In reply to UKC News: BMC Count House meeting agenda
Re. the designation 'Penwith and Cornish' attached to the proposal that Carn Vellan in West Cornwall should be rebolted and that other certain specific non-granite venues in Cornwall should be considered for sport climbing:
I've always considered 'Penwith' to be in Cornwall, but I may be wrong.
If there is a distinction between 'Penwith' and 'Cornish' can the 'Penwith' climbers please identify themselves. I'm a 'Penwith' climber and I didn't sign up to their statement. At least the Land's End Climbing Club is a clearly identifiable group.
So, AW and XYZ, How about fronting up? Otherwise, I'm afraid you sound a bit shifty and that's not healthy for open, honest debate.
More specifically: It seems from the 'Penwith and Cornish Climbers' statement that other specific non-granite venues in Cornwall should be considered for sport climbing: do these include such cliffs as Gurnard's Head, Tater-du, Carn Gowla, the Lizard Cliffs, Pendeen, Trewellard, among many more?
How about giving us a couple of examples?
This sport targeting of non-granite cliffs, regardless of the various conditions expressed in their statement, would create a hugely dangerous precedent. The core issue regarding Carn Vellan, for example, is that sport routes were established on the cliff unilaterally, without discussion, debate or final consensus - not even with a passing Cornish Chough… If the Penwith and Cornish Climbers plans were accepted then this kind of unilateral action would be repeated, without question, by those interested only in a fait accompli on whatever cliff caught their fancy. By the time everyone else got together with the BMC to 'discuss' the matter, the bolts would be established and anyone chopping them would be branded as 'vandals'.
The entire issue of whether or not bolts should be established for any purpose on Cornish sea cliffs of all rock types involves a complex mix of ethics and aesthetics, as well as differing perceptions of landscapes and how far we should exploit them. It involves much more than the sometimes blinkered desire of climbers to play their games. I suspect that the 'Penwith and Cornish' climbers are approaching this whole debate from a single issue perspective. The fact that they seem obsessed with 'Cornwall being treated with parity with any other 'regional' climbing area in the UK (especially in so far as sport climbing is concerned') is depressingly parochial and reflects a rather narrow understanding of the special status of the Cornish cliffs, which are more of a national (and even international) semi-wilderness resource than merely a local one. As Mike Raine points out on another thread, Cornwall is comparable with Pembroke, Gogarth, the Burren, Fairhead etc.
So why should Cornwall be 'just like the rest of the UK'? Wake up and smell the Atlantic, PACC.
I also suggest the following should be added to the Penwith and Cornish climbers' conditional list of 'relevant factors':
Consult with the owners of Carn Vellan (or any other potentially targeted cliff) on how they feel about someone drilling the cliff for a pastime.
Consult with those responsible for management of Cornwall's Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, Sites of Special Scientific Interest, and World Heritage Site. (All designations for Carn Vellan) about 'materially altering' a cliff for a pastime.
Des Hannigan (aka DH)