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Crookneck - Light at the End of the Tunnel?
The
following people attended a meeting with the Minister on 30 May 2000:
The people present at the meeting with the Minister consider it to have been a very sympathetic hearing. The Minister indicated that he would give further consideration to the submission given to him at the meeting and get back to CRAG. The recommendations in the submission were (briefly) as follows:
1.
Reopen Mt.Coonowrin with suitable signage warning of natural dangers; 3. Genuine general public consultation with interested stakeholders; 4. Resolution of liability issues; 5. The Minister recognise that there is broad public concern as to closure of other areas apart from Mt.Coonowrin.
--Extract from submission to Queensland Climbing Discussion List by John & Ursula Gardner.
So, if we are to believe The Minister, it seems there is light at the end of the tunnel after all.
Make sure to check out the CRAG homepage here or mail CRAG at crag@tweak.webcentral.com.au |
Ready, Aim, Smash, Drill
and Bash Late in May, the Brisbane City Council (BCC) went along the entire cliffline of Kangaroo Point and spraypainted large, pink bullseyes on any block that looked cracked or protruding. They topped that off with a smattering of yellow arrows and question marks. As soon as I saw this, I got in contact with the BCC who contacted their Parks section, and told me that they had not authorised any work whatsoever at the KP cliffs. I later found out that the painting was indeed the work of the BCC and they had been planning major work on the cliff during June and July. In early to mid June, they knocked off a lot of loose rock and begun pinning the cliff. "Pinning" basically involves drilling a bloody big hole, inserting a bloody big glue-in rod (recessed), and then patching over the mess with concrete. You can view past evidence of this practice on the Hanger Wall area of the cliff. On the 2nd of July, there were large holes drilled all over the climbed section of cliff. One climber's discussions with the work crew indicate that around 70 (!) of these pins will be going in along the length of the cliff. The purpose of this smash and drill work comes under the banner of "rock stabilisation". Considering my six years of climbing at Kangaroo Point and that I've been on 76 routes and never had a problem with loose rock on the cliffface, I find it surprising that effort is being expended on the cliff when there is so much degradation and instability above the cliff around the bollards. The only sizable rocks I've seen come down have been from people or top-rope setup's dislodging them from the top. View the entire discussion on this issue and post your thoughts here. --LS |
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Escalade 2001 -
Cancelled For a variety of reasons I'm unable to run Escalade in April 2001 as previously scheduled. The size of the festival and audience, the state of the administration of sport climbing in Australia and commitments to my other work are all factors in this decision. In order to cope with the continued growth of the festival and the associated logistics of bigger crowds, bigger venues etc, I was faced with options that would compromise some or all of [Escalade's] objectives. --Lucas Trihey Sent to the Escalade email list. View the full letter here. |
Naughty
"Climbers" On the 14th of June, channel Ten news broadcast a story regarding two canyoners that came to grief in a Blue Mountains National park while abseiling. Even though these people were clearly not climbers, nor were they even ascending anything, the reporter consistently called them "climbers" throughout the story. And you wonder why real climbers have such a bad reputation? The reporter interviewed a senior police official who said that these "extreme sports" need to be regulated. Sigh. He then interviewed the relevant government minister, who said that trying to regulate such activities would be akin to trying to regulate surfing. --LS |
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Acid
Finally Goes
Even though this route has been mentioned in two previous issues of qurank (#4 and #6) we're at it again - hopefully for the last time? On the 17th of June, Cameron Fairbairn finally sent the full version of Acid, on the lower cliffs of Mt Ngungun. The short version of Acid that finished halfway up the gully was originally established by Neil Monteith six years ago, and the continuation to the top was bolted as a project. After rebolting the top section and working on it with Cameron recently, Neil thought the crux was solid 27, so has some doubts as to Cameron's conservative grading of 26. This is also the case considering Cameron had three to four shots per day and succeeded on his fifth day. At any rate, only repeat ascentionists will be able to confirm the grade. More importantly, Cameron praises the route's quality and sustained pumpyness. Neil says it would have to be the Glasshouse's hardest overhanging pump route. --LS |
Above: Neil Monteith working Acid's continuation, back in the days of yore. |
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North
Queensland Indoor Climbing Competition
Final results in the opens were: |
Oi!
That's Not in Queensland!
After doing the new route at Diamond Falls in the Blue Mountains, there was speculation that it was grade 34, but after grading it as such, Miller thought the route went a bit too easily, and so settled on 33. A couple of repeats and we shall know.
In other hardman news, one of the world's best boulderers Fred Nicole had a Grampians holiday in April/May and sent tons of hard problems including Klem Loskot's hardies Cave Rave V14 (5 days) and Ammagamma V14 (1 day). Ammagamma was the world's first V14 in a day, until Nicole later downgraded it to V13. He also did a harder finish to Cave Rave called Eve Rêve V14.
And even further away, Iker Pou, a young Spanish climber, just became the third person to ever redpoint Action Direct (35), in Germany.
--LS |
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Queensland
Climbing Online Community
A series of online discussion forums were established on the 19th of May covering Trip Reports and Pictures, Find Other Climbers, For Sale, qurank Announcements, qurank Feedback and by far the most popular - General Discussion, which already has over 80 posts. It's become a great place to hang out online, and the forum structure is excellent for holding discussions and asking questions. If you're reading qurank now and you enjoy it, you're an online climber (which doesn't mean this!), and you would probably enjoy the forums, so go check them out by clicking on the graphic below:
--LS |
Correction Doug Hockly alerts me to the fact that Duncan Steele actually did the first ascent of Sticks And Stones Direct at Mt Maroon (before the bolt was placed) using a terrible wire. --LS |
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