UKC

I was at Blacknor on Saturday, warmed up on reptile smile and was shocked by the top anchor, not the bolts themselves, they seem fine. However the entire top section of the route, the rock the anchor is drilled into and.the rock above sounds hollow and chossy.

This whole top section will not last forever and I dont want anyone to.get hurt when it does come down!

Im sure some people will think its fine but I certainly wont be.getting on it again!

Anyway, my conscience is clear now, beware the chossy shite rock!

Potentially the route could be made safer by sacrificing a metre or two of route and placing the anchor a bit lower on better quality rock?!

Stay safe folks, sport climbing can still be dodgy/unsafe at times too!

Cheers

Simon

In reply to maybe_si: Thanks for the warning! ive had that on my tick list for a while, may give it a miss now

In reply to maybe_si:

Yes, would agree with Simon as I was there on Saturday and we chatted about it.

My first reaction was "It's alright, have never noticed anything dodgy before". On reaching the anchors I had a good look around and testing the rock made me a bit nervous.

The bolts and anchors are fine, but the rock seems to have undergone some severe changes in the last year, probably as a result of the weather.

Be careful.

Rich.

In reply to maybe_si:

Hmm, it's possible that the massive rainfall of the last few years has got behind the tufa (which by definition is a separate "coat" to the bedrock underneath it), maybe aided by some local freeze/thaw? This is likely to have happened all over Portland, but mostly on obscure routes that don't get a lot of traffic.

In reply to maybe_si: I was in the area on saturday (climbing slingshot not reptile smile) and little chunks of rock were coming off left right and center, was glad I had a helmet on!

In reply to maybe_si: Agree entirely with this, several friends were in Reptile Area probably at the same time as other posters and thought the whole lot was falling apart. The rock on Blacknor in general looked a bit dodgy- a hold on Pregnant Pause came off in my friends hand. Be aware and helmet up is probably good advice.

In reply to andrewere: I think the loose loweroff was spotted by a local and removed on purpose rather than falling off, thankfully. The route was Lifeline 6a+: http://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/c.php?i=13304

Portland rock is defo a bit dodgy at the moment so would agree with previous comments and go carefully and helmet up if possible.

In reply to maybe_si:
Crickey! Climbed this the other day and didn't notice! Eeek