UKC

Was climbing at Neddyfields main cliff yesterday, and we had the place to ourselves until a bunch of geology students turned up. As we were warming up on the short 6s to the left of the wall, they came over and started taking measurements beside us.

Next thing one of them took a hammer to the rock right beside me... I immediately asked them not to hammer at the wall, and pointed out that there was plenty of loose rock around to break open, at which point they seemed very agreeable - apologising and promising to leave the wall alone.

Certainly for the next 5 or 10 minutes they did just that, so satisfied that they were behaving themselves I went down to the longer routes round the corner out of sight, but 20 minutes later I came back to pick up a rope I'd left and there was one of them hammering at the rock again.

I approached the group and asked who was in charge and was directed to a lady who was sitting 10 yards away at the top of the path watching them, and must have seen what I had seen.

As soon as I approached she asked "what's wrong, is it the chipping? I'm really sorry, who was doing it? I'll get them to stop"

Shortly afterwards they packed up and left, and the lady in charge came back down to apologise once again. I asked for some contact details that I could pass on to the BMC to have someone follow it up, however she refused, saying she'd already been speaking to the BMC that day, and that she just wanted us to know how sorry she was and to assure us that they hadn't gone up above to chip at the boulder wall.

I'm pretty annoyed with myself that I didn't do more, particularly to establish who they were and how to get in contact with them, allowing myself to be fobbed off with assurances that they were in contact with the BMC...

They clearly knew that their behaviour was going to upset climbers, and were ready to offer assurances, but were happy to allow it as long as we weren't watching.

In reply to Ciro:

There is great demand in this country for low grade sports routes. These geology students are doing us a favour by enlarging holds and bringing those elite routes down to a level where they will see more traffic and be available for many more to conquer.

In reply to Ciro:

Obviously students from a Russell Group university

In reply to Greenbanks:


or school of hard knocks

In reply to Ciro:

Could have been worse, they could have been bolting it.

In reply to Ciro:

Sounds like first years, given their enthusiasm for hammering rocks - a good geologist really doesn't need to hammer much. I think I hammered one bit of rock in the last two years of my degree, compared to about 10 in the first two years. Hammering a big bit of intact rock is not usually that useful, so they should've been looking for cobbles to break up. It's also pretty bad form to do it with others around you, particularly if they don't have eye protection.

In reply to Ciro: hmm, that depends what you're doing - the point of hammering is to get you an unweathered surface to look at, so how much you need to do depends on rock type, location and so on. Also, if you're interested in structural geology or anything where the orientation of features, fabrics is important then you need to work on in-situ rock and chips and bits lying around are useless.

I'm not making any excuses here as I don't know what they were doing but to say that you don't need to hammer ever is a broad statement. I will admit I'm not familiar with this outcrop tho'

In reply to Ciro:
This is Portland, right?

Quarried.

Where God, Allah, Thor or whatever you believe in, hammers off several thousand tons on an annual basis........

In reply to wbo:

Fair point actually WRT to structure etc., I was taught structural fieldwork by a structural geo who was vehemently opposed to hammering anything, so I suppose that's rubbed off on me.

In reply to Ciro:

In reply to verygneiss:

Southampton are probably the closest geology dept;
http://www.southampton.ac.uk/oes

Other possibilities Portsmouth, Bristol or Exeter - all have geology dept. you could always send a polite email requesting they remind their students not to hammer in obvious climbing areas, especially if asked not to by a member of the public (ie you!).

http://www.port.ac.uk/school-of-earth-and-environmental-sciences/
http://www.bristol.ac.uk/earthsciences/
http://emps.exeter.ac.uk/geology/

To be honest it's a bit early in the year for geology undergrad fieldwork so who knows what they were up to!

Worth pointing them in the direction of this too;
http://www.geolsoc.org.uk/Membership/Join-the-Society/~/link.aspx?_id=0F5D9...

In reply to spragglerocks:

Not Bristol I don't think. As far as I know there are no Bristol trips to that are a at this time of the year/ ever, and since the infamous chipping at Hound tor a few years ago I know the lecturers are pretty vigilant about that sort of thing...

In reply to Removed User:

This is a defeatist attitude. What about rising to the challenge of the route rather than reducing it to your level?

In reply to spragglerocks:

Don't think it would have been Southampton as I don't remember any field trips there and none that ran at this time of year.

In reply to Ciro:

So If I'm into geology and I spot a bit of rock I fancy smashing to get a better look then I can't do it where climbers are?

In reply to Ciro:

Are uni's even back yet?

In reply to Dave Perry:


Course you can't. Geology Depts, as suggested up the thread, have a 'code of ethics' on that kind of thing. But you're just trolling the thread - aren't you?

In reply to Ciro: daves example is rather harsh, but i likr geology and do fieldwork, but have nothing to do with academia so where does that leave me?

In reply to wbo:

Behave respectfully, and appreciate that others might have a point of view other than your own? Appreciate that the resources of the planet are finite? Adhere to whatever code has been agreed to by whichever body represents your amateur/professional interest?

Be nice?

In reply to Ciro:

My point, rather harshly put was to ask whether climbers - or indeed geologists have any more, or less rights than any one else interested in rocks. I assume you also don't like quarrying? Road works and so on.

OK, I don't like the idea that some non rock jock with a hammer can chip my bit of favourite rock climbing crag. But then what moral right do i have more than the geologist? Probably less than the stone masons/quarrymen who legally bought and worked the stone to be excavated in the first place.

Many climber here actually own their favourite crags?