should be very careful both not to
>kick stones on people leading routes. I had a stone kicked down upon me
>when the guy setting up the top rope didn't even bother to look over and
>check if I was there.

Not sure who this was, but I admit that I did knock one small stone over the edge when checking a top rope and anchor which I had allready setup and was suprised to find someone had started leading bellow. It is not difficult to accidentially disslodge loose rocks from the top of werribee gorge as there is a lot of loose rock near the edge and you need to be near the edge to see over it. If it was me wo disslodged the small stone onto you I appologise however the person who I disslodged the 20c size stone onto did start leading where there was obizously an existing top rope setup.

>
>- when someone is waiting to lead a route - and that's been made clear
>to the leader of your group - wait until they have finished and cleaned
>the route (ie. 30 minutes) before throwing down the top rope as a matter
>of courtesy.

One of the routes which we setup a top rope on had people leading on it, we waited untill they had finished, I then from the top of the cliff asked members of my group to ask whether anyone else was waiting to lead it. The responce I got was that some people were waiting but they had changed their mind and decided to climb something else instead. I then proceded to setup a toprope. after doing this I went to check the anchors setup by other members of my group. After this I returned to put some rope protectors on one of the top ropes only to find that someone had pulled our toprope down from the bottom and began leading the climb themselves. It is possible that there could have been a misscommunation, but members of my group said that permission was not asked to do this, very poor form indeed. I do not know whether this was you or some one else and I mean no dissrespect.




>
>There was a distinct bad vibe between your massive group and the other
>climbers on the cliff - no doubt from contributions both way.

I spent a bit over half an hour of that day removing stuck pieces of gear from the rock for others not in my group, good or bad vibe? Remember that a lot of the participants in group top roping are beginers and therefore may not be completely up to speed with general climbing ethics but they have to start somewhere.

A bit of
>friendliness and conversation upfront would really smooth things over.
>
>
>Adrian
>
>
>

We did send someone down the bottom of the cliff to do this at the beginning of the day before we started setting up to communicate with the climbers who wre allready there.

I do not believe that there was anything wrong with the way in which I or members of our group conducted them selves while they were around me, however it seems clear that you are unhappy with some of the happenings during your day climbing at the gorge so please accept my most sincear appologies for any way inwhich myself or the group which I was climbing with contributed to this.

regards Paul


ado_m
7-Jul-2008
3:53:25 PM
Thanks Paul, that's a decent reply - I can see you are genuinely conscious of the impact of large groups on the atmosphere of the crag. I may well have aggregated the Monash group with another bunch who was there.

I pulled your top rope. You're right - there was a communication error here, and it's a problem with a lot of people on a small cliff - before pulling it, I asked someone from your group if I could pull the rope, and she had no problems with that provided I put it back up afterwards. Before that, I explained to her that I had been queing to do the route before you guys got there, and that my friends had asked the leader installing the top rope to hold off for a few minutes until I came back from taking a crap (but the message didn't quite make it for whatever reason). It was quite a long dump I admit.

I guess I'm just anxious about large groups (commercial, university or otherwise) dominating cliffs, and that's a subtext of my earlier post and deciding to pull the rope. That said, there is plenty of rock out there, and are more conciliatory approach would have been to climb another route or just move the rope over...

Paul
7-Jul-2008
4:29:35 PM
I understand that large groups can have a big impact on the atmosphere of a crag, but lets not forget that university groups, commercial operations or school climbing trips were how many of us got our introduction to the sport. Group management and communication with larger groups can be difficult at times. The paitence ant tollerence of others is always appreciated even though it may not be clearly evident at the time.

Paul

Capt_mulch
7-Jul-2008
4:42:41 PM
It sounds like everyone needs to communicate more. I went to Thompsons Point at Nowra the other week and it was packed, including a large group from ANU. I was really impressed how everyone (from NooB to beard stroker) worked in together and made some new friends at the same time. Places like Werribee Gorge, you gotta expect the situation that was described. Perfect excuse to talk to other people and maybe help each other out...

Hey, there was even a Cam Angel walking around at Nowra lending cams on the bits that needed that extra bit of pro.

foreverabumbly
7-Jul-2008
9:48:02 PM
As a climber, I hate when uni or school groups are at the crag Im at, I have had ropes dropped on my head from top ropers who dont look down, knocking me off my climb I was leading. It sucks to see a rope sit all day on a climb you want to, and the noise is grinding.

As a Uni student I am now one of those groups and I hate climbers who pull top ropes and who walk around in self righteous arrogance..

As an instructor I have to find a way to keep both happy and to live together.

it only works if all people WANT it to work

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There are 78 messages in this topic.

 

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