★ Silly or Serious 19

Attrezzatura fissa: Another Faustian Dilemma

Carrot bolts have been removed, pending an upgrade.

Still OK to TR.

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Attrezzatura fissa: The Rasp/Exterminator

Old carrots have been removed, pending an upgrade.

Still OK to TR.

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Accesso: CLIFF STABILISATION WORKS 2024

BCC will begin more cliff stabilisation work at KP next month: June 2024.

This will mean rolling (staggered) closures of certain routes and areas, as the work progresses.

Unfortunately, a couple of high profile routes need some "tlc" and will be closed for a bit, whilst they do shotcreting work as well as pinning some rock on or near them:

SCB (18)

Anonymous (16)

Humungousaur (16)

Spidermonkey (6)

TASH (10)

The slab on the right, where Humungousaur & Spidermonkey are located, is not the target, the alcove to the left is & has been on their "to-do" list for a while now. I did a walk-through last year (2023), with BCC & their subcontractor and they need to stabilise the lose rock in that alcove, which will mean closing access to the slab right of it, and probably/maybe, the 18 to the left: Dodgy Dub, possibly Hanging Garden as well? If there were large rockfall during the stabilisation works, they would need to take precautions that any member of the public is well clear. Cést la vie.

The biggest impact will probably be the temporary closure of the stone stairs whilst they carry out stabilisation work in the alcove beneath the stone stairs. Rock pinning + shotcreting. You may have noticed the huge bags of rocks they placed there, last year (2023), as a temporary shoring-up measure.

Unfortunately, this will restrict access to the cliffs, to either via the road below or the metal stairs on the right, (below the Nursery Cliffs).

More work will be done around the arête Earth To Stella + A Quickie Before Dinner, but these routes have long been closed now, with heavy wire mesh pinned around that arête to stabilise it.

There will also be more stabilisation work done at KP North.

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Attrezzatura fissa: Impending TR anchor removal at KP

The various clubs & outdoor companies are privy to this info, but I have not seen it posted anywhere, and I feel it would be extremely remiss of me, being also privy to this info, to not share it, or warn the climbing community of this impending disaster.

BCC in all their great wisdom & ownership, have decided that ALL climber installed TRing anchors along the wall, atop the cliffs be removed. (NOT the anchors on the cliff face, at this point in time.)

A sub-contractor has been engaged, and work will begin, either in June, or July sometime.

Council have already put up signage, indicating that non Council hardware is illegal and not to be used, and only the Council installed bollards are acceptable.

ACAQ & the various clubs have been imploring Council to replace the climber installed anchors with their own, but this is not at all guranteed, and if they do agree to "replace" or install their own top roping anchors, along the wall, there will almost certainly be a delay, a gap, between the chopping/removal of our installed anchors, and the installation of their anchors.

This anchor chopping/removal is going to create chaos for top ropers, as there are vast gaps along the top, between the Council bollards. There are none, for example, between Lost In Space and Insomnia.

Lead climbers will still be able to use the anchors on the cliff face to TR from, with one proviso: please attach your own gear to the anchors, to limit wear & tear on these.

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