I head for a day at the Yat maybe once or twice a year but have been a bit more in recent months. It seems like there used to be a lot more in-situ abseil points comprising tat and maillons/biners around good trees at the top of the crag. In fact, I don't think I've seen a single one on the last two trips (apart from some tat around a sorry looking, wobbly tree near the top of RRS which in hindsight could do with removing). It seems like they've been progressively removed.
What's the fixed ab gear policy at SY? I know you can walk off pretty much all of the routes... However, I wouldn't say that many of the descents are without risk themselves (think grabbing onto tree roots, steep mud and choss). From the wear on many of the trees it seems like people regularly ab directly from them and pull ropes. Surely it would be kinder on the trees and possibly also on the erosion of the soils at the cliff edge to re-equip these points, or at least not remove any decent ones that crop up. Pretty much everywhere else in the Wye Valley has plenty of tree ab stations.
On that note, is there a plan for another YatFest? Seeing quite a lot of litter building up and I'd be happy to spend some time helping clearing up, as well as route gardening and re-threading.
Cheers,
H
Post edited at 23:48
