As we all know, access to crags, whether it be on state land or private property is a very important factor in the sport of climbing and climbers in general and various organisations work very hard at trying to keep relations between land owners and the climbing fraternity healthy and happy. This means that we do not do anything that may upset the land owner, which in turn may put access to a crag or mountain area in jeapordy.
After some discussions about five years ago David and Cisca Niewoudt (owners of Dwarsrivier Farm and also Wolfberg crags and Sanddrif crag) have very kindly allowed bolting to take place on Sanddrif Crag and the crags immediately surrounding that crag (ie the walls in front of the original crag).
They agreed to this with the implicit condition that I would monitor the bolting on the crag and let them know of developments as and when it happened.
Over the years and also very recently, some routes were added to the main crag and also the ‘new’ outside wall. These routes are great and a very worthwhile addition to the crag.
However, some confusion arose when the last bout of bolting occurred at the crag and the owners (and I) were not informed of any bolting activity for that weekend. This resulted in certain other climbers reporting ‘illegal bolting’ at Sanddrif crag to the owners. This in turn resulted in a not too happy Cisca Niewoudt contacting me and asking what was going on.
To cut a long story short I managed to sort out the confusion and everyone is happy again, however they (the Niewoudts) do insist that they are informed of any bolting activity that may take place on the crag.
I know this is a bit of a long winded story, but in a nutshell, if you want to bolt at Sandrif Crag, please drop me an email stating where you want to bolt on the crag and when. Then I can verify your ‘application’ and let Cisca know. Under no circumstances must bolting take place there if these steps have not been followed.
Sanddrif Crag is one of the better sport crags in the Western Cape. Please do not do anything to jeopardise access.
Thanks
Tony Lourens
I don’t give a damn for another bolted route but I do for access. Please control your urge to drill guys. Drilling another route in a sensitive area is not adding value to our activity. Nobody needs another arbitrary sport route at Sanddrif even a “sort-of-good-one”. The place is so much more than that and it really is not and should not be a sport climbing destination. Go walk through the cracks, go look at the vista, enjoy the stars and the clean air. Please! And keep your fingers off that trigger!
The more you drill the more you are going to attract irresponsible and uncaring people. If you have not worked that out yet then please go and have an IQ test.
Mental deficiency used to be divided into the following sub-classifications, but these labels began to be abused by the public and are now largely obsolete: Borderline Deficiency (IQ 70-80), Moron (IQ 50-69), Imbecile (IQ 20-49) and Idiot (below 20). Mental deficiency is now generally called mental retardation.
Does Charles Edelstein ever let up?
This self righteous attitude of yours is really getting tired.
Of course, you fail to point out the ultimate hypocrisy of your stance by failing to state the fact that you own Cape Towns biggest climbing gym, training and supporting many Sport climbers, earning money from them.
Do you tell your clients what LCD scum they are to their faces? Do you tell them how irresponsible and uncaring they are? Guess what, the land owners at Sanddrif support Sport climbing. Many people enjoy what this section of the sport offers. Leave them be.
all we need is love, man,
love is all we need
@Mike:
Ordinarily i would agree with your sentiments above, however in this context they are out of line: this is about access, not sport vs trad. The trad in that area is fantastic to a point that me as a sport climber is happy to sacrifice one good crag to afford a future possibility of sampling the exceptional rock in that area. To threaten this because you want to put up a sport line at the area is self centred and short sighted.
Without extremists for a cause: women wouldn’t be allowed to vote; being gay would be a punishable offence and Everest would remain unclimbed. Be thankful for extremists in your community, for they keep their passions alive.
If you bolt you must be an idiot. You and me both Snort. You and me both.
It is not what the man says, its the way he says it.
Okay, calm down guys! I didn’t write this post with the intention of it becoming a forum discussion, nor a platform from whence to air your grievances about trad versus bolting versus access, etc.
All I am merely saying is that we need some control on the bolting at Sanddrif Crag and am trying to get this message to as many people as possible.
The debate between trad and sport and ethical high ground, etc, etc can go on for ever and everyone is entitled to their opinion.
I’ve been trad climbing for 40 years and sport climbing for ±20 years. I love them both and I want them both.
The bottom line is trad is here to stay and bolted sport climbing is also here to stay, so let’s just get on with it in a civilised manner.
LIKE BUTTON for Tony’s post!
noted tony, thanks! btw, how about making glue-ins the standard requirement for sanddrif? a bolt recently pulled on “lip service” and we may get a few more of those on the softer rock. also refer to the article below on what happened in china.
Ideally all bolts should be glue-ins, but that is another debate altogether.
Personally I feel that the MCSA should be funding bolting, like they did in the old days.
since all bolting permission for sanddrif goes via yourself you could insist on glue-ins only (for whoever may be bolting)? i leave it with you
Dear Mike, who are you? You know who I am.
When has a trad climber ever threatened your access to an area?
If you want to get personal then email me CEdelstein@Gmail.com
CityROCK is in its 10th year. I have yet to earn 1 cent from CityROCK. My loan account, the money I have put in to the CityROCK, could buy me a nice house in Observatory in Cape Town. I try to make responsible climbers at CR, hopefully ones that are not trigger happy. Gosia Lapinska is one of them that learned to climb there.
This is not about sport climbing. This is about responsible bolting on private and public land that requires some intellect to be sustainable.
Forgive me for not being politically correct.
Yes LCD scum will get it in the face from me. Anyone who knows me know that. You are invited to the scorn committee meeting 21 March if you have the courage to rock up. I usually get the worst of it. Can you take it? Takes more courage than bolting another ill-conceived route…..
No more bolts.. Unless they are for coming back to the ground…