UKC

So I had a pad stashed over near Before Ava arrives and its now gone missing... To whomever "borrowed it" kindly put it back you thieving sh*t.

It was me.

pUT 50 QUid in uSED NoTEs in tHe OLd postBox by midNigHT toNiGht - oTHerwise, thE Pad gETs It

Ah, the seasonal stolen stashed pad thread. Now you know Christmas is nearly here. 

Come on guys, I can totally see why someone would decide to stash a pad at the remote and isolated Cuttings...

Even rockfax says it's "12 mins, Flat". That's basically a mountain marathon. Can't expect anyone to carry their kit that far.

What colour mat? Wasn't there a full search and rescue thread on here looking for a red one a while back? Maybe they've met up and crashed somewhere together?

Part of an impromptu crag clean up?

You clearly know nothing about Portland. 

Tell me you've never been to this particular boulder without telling me you've never been to this particular boulder....

I've been there. Carried two pads. I survived. It was touch and go for a while though - I got a bit of heather in my shoe at one point and wasn't sure I was gonna make it. Told the rest of the crew to save themselves.

And you got there in 12 minutes flat walk from the car, I trust

What do you mean I know nothing of Portland? 

To be fair, we don’t know if the OP is riding 18 miles on his bike to visit, which I’d rate as reasonable justification for stashing a pad. Benefit of the doubt and all that… If it was just laziness, “hell mend ‘im” as my grandad would say.

No, we chased a couple of mirages and spent a while theatrically crawling along gasping "water.... Waaaaaaterrrrrr". Ended up being about 15.

Does anyone have a link to the “Great Boulder Pad theft thread” from a few years ago, I think it happened at Wharncliffe. That was a great thread, it would be amusing to reread.

If we put to one side the ethics of leaving gear at a crag for a moment, it still leaves the fact that someone has potentially stolen someone else’s kit and may well be justifying it to themselves by saying that it shouldn’t have been left there in the first place and that it’s fair game. I disagree with this. Maybe most of us who have been climbing for many years understand the landscape and try not to leave any trace of our activity but others may not. I can also appreciate that leaving a pad overnight and planning to get back the following day may seem reasonable to some. It’s a risk but they may be thinking that the climbing community looks after each other and their kit wouldn’t be stolen. 
clearly it may not be a climber that’s taken it, but equally it may have been. Either way it’s an expensive piece of kit to lose. I’ve encountered numerous bouldering pads over the years and never felt the need to steal them. The person who owned them would undoubtedly return and remove in due course. It may just end up as an expensive lesson learnt, but let’s hope not. Fingers crossed someone has just picked it up and will post it on ukc saying it has been found and will arrange it’s return. 

In principle, yes, everything you say is correct. 

However, when you've stashed kit in an area where the scenery is dominated by disposable BBQs, beer bottles and nitrous canisters, expecting it to be there when you go back is a little optimistic. And expecting the person who took it, even if it was a climber, to be the kind who reads the UKC forums and to respond to an OP like this one positively, is entirely worthy of the amount of sympathy it got. 

I’ve never been to that area so if it’s as bad as you describe then it was indeed optimistic to expect it to still be there. 

It's been pretty windy... 

'As for a mat, it's days are like grass; it flourishes like a flower of the field; for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it know more'

The Psalmists of old knew their sh1t

If you have to ask the question …. 
 

I don’t want to slander the locals but Portland has two prisons. Its resident population is very insular and will not welcome mainlanders dumping their property in their back yard. Even parking legally but outside of a car park is likely to get you a stroppy letter on the windscreen. Not unfairly the locals hold the climbers to a set of rules so that they are not put upon.

you may see the cutting quarry as a mess with what a assume are manlander eyes but the locals have lived for generations in quarries and exposed limestone landscapes so I think you’ll find they value that landscape higher than you give them credit for. 
 

and the path that you see as so remote is actually part of the costal party that thousands of people pass through. They value the landscape higher than you seem to. 
 

so as it happens I suspect for stashed mat was probably just cleaned away. And if it was stolen then I think you only have yourself to blame. The quarry is not your backyard to do as you please with. It’s part of the heritage of Portland. It’s a much loved places by many locals and visitors and you should not be stashing anything there. 

I assume they meant more why you're assuming they don't know anything about Portland - their logbook would suggest it's the only place they climb, pretty much.....

I'm not a fan of stashed pads. Some of the Swiss venues look hideous as a result and I don't think it should be encouraged.

But to be clear if it's the stashed pad I'm thinking about you'd have to walk a significant distance from the coastal path and know where to look if you wanted to 'clean it up'. So this is vanishingly unlikely in my view.

I suspect the pad was stolen. Probably by a less educated climber since that particular boulder has lines that often are the first outdoor ticks for our growing membership.

And finally. Having carried two moon Saturn pads and an Ikea thick yoga mat down to Ava without much trouble... I agree there's no need to stash.