[dave]

The station parking is gratis after 6 anyway, so homies arriving on an evening session are laughing.

[benpritch]

and maybe they found my teams?

[dobbin]

They are at the climbing works. I meant to text you about this on Friday - sorry. Will do now.

[Johnny Brown]

The office have had a complaint about bolting and tree removal at High Tor. Anyone know anyone who might have been involved?

[Paul B]

is this on the right wing or elsewhere?

[Yoof]

There were some shiny new bolts around the main face when I was there last... These may be the ones in question.

[Paul B]

on what/when? I've spent a fair amount of time there so far this year...

[Yoof]

It was on the eighth of June (training diaries are quite useful  ) around skylight,  They might have been there ages, but they looked new to me.

[Paul B]

nah that route is even in the database on the other channel. Or at least in the comments. Come on JB, spill.

[Johnny Brown]

That is all I know. Upset landowners don't tend to be familiar with route names.

[Bonjoy]

I dare say it will be all the new low grade stuff on the right wing. That whole buttress has had a major overhaul with 11 new sport routes added. Not sure who by, Gary Gibson maybe. It shouldn't be hard to find out. 
Not heard of owt on the main crag in the last two years.

[Paul B]

thats my bet too but its taken them a while to realise given there are photos of the new stuff way back into winter. Details of the routes are on Gary's website. I mentioned the new bolts to a few of the first ascentionists of routes down that end and they didn't seem ofended by them (not the point in question obviously).

[shark]

The route near Highlight/ High Tor Gully and is called Sportlight and is almost certainly Gibson's.

He has done a load of bolting on the Right Wing which is detailed on his website.

There was a recent discussion on UKC which he contributed to.

There is nothing to indicate there is an issue with bolting on the BMC Regional Area Database (RAD) although there was an incident that the DDDC complained about 4 years ago that seemed a load of fuss over nothing. The UKC discussion on the subject at the time is here

[Johnny Brown]

Anyone been to High Tor in the last week? Had another report of retrobolting - on the main face. Might well be in confusion with the above but it would be good to know.

[danm]

The DDDC ranger had 2 issues with bolting at High Tor. (He claimed to be a climber, by the way)

One, according to him it's a SSSI partly for its geological features, so bolting it might be a criminal offence.

Two, much more of an issue to him, was that the top viewpoints are popular with tourists.  They need protecting from tripping over the top of the crag, so the DDDC promote hawthorn etc to form a natural barrier (a fence would work but be kinda ugly). Said bolter had chopped down a load of hawthorn so he could gain abseil access. Result=angry ranger.

So to say it was a lot of fuss about nowt wouldn't be very accurate. If its going to be an ongoing issue which potentially screws access, maybe bolting needs to be stopped? Something to discuss with the main players anyway....

[dpb]

Anyone been to High Tor in the last week? Had another report of retrobolting - on the main face. Might well be in confusion with the above but it would be good to know.

I was on the main face on both Sunday and Wednesday evenings and didn't notice any new bolts.

[Johnny Brown]

Ah good. Did you get anywhere right of Darius?

[shark]

The DDDC ranger had 2 issues with bolting at High Tor. (He claimed to be a climber, by the way)

One, according to him it's a SSSI partly for its geological features, so bolting it might be a criminal offence.

Two, much more of an issue to him, was that the top viewpoints are popular with tourists.  They need protecting from tripping over the top of the crag, so the DDDC promote hawthorn etc to form a natural barrier (a fence would work but be kinda ugly). Said bolter had chopped down a load of hawthorn so he could gain abseil access. Result=angry ranger.

So to say it was a lot of fuss about nowt wouldn't be very accurate. If its going to be an ongoing issue which potentially screws access, maybe bolting needs to be stopped? Something to discuss with the main players anyway....

Are you talking about the previous or current incident ?

The first issue cited against bolting sounds tenuous and as you say was a more minor concern. The second (the cutting down of hawthorn) has nothing to do with bolting.

[dpb]

Ah good. Did you get anywhere right of Darius?

Sunday was my first visit to the main face for 2 years and we spent a bit of time below original route staring up at the lines.  Bolts on My New Hat, Bastille and The Passion Wagon but nothing new spotted. We went up the first pitch of Debauchery and then traversed delicatessen into Darius.  I didn't really glance right while high on the face but neither of us noticed any new bolts.  I might go up Perseus this week, if so I'll keep my eyes peeled.

Wednesday we went up Lyme Cryme.

[Johnny Brown]

The second (the cutting down of hawthorn) has nothing to do with bolting.

Why not? You don't believe the hawthorn was cut down by the bolter?

[dpb]

Dunno when it happened or if it's related to any of the complaints but the tree at the start of original route has disapeared.

[Paul B]

that thing was well and truly dead and has been missing since a lot earlier on in the year. Bet it confuses new visitors using Northern Lime.

[shark]

I was at Raven Tor this morning and was approached by a nice chap - Stephen Moores. He looks after the riverside for the anglers.

He was a bit miffed having just stepped in some human shit whilst clearing the paths by the river opposite the tor. He had clocked me as a regular and asked that I put the word for climbers not to shit over there. It seems that shitting over there isn't uncommon. I pointed out that as far as I was aware it probaly wasnt climbers as the "crag toilet" was in the trees to the left of Indecent though for some reason he declined my offer to show him this more specifically! I said I had never known climbers go over that side to have a dump and it would be obvious as they would be visible to anyone climbing. He accepted that it could be other sightseers/tourists and he had never caught anyone in flagrante. Nevertheless I said I would make it public on here. Clearly we would be miffed if anglers took to having a dump under Mecca.

On a related positive note he said that there had been no further instances of climbers caught poaching at Rubicon or Chee Dale. 

[neilpearsons]

You can tell the Park District National Park Authority what you think of their newly opened tunnels on the Monsal Trail in a two question survey here https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/peaktrails
If you think it would be a good idea to join the Monsal, High Peak and Tissington Trails to form a 60 mile mostly traffic-free route for people to enjoy the Peak District without needing a car... you wouldn't be the only one - http://www.peakcyclelinks.org.uk/