UKC

I went up to wilton 3 last thursday, which I understood to be a climbing day, but found the red flag flying. Is this a case of my guidebook being out of date or should they not have been there?

In the future, if the red flag is flying and it's a climbing day, what is the protocol? It is presumably unsafe to approach, but we need to talk to whichever shooters are in there on the wrong days.

Anyone else had any issues?

In reply to Turbo tommy:
There have been a few posts on here lately about the barbed wire appearing around the gate making it difficult to access even on a none-shooting day.

Not sure what the latest info is??

In reply to dashed:

yeah, barbed wire was covering the gate.

Any word on which are the latest climbing/non-climbing days?

In reply to Turbo tommy:

Check out the RAD here: https://www.thebmc.co.uk/modules/RAD/viewcrag.aspx?id=1019

If it was a Thursday, climbers have priority, and the shooters should leave if climbers arrive.

In reply to John Roberts (JR):

That confirms the days given in my guidebook.


The question then is what to do if there is a red flag on a climbing day? Is it safe to approach ( seems counter intuitive...)? How are you to let the shooters know you are there?

In reply to Turbo tommy:

I'd speak to Rob Dyer (The Access Man) at BMC for best course of action.

In reply to John Roberts (JR):

Rob Dyer is aware of the issue at W3, and is conversing with the Gun Club committee. Hopefully we will see some light in the very near future.

I've had a chat with my contact at the Gun Club today and discussed the best course of action should shooters be using Wilton 3 on a climbing day. The best thing to do if red flags are up and shooting is in progress is to approach the shooters in the range shack by keeping to their newly installed path on the left had side as you enter the quarry, which will keep you safely behind their line of fire. Politely let the shooters know you're wanting to climb and they should pack up and and let you crack on - obviously give them a chance to sort themselves out.

There shouldn't be any problems, but if any shooters do refuse to stop, please ask for their names and drop me an email to robd@thebmc.co.uk as the club want to know if there are any issues with their members. As I said, this hopefully won't happen though.

As Tim said above, I'm currently working with the Club to sort out better access to Wilton 3 - things are looking positive and we should hopefully have some news in the next week or so, but I'll hold off giving details until it's all been finalised. Essentially, the Gun Club have had extra demands put on them by the police for security to prevent accidents from members of the public walking onto the range whilst shooting, as well as to discourage illegal shooting. These have had impacts on climbers access that they didn't realise would cause problems due to a lack of understanding of climbing, but they don't want to keep climbers out.

They want to do their thing in the quarry the same as we do and they want to work with us so we can all get the most we possibly can out of the venue. Importantly, they want to see more climbers in there on non-shooting days as it has the cross benefit for them of discouraging illegal shooters from using the range. Keep an eye out on RAD for updates in the next few weeks.

Cheers,
Rob Dyer
BMC Access & Conservation Officer (England)