Welcome to this new segment of qurank. 

qurank has been receiving plenty of letters since it started, so I've decided to start publishing some of them here. Feel free to reply to letters you see here, or otherwise vent your opinions. Climbing community discussion is the aim. There isn't much in this segment now, but there will be in future issues.

 

Terror Tourists At Frog Sunday 16th April I met up with three other mates from Toowoomba for a pleasant day of easy sociable climbing. Upon arriving in the vicinity of Mechanical Prune, we heard a crash in the scrub below us, falling rock, 30 seconds later another crash. Somebody was throwing rocks from near the tourist lookout above us. Obviously we started putting on a performance to attract their attention, the rock rain stopped, they must have heard us.  Later on in the day we were over near the scree slope, we couldn't help but notice a group of young tourists climbing some of the easy grade climbs with no ropes. What was real scary was one guy asking one of the girls to take his picture so she has to do a scramble down slope to the top of the climb unroped of course. Whilst this was transpiring she kicks a small boulder over the edge for which she apologises profusely. After they were done climbing they all proceeded to the edge of the cliff to look at the top of Corner Of Eden, 35 metres off the deck.  My purpose for this little story is to place on record these sort of potentially fatal incidences for future reference and use for when the inevitable bunfight with bureaucracy happens over access to cliffs in general. We have already seen what they can do, look at Crookneck. Apart from that we had a wonderful day climbing. Cheers, Phil Box 26/4/2000

Anchors and Fixed Hangers On the subject of tree anchors the point I think Scott was making is that it would be possible to have tree anchors and eventually bolt anchors where there are not trees at the top of every climb. We can start with Frog and extend it to other places but where do we stop? I think it is a valid point that HAS BEEN TOTALLY MISSED in you editorial.  We certainly don't want to see the situation develop where newer climbers develop an expectation that there will be a fixed anchor on every climb do we? It is a matter of balance but the issue of restraint in developing climbing areas and the respect for the environment debate needs to be kept alive - there will always be newer climbers that will benefit not only from others techniques and technical knowledge but from the tradition of awe and respect that we have for natures most wild places. On another point - is there an increasing use of fixed hangers? I hope not. It is fairly unique in the world that we in Oz use predominately bolts without fixed hangers and it is something that I am proud of for a number of reasons. They are more environmentally friendly, less obtrusive for other users of the parks (and park rangers!). They also create a climber experience closer to leading on natural gear i.e.. at least you have to stop long enough to put the hanger on. Sometimes it even puts a little bit more find in the route finding. I hope we minimize the use of fixed hangers and climb harder instead. What do others think? PS I would rather see a glue-in bolt than a fixed hanger but I wonder do Australians really appreciate that having none fixed hangers is something a bit unique to OZ and something worth trying to keep? Bill Briner 4/3/2000

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