Safety at the expense of environment.

An incident occured today that made me question my actions for a second. I thought this would be a good place to share and get some other peoples opinions on the matter.

Before I start I just want to say that me or my friends dont go around tossing rocks off the top of cliffs all willy nilly, I did this because I dindnt want to hear about someone getting pulverized in the future.

Today I was climbing at lower tear drop gully on the pipes with my mates. Two teams of two, we climbed Farewll to Arms and Into the fire. Both are great routes and one gets three stars in the guide, so I'm guessing its a fairly popular spot (probably not though). I lead farwell to arms and noticed at the belay an incredably precarious boulder just bigger than a carton of beer. I knocked it and it wobbled and I could tell it was just perching on the edge. If anyone was too pull on it the thing was coming down onto them or the belayer but most likely both. I put a huge x on it with chalk and when my second came up I screamed not to touch it. Two friends were climbing Into the Fire at the same time. This route shares the same belay point, if someone topping out on this route touched the boulder it would be good night belayer and climber too. I also screamed at my friend not to touch it. We switched routes and the second time at the belay I brushed the rock and it almost went geronimo. Then and there we decided the thing had to go. It seemed super likley that sooner or later someone would pull this thing down. It didnt take much, only a slight tap and gravity did the rest.

On its way down it free fell the 30m of the route and landed on a vegetated terrace. Here it knocked down two massive eucalypts fully uprooting them and ripped through a huge amount of scrub. It then bounced and landed 20m further down the gully. Here it made a huge cavity (1m or so in diameter and almost 1m deep) in what i think was a tussok at some stage. The surrounding soil was blown apart and it kind of looked like a land mine had gone off. We had a look at the damage after and it was pretty massive. Hectic some might say.

Im glad I did it because it was a death trap and i felt it my obligation. That said it opens up some interesting questions. As climbers we have responsibilities to tread lightly and reduce our impact especially  in parks like Mt Wellington. Does this kind of action fall short of those responsibilities? is the safety of our fellow climbers paramount? Is there a level of risk with rocks that affords them to be hurled and others not? Why do we climb?

What do you think?, begin discourse.

Stay safe out there.