[slackline]

[north_country_boy]

Gutted about this. Heading to Armenia with work for 9 days at the start of June and had already been in touch with various climbers out there to try and head here...

A colleague went in early April and said Armenia was a wash with these formations....the blanket ban seems like a knee jerk reaction to pretty minor concerns.

[slackline]

the blanket ban seems like a knee jerk reaction to pretty minor concerns.

According to the article I linked to (hover mouse over picture then click) climbing on them has always been illegal as they are considered national monuments.  The article also suggests alternative venues (albeit not on basalt columns).

[Johnny Brown]

the blanket ban seems like a knee jerk reaction to pretty minor concerns.

The article I read said they were happy with trad climbing, but not with foreign climbers popping over and bolting the fuck out of them. Which seemed fair enough to me.

[slackline]

Thats not what the official statement says...

By this statement we want to inform all the climbers around the world that climbing on any Basalt Columns of Armenia is banned...

It does state that one contributing factor is the failure to follow the asserted rules of using the threads instead drilling bolts...

...experience showed that even world class climbers tend to skip the rules and use bolts, and it is actually impossible to keep under control

Reads to me as though all climbing is now banned because of foreign climbers not following the rules and instead placing bolts.

[north_country_boy]

Not sure they have been bolted as sport routes, but bolt belays have been placed on some routes which seem to be the main concern.

There are other examples of these basalt columns in Armenia, it is just that Garni Gorge seems to be the only place they have been developed for climbing. I am planning on having an explore near where I will be working for the week, and may try get to check out the non-basalt column venues which I have been sent information about...