On day four of our lockdown, I did a circuit up and around Currowan Trig. Because this is Australia, there are roads everywhere, but most of them are older fire trails and the forest is beautiful particularly on a sunny day in August. I have been up Currowan Trig before when I was carrying 12 kg up steep hills for power endurance (PE) training but the direct route up, while steep enough is a bit too brushy when bush-wacking to go fast enough for a decent PE workout.
This time I took an old fire trail up to the north end where an easy bushwack through open timber and granite boulders got me to the trig. Then southeast back into the bush to intersect McCardys Road (a compass was handy), down to McCardys Creek where there was a little clear water running, back up an east facing ridge then traversing north and intersecting my approach route again.
The old road up the east ridge (runs out at a saddle) had no tire tracks on it. This is unusual. Normally if there is somewhere to drive, someone will drive, even where driving is illegal (such as beaches in NSW) someone will drive because a surprisingly large segment of our population believes they have the right to go everywhere.
I was listening to a new (to me) podcast two days ago and the discussion was about "climbers dirty tricks;" are kneebars on routes cheating, what about fans to reduce moisture, stick-clipping, etc. The consensus seemed to be that it was totally OK to stick clip an entire route, as if the presence of protection bolts gave you the right to be on the climb.
When I lived in Canada, there were a few big mountain routes that I would have loved to climb, but I was simply not a good enough climber to do those routes. It is one of those things where I don't think any amount of focused training would have changed. Although I can be better today than I was yesterday that does not mean that I can win on the world cup bouldering circuit or climb All Along The Watchtower on Howser Tower in the Bugaboos. Having goals is fantastic but unrealisable goals are simply delusion.
Stick clipping a route you are projecting is now an accepted manoeuvre in the modern climbers repertoire before going for the redpoint, but stick clipping your way up multiple routes because you want to climb those routes while you are on vacation seems analogous to driving everywhere even when driving is banned to protect a resource. I know that many people believe humans are the acme of evolution, as if life is some kind of continuously rising trajectory, and, sadly, human sprawl has pretty much covered the entire planet. As an aside, I suspect there are wisps of bog roll and a frozen turd or two at both the north and south poles.
Perhaps it is time for humans to consider that there are places we may not go unless on foot, and climbs we should not do unless we can actually climb them. Basic human rights concern access to adequate food, water, shelter, etc., not you can go everywhere and do anything. There should be a price to pay for doing things that are more difficult, challenging and/or dangerous and at the end of the day "No-one owes you anything." Amelia Boone.
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