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<guide><text class="heading1" new="false"
value="Introduction to Tasmanian Climbing"> Introduction to Tasmanian Climbing</text><text
class="heading3" new="false">Acknowledgment</text><text
class="text"
new="false">Welcome to the Tasmanian Climbing Guide. These guidebooks are a product of the Tasmanian climbing community.
There have been several major contributions to these guides. The genesis of a large number of them was in Craglets, published by Roger Parkyn and Matt Perchard. Roger and Matt deserve a large amount of kudos for their original vision of producing simple, affordable, and updatable guidebooks to areas that nobody had ever got around to. Craglets eventually became a guide to most of Tasmania, and once they contributed it to thesarvo.com, it formed the backbone of the Tasmanian Climbing Guide.
Other major contributors are Mike Fox, Andrew Bisset, Nick Hancock, Al Adams, Tony McKenny, Dave Humphries, Phil Robinson, Jon Nermut and many others. There are many more people who are credited in the individual guides - thanks to one and all.
Basically the position of this guide is that climbing information belongs principally to the climbing community, and that the more available that the information is the better. The most convenient form for distributing information is the web - so all these guide are made freely available on the web. However we also author the guides so that they can be published - as it will be a while until printed guidebooks are replaced for actually taking to the crags (as opposed to armchair browsing). The new print-on-demand technology gives us the best of both worlds - the low cost and updateability of the web, coupled with a nice hard copy format for publishing a hard copy book.
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value="Overview Map">Overview Map</text><image new="false"
noPrint="false" src="tasOverview.png" width=""/><text
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value="General Info">General Info</text><text class="heading3"
new="false" value="Crag Access">Crag Access</text><text
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new="false">Many of the cliffs described on the website are on private land. Since continued access is vital to all climbers it is imperative that good relations be maintained with landowners. Ask permission where practical as this tends to make landowners feel more comfortable about having visitors on their land. Respect the wishes of the landowner at all times and remember:
* gates should be left as you found them and don't park in front of them.
* rubbish must be taken home.
* fires should not be lit at any time as many landowners are extremely concerned about the risk of fire.
Unfortunately, Tassie seems to be following the trend of law suit-mad America, and land-owners are getting more and more concerned about letting people undertake activities on their land which are perceived as risky. Two examples of this are Lowdina (which has just become accessible again with the owners permission) and Proctors Road Quarry (now only climbable after signing an indemnity form and arranging access). An example indemnity form and further discussion on this issue are included at the end of this publication. Though in no way advocating that all climbers should need to sign such documents, they do protect landowners from damages claims. Indemnity forms may be the only pathway to put landowners minds at ease and keep our sport alive.
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value="Descriptions & Grades">Descriptions & Grades</text><text
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new="false">All the route descriptions are ordered from left to right as seen when facing the cliff. The grades are intended to be consistent with major Australian climbing areas such as Arapiles. Grades are not boosted for extraneous issues such as death potential or "exposure"; on this issue I'll quote John Ewbank:
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class="Discussion"
new="false">... a single number grade doesn't take factors such as loose rock, sustained technical difficulty, length, protection, seriousness etc. into account. My response is, and always was: "That's what words are for". No combination of numbers, letters and symbols will ever convey such information as accurately as words. If pitch 4 has no protection for 20 m, what is the problem with saying, "Pitch 4 has no protection for 20 m"? </text><text
class="text"
new="false">Remember to use your own survival skills though, as many of the routes described here have had very few ascents and consequently the information on them will be somewhat variable. The authors have not climbed every route described and can accept no responsibility for anyone plummeting off climbs and maiming themselves.
There are a few climbs for which we did not know the name. These have been given an interim name and are marked with a # symbol to denote this and aid in future updating. </text><text
class="heading3" new="false"
value="Information & Corrections">Information & Corrections</text><text
class="text"
new="false">Obviously these guides are incomplete. The history of climbing in Tasmania has meant that a lot of significant climbing is unrecorded or lost and more new routes are put up each year. Consequently there is heaps missing from here and much refining to be done. We need your help to make it complete. If you know of climbs /names /route details that we have missed or that are wrong let us know. </text><text
class="heading3"
new="false">Guidebook Abbreviations and Symbols</text><text
class="text"
new="false">The following abbreviations are used in the guides:
Alt - Alternate leads
BR - Bolt Runner
DBB - Double Bolt Belay
FA / FFA - First (Free) ascent
FH - Fixed Hanger
LH/RH - Left hand/Right hand
SLCD - Spring Loaded Camming Device
TR - Top-rope ascent
Þ - Sport climb
# - The name of the climb has been made-up, as FA details are unknown
* - Quality rating
Occassionaly route desciptions refer to particular sized camming devices. The comparison chart has been prepared to assist relating these to the weapons of your choice. </text><text
class="heading2" new="false"
value="Survival Skills">Survival Skills</text><text class="text"
new="false">A popular myth among rock climbers is that the sport is safe. The myth tends to get reinforced by the gym scene and glossy magazine photos of honed dudes who never wear helmets. Unfortunately it is a myth. Sure climbing is safe: if you've got your skills together, if your equipment is sound, if that flake holding your runner in place doesn't pop, if your partner doesn't drop a rock on your head, if that bolt you're dogging off holds, if you're not over-committed on a route with shonky gear, if your belayer is attentive etc etc. A lot of "ifs"! If, at any one time, any of these "ifs" (or a host of others) go the wrong way you'll end up as a gurgling bloody mess at the bottom of some cliff. It takes a pathetically small ground fall to render a person permanently disabled. You won't be feeling very cocky or gung-ho while lying in hospital after being told you'll never walk again.
I'm not about to list all the do's and don'ts of rock-climbing (there are plenty of books that do a good job of that already). What I would like to stress however is that it's your own personal responsibility to acquire the necessary survival skills. These are the skills to deal with the myriad potentialities that the cliff environment can deliver. Acquiring these skills will take some time and effort for new climbers (and even "experienced" climbers keep learning). You can't learn it all in a weekend climbing course, you certainly can't learn it all from a book and you'll be lucky to learn any of it at a climbing gym. Use all the sources available and especially other experienced climbers to develop your own safety consciousness. In the meantime apply caution where any doubt exists (in addition I recommend wearing a helmet; even if people in the magazine glossies don't!).
Acceptance of risk by the climber also applies to fixed equipment. If you are using any it is your responsibility to familiarise yourself with each particular method and its potential shortfalls. Basically all fixed equipment has been placed by budget conscious individuals (with no financial assistance) with limited equipment and is placed in what are usually arduous awkward situations.
Despite "experience" an element of risk remains in any climbing activity. I would like all climbers, and particularly the newer ones, to clearly understand that when you go climbing you are accepting this risk. Although a lot of effort has gone into the production of this guide many of the routes have had few ascents and little or no verification of the quality of the information. You have to use your own nous and caution to assess each situation for yourself.
In legal terms there is no "duty of care" between any of the many people involved in the production of this guide book and you the reader. If you hurt yourself don't come winging to us. </text><text
class="text" new="false">Accidents do happen and tragically the first climbing fatality in Tasmania occurred early in 2006 when an abseil setup failed on Mt Wellington To seek urgent help phone 112 or 000 - mobile phones have good coverage at the majority of crags. It is vital that you describe how to access the cliff, so that rescuers can quickly move to the area. </text></guide>
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