On moratoriums and access

Climbers are all up in arms this week. Not surprisingly really, given that we started with a proposed voluntary moratorium on new routes in the Grampians and progressed to a proposed ban on all climbing in the Victoria Range. What shouldn’t be surprising however, is that we have got to this situation. Climbers have been in denial of their impact on the environment for a long time now. We all like to think we are lovely, caring, green, lefty people. In the meanwhile, climbers drive around gates, ignore closures, drop rubbish, leave literal shit piles, have illegal fires, collect illegal firewood, “clean” cliffs, damage vegetation, the list goes on. Even when we are being responsible, we still have an impact in our use of the park, and the increase in bouldering and accessible sport climbing crags has had a huge effect in recent years. Anyone else remember what Andersons looked like before it was a popular bouldering area?

Bouldering has a lot of people massing around the base, exploring between boulders, flattening landings with pads, then jumping on them. No wonder it ends up cleared. Similarly, sport crags are high traffic areas. There are just more people in general at our crags these days.  Erosion and clearing around the base increases, tracks broaden, chalk becomes even more prolific. We like to think we are an alternative sport, but we are not so much these days. We can’t be a tiny group flying under the radar. We need to step up and take responsibility for managing our impact, and policing other climbers who are not. We need to participate in the solutions, not just waiting for someone else to. Ever just gone climbing when there was a working bee at Arapiles? Time to stop being selfish and do your bit to maintaining our crags. Ever said “someone needs to fix this”? Well, become that someone. If you don’t know how to fix it, offer to help and learn. Climbers are talented at ignoring concerns until they become an access crisis. These issues about development and impact are not new. If you haven’t heard about them until now, well, take it as a lesson to keep yourself better informed in the future and get involved.

I am actually against the moratorium, simply because I think we will spend too much time debating the moratorium rather than getting on with finding solutions. I suspect in 6 months time, we will still be arguing about the moratorium, not discussing the problems leading up to the proposed moratorium in the first place. As you might have noticed, complaining about the moratorium and sledging the VCC, PV, the Greens (hell, why not blame the purple people eater whilst we're about it?) seems to be taking up the majority of conversation at the moment. The rate of new route development is not actually that great that we will risk terrible damage if we leave it be whilst we negotiate access issues. It just angers and distracts climbers from what we need to actually be doing now and as a voluntary moratorium, it’s almost worthless practically. All the people who are currently ignoring other actually legislated restrictions are almost certainly going to keep ignoring voluntary ones.  Its one advantage is that it may send a message to PV that climbers are trying to do something to address their concerns. There are climbers slinging abuse at the VCC and others in classic selfish, thoughtless wanker mode. If you’re one of them, take a chill pill, get some perspective (like permanent crag closures) and see if there’s something constructive you could do instead.

Yes, there are many crags in the Victoria Range that are in Special Protection Areas. This isn’t new and it isn’t news. 2003, remember? It’s just that climbers have never bothered to keep themselves informed. There is an “it will never happen to us” attitude. Whist a small group were talking about the growing concerns from traditional owners, Parks Victoria and other park users, most climbers were just pretending these concerns would go away. That what they did didn’t have an impact because they were just one person. Until we had hundreds of such one persons. Burying your head in the sand has never been particularly effective. Do your bit to minimise your impact. Educate others to do so as well. Speak up when you see people doing the wrong thing.  Join groups working on the negotiations. Engage in adult discussion with PV and TOs about our concerns. Next time you hear a whisper about access issues, check it out and see if there is anything that you can do before it becomes a crisis.