[dave]

Whenever I next went up there they werent there, so was this is the work of the brush fairy, or did the elements remove my marks?

Banks will chin you if he hears you calling him a fairy.

[SA Chris]

Unfortunately the massive influx of climbers are not well educated in the basics of crag etiquette, so whatever goes on indoors (ticking, jumping off without thinking about the landing, bad spotting and not brushing holds) gets transferred to the crag.

Have any of the dedicated centres got Si Panton's "10 Bouldering Commandments" on display anywhere?

[psychomansam]

Maybe we should get involved with helping the BMC produce some extra guidance/information on some of these issues. Would it be worth trying puttting
information on gates/fences etc at popular bouldering spots (plantation/cromlech boulders)?


Personally I haven't found the need for chalk since i started using resin 


By the way, i reckon this is officially the most like 'the other channel' this forum has ever been

[tomtom]

By the way, i reckon this is officially the most like 'the other channel' this forum has ever been

Yup. You're spot on. To try and add some topical purile balance...

[Three Nine]

I agree with tim palmer!
This is such a unimportant issue reguarding the impact of climbing on the countryside!
If you where really that bothered you would stop using chalk altogether,  using tick marks can be the differense between sucess and failure. At the end of the day most of it is wash off in the next rain fall.

I agree with this totally. Reminds me of the in-situ draws thread. I enjoyed the comic first post though 

[Three Nine]

By the way, i reckon this is officially the most like 'the other channel' this forum has ever been

Agree with this, though I wasn't sure if Dave's post was supposed to be ironic...  Or might have been on his period?! I dunno. I am too shit a climber not to use tick marks and I find it very helpful when a route or problem is already ticked. A bit like when the draws are in. 

[SA Chris]

Are you in favour of in-situ draws then? You've never mentioned it before now.

[Three Nine]

Are you in favour of in-situ draws then? You've never mentioned it before now.

 

I also remember being tickled pink by Sharples having chalked '1','2','3','4' on the undercuts on Monsterossity at WCJ so he wouldn't forget his sequence!   

[tomtom]

Are you in favour of in-situ draws then? You've never mentioned it before now.

excellent

I think people who leave in situ draws in should be shot. But I'd gladly shake the hand and buy a pint for anyone who bolts a route at Stanage.

[Andy B]

I think whether or not you should use tickmarks and whether or not you should brush them off are two separate debates. Combining them into one here has blurred the issue.

In my opinion, most boulders will use a tick mark at some point because, like chalk, it makes things easier, and like other chalk it is responsible crag use to make an effort to brush and, when appropriate, wash off what you can when you leave. I don't personally have an issue with the use of tick marks if they are removed afterwards, but in my experience they are much more obvious, and more obviously man made, than other chalk, and, when pressed in thick on the rock, do not just wash off in the rain. 

Everybody I know thinks that they are ugly. Whether you personally care or not, other people do. Even if I didn't have an issue with the aesthetics of tick marks being left, if I knew that others did, I would still take the few seconds it needs to brush them off. Given that boulderers spend most of their time at the crags resting anyway, why not kill a few minutes each session by removing ticks, if only to improve other peoples experiences.

[andy_e]

You could be forgiven, to an untrained eye, for thinking a blob of chalk on a hold is some lichen or something, but when it's a tick-mark, it's obviously not. There's some boys going around Brimham at the moment (a very touristy place) who are caking holds in chalk and drawing pointless tick-marks all over the place and it looks a disgrace. I'm worried that the National Trust might take action if it continues. Obviously, I use chalk, but I keep it to a bare minimum by using liquid chalk (which leaves little residue on the rock), never applying chalk directly to the rock and trying to remove as much as possible without the use of excessive brushing. The problem would be much less if people took the same approach. To say the issue is unimportant is to be ignorant of the impact of climbing on the environment. Everything that climbers do has an impact, and if we're being responsible, we can minimise this impact to prolong access to our crags.

[SA Chris]

^ what he said.

[andy_e]

But I'd gladly shake the hand and buy a pint for anyone who bolts a route at Stanage.

 

[yorkshireman]

There's some boys going around Brimham at the moment (a very touristy place) who are caking holds in chalk and drawing pointless tick-marks all over the place and it looks a disgrace.

i was there this morning,someone has drawn a chalk cock under the hole in the world problem and cleft buttress was caked in chalk.did my best to get most of it off and its likely going to rain tomorrow so hopefully most will get washed off,well not the chalk cock under the roof but i suppose im being silly thinking this is a problem

[GCW]

That cock was there when I went weeks ago, I tried in vain to remove it all although it was originally etched in with masses of chalk.

[andy_e]

There were a million ticks on Pair in a Cubicle last week too.

[GCW]

Why?  How will they help on PIAC?

[andy_e]

There was one six-incher pointing to the foothold under the undercut and lots of other various lines pointing to various smears, and another six-incher going to the good hold in the first break.

[north_country_boy]

i was there this morning,someone has drawn a chalk cock

There was one six-incher pointing to the foothold under the undercut and lots of other various lines pointing to various smears, and another six-incher going to the good hold in the first break.

Crikey, its definitely getting beyond a joke when people are ticking holds up with cocks...

[Wipey Why]

i was there this morning,someone has drawn a chalk cock

There was one six-incher pointing to the foothold under the undercut and lots of other various lines pointing to various smears, and another six-incher going to the good hold in the first break.

Crikey, its definitely getting beyond a joke when people are ticking holds up with cocks...

Who ticks holds with a chalk cock? Honestly!

[tomtom]

Who ticks holds with a chalk cock? Honestly!

I use my hand and a lump of chalk personally...

[andy_e]

[rehab21]

I'm a bit non-plussed with the arguments for tick marks.

I'm assuming that tick marks are generally used when you are working a problem and it's all getting a bit frustrating. If this is the case and all movements need to be practised and wired in, then why the need for the tick? Just learn the problem.

Tbh, though, I don't have an issue with unobtrusive tick marks, but we can all help keep things looking pretty and natural by being sensible and tidying up after ourselves. If you find yourself in the Donkey  Hall of Fame, then brush up on your ethics - you need to.

In an attempt to elicit genuine justification for tick marking, what was the last problem where you finished it and thought "I wouldn't have climbed that without the tick mark. It was essential"?

Jim

[webbo]

All of them.

[SA Chris]

I think you might have senility as an excuse