[Fiend]

I'm suggesting this entirely separately from the debates about morality, legality, what is local, etc etc, they are already very well covered elsewhere.

This is based on the following theoretical assumption:

"If hypothetically climbers were to travel locally to exercise outdoors by climbing, what would be good practise in the current lockdown situation??"

General principles:
1. Avoid any increase in covid transmission.
2. Avoid any extra stress on the emergency services due to travelling.
3. Avoid any extra stress on MRTs and emergency services whilst doing outdoor activities.
4. Avoid getting into trouble / getting fined.
5. Avoid showing the climbing community in a bad light and/or risking further access issues.


Travelling:
Minimise travelling if possible. Drive individually or just with your household.

Drive extra carefully and don't do anything to risk an accident nor draw the attention of police.

Fill up fuel and buy food at your local area, not in a different area.

Park extra carefully and with respect to local residents and other road users. If parking is too busy, move on elsewhere.

Make sure your car / #vanlife is running well and prepared for winter conditions if necessary.


At crags:
Try to go to quieter crags and avoid honey pots if possible. Do some research to find areas with quieter parking and less other users.

Do NOT meet up in groups larger than your household, or an individual meeting one other person, and maintain social distancing with the latter.

Even if teams are legitimate as per above, avoid having too many in one area - move on and choose a different area.

Stick to safer forms of climbing (say, bouldering, lowballing, very well protected trad, sport), and avoid riskier forms of climbing (e.g. highballing, soloing, bold trad, etc). Climb carefully and be self-reliant.

Maintain social distance from other countryside users too.


Social media:
Don't post photos and videos all over insta / Youtube / Tik-Tok / whatever to brag about lockdown climbing.

Avoid writing too much specifically about lockdown climbing all over public social media. Stick to private groups.

Don't write stuff up in UKC logbooks. Try to live without spraying about your latest smashed out turbo send for a month or two.

In general try to draw as little attention as possible to lockdown climbing.


General:
If other climbers are completely ignoring the lockdown rules and/or common sense, have a quiet word with them, avoid being judgemental but point out how such behaviour could be harmful to them (fines), and to the climbing community and crag access, even if they're not concerned about covid risks nor emergency services.

Be polite and respectful to the authorities even if they appear to be mis-using their powers. If you need to disagree, do it calmly and peacefully.

Don't take peppermint tea to the crag.

[Fiend]

As always this can be nitpicked to fuckery including various justifications for various things, definitions, blah blah blah.

However I'm sure there are also useful tweaks and amendments that could be applied to this entirely theoretical guide if people want to suggest them. I did want to run it by a couple of people at different ends of the lockdown viewpoint spectrum before posting but then thought fuck it best to post it up before tomorrow's CurbarGapocalypse....

P.S.

Avoid writing too much specifically about lockdown climbing all over public social media. Stick to private groups.

This would include not sharing this post, nor linking to UKB, nor taking my post as anything other than theoretical speculation.

[Will Hunt]

Can't wait to see the Fiend Send Suit in these Covid times.

[tomtom]

All sounds sensible to me Fiend 👍

[Doylo]

Isn’t TikTok for 12 year old girls? Don’t think climbers use it, maybe Megos doing the Hokey Cokey with some carrots.

[colin8ll]

Very good list. I think social media and sharing might still be appropriate if the post's purpose relates to safety or access.

[gollum]

Hits the nail on the head. 

[nai]

How about avoiding places where the parking is a bit residential in a village or suchlike, places like Rowtor, Church, Anston Apprentice/Frodo, Jackson.

[Will Hunt]

I think the preferred disclaimer to put on social media spray posts is "One from before lockdown".

[Fultonius]

How about avoiding places where the parking is a bit residential in a village or suchlike, places like Rowtor, Church, Anston Apprentice/Frodo, Jackson.

Read that as:

Rowtor, Church, Anston Apprentice/Franco Cookson.

[dunnyg]

If you don't log it on UKC, have you even climbed it?

[Fiend]

I think social media and sharing might still be appropriate if the post's purpose relates to safety or access.

Yes good point. Particularly if it comes from "true locals".

How about avoiding places where the parking is a bit residential in a village or suchlike, places like Rowtor, Church, Anston Apprentice/Frodo, Jackson.

Yes also a good point, I was thinking of that with "respect local residents" but that's a sensible specification.

[scragrock]

Good post and sound advice apart from taking Peppermint to the Crag.

All consumers of peppermint tea should be mortared (from a comfortable distance) with fermented pig shit, the subsequent brown dance should be uploaded to your favourite online platform 

[Fiend]

*BUMP* for any send trains queuing under Demon Wall Roof 

[Anti]

Unless I've missed something high profile climbers living in Wales no longer seem to care. Lots of social media posts from crags a reasonable distance from their homes. I'm assuming they're not cycling up and down the Llanberis path with pads on; are they able to use the pro climber card to drive around or are they just relying on no-one caring?

[Steve R]

Maybe they're consciously serving the greater good by bravely and publicly setting sensible precedents 

[Loos3-tools]

Aye, the manufactured social conscience of the peoples popular welsh trad scene. Namasde and where’s my Huel

[Anti]

Maybe they're consciously serving the greater good by bravely and publicly setting sensible precedents 

Don't confuse me questioning it with me being bothered.

I do think there's a difference between me sneaking off for a boulder and a sponsored athlete broadcasting that they've broken the law. In this age of hypersensitivity I'd be concerned about being dropped for something less. I can't imagine Rab etc are keen to weigh in on the argument about whether we should push back against this stupid law.

[Fiend]

...also concerned about drawing too much attention to any guideline-bending that might be going on and highlighting climbers as a target for enforcement.


Unless as Steve implies, Drakeford will roll over nicely, wag his tail and turn a blinder eye to climbing because some elite athletes are showing themselves doing it??

[teestub]

Unless I've missed something high profile climbers living in Wales no longer seem to care. Lots of social media posts from crags a reasonable distance from their homes. I'm assuming they're not cycling up and down the Llanberis path with pads on; are they able to use the pro climber card to drive around or are they just relying on no-one caring?

Who in particular and how far have they travelled? I’d heard from locals that the Police had been quite pragmatic about people from Bethesda accessing the Ogwen and people from Llanberis accessing the pass, but strict with people having travelled much further.

[Anti]

Well, not really into naming and shaming but Llanberis residents bouldering in Ogwen Valley and Betws forest. I'd say about 25/30 minutes driving. I guess majority of their followers don't really know that Ogwen valley isn't really local to Llanberis. It's all north Wales innit.

As a Bethesda resident I've felt Ogwen is about the limits of what I'm comfortable justifying to myself but even then the no parking / police presence in the valley itself makes it somewhat a no go anyway, hence why Sheep Pen is so busy.

[Bradders]

about the limits of what I'm comfortable justifying to myself

Surely this is the case with everyone, especially as, being realistic, the risk involved in driving for 30 minutes is infinitesimally greater than driving 10 minutes.

I personally have been restricting myself to venues up to 30 minutes drive away, purely because that's what I've felt comfortable with rather than for any genuinely logical reasons.

[Anti]

about the limits of what I'm comfortable justifying to myself

Surely this is the case with everyone, especially as, being realistic, the risk involved in driving for 30 minutes is infinitesimally greater than driving 10 minutes.

I personally have been restricting myself to venues up to 30 minutes drive away, purely because that's what I've felt comfortable with rather than for any genuinely logical reasons.

My question was less an existential issue of how we define risk to ourselves and more that sponsored athletes sharing their adventures when it's explicitly illegal at the moment seemed a bit risky behaviour in the professional sense, given how angry people on social media get. It's not like you can't access any other boulders a bit closer haha. Oh well.

[tomtom]

I’ve unfollowed/unsubscribed most of those that have been going out and posting stuff for what I’d consider breaking the rules. Mainly because it made me a bit cross seeing it - so simpler just to take them out of my feed. The old adage of if something on the telly is annoying you why not switch it off!

I doubt it made/makes any difference to their follower numbers etc...

[Duma]

The law allows travel for work. If people are sponsored that's work to some extent. Obviously there's a grey area from Shauna/Hazel to a local kid getting shoes at trade cos he knows the local shop owner, but given the amount of non essential work going on atm I think a 30 min drive for a sponsored climber isn't even pushing it. (This from a legislation perspective. Obviously from a transmission perspective climbing outside while socially distanced is effectively risk free)