Ubley Warren Rocks I've been to Ubley Warren a few times over the last three years as it is an enjoyable spot for easy highball bouldering. It is an obscure lttle venue near Cheddar Gorge and is used by local outdoor centres for group top-roping on occasion. For some years there have been a few double staple lower offs in place, when I visited last year several more lower offs had been added with shiny chains - there must be around 10 lines with lower offs at the venue now. I didn't regard that as a major issue, and I confess to not knowing whether the crag is subject to any local bolting agreements or falls outside the radar.
When I visited yesterday (to give my 4 year old son a bit of top-roping experience) I found that in addition to the new lower offs there were chipped holds and resined on starting footholds on one line. Certainly these may help the novice climber, but in terms of a bouldering venue they do not add to the appeal. Don't know if it is the kind of thing the BMC need flagged up, or if anyone is bothered about such an esoteric backwater.
I think the place is off the radar but it is a lovely natural bounding area. Chipping and resin holds in my view are definately out of order. If people want to climb on resin they can go indoors.
Just to clarify the extra holds are glued on chunks of rock - but not done at all subtly. As well as the disappointing chipping and glueing my afternoon there was rather ruined by the copious quantities of fresh cowpats all along the trench which I didn't quite successfully get my boy to avoid
Worse still there was a human deposit too, no attempt made to bury or cover (except with a used portion of bogroll) ...as I didn't have a trowel I plonked a rock on top, mainly to stop my toddler stomping in that as well. Not quite the idyllic afternoon I had in mind!
In reply to The It looks like all the bolts would be the work of an outdoor centre.
Do you know who owns the land?
If it is national trust then have they consented to bolts being placed by an organisation that is using the land on a commercial basis.
If they have then that is the end of it, if they haven't then maybe the bolts should be removed. I think a moratorium was agreed some years ago that there should be no new bolts at Cheddar.
Ubley Warren is part of a nature reserve owned by The Somerset Wildlife Trust. They will not have given permission for bolts to be placed and would be horrified if they knew the rock had been chipped. I assume they have an agreement with a local farmer to graze their cows on the reserve. As with any new bolting this should be agreed at a BMC Area Meeting. The next Bristol BMC SW Area meeting will be in November I believe so I'll make sure this is on the agenda for discussion. Chipping holds should never happen under any circumstances.
In reply to Ian Butterworth: Thanks for the reply Ian,
For the purposes of accurate information for any BMC Area meeting what I observed was several chipped holds on Problem 10, to the right of the crack in this photo (Trench area) - mostly near the start of the problem and seemed to be an artificial enhancement of somewhat polished existing holds. http://www.ukclimbing.com/images/dbpage.php?id=228883
The glued on foot holds were in the Pit area, I think at the foot of problem 24. The new and quite visually intrusive large shiny bolted lower offs with chains are all in the Pit area, these were added some time between Summer 2014 and Summer 2015. I think the chipping and glueing have occurred within the last 12 months.
The staple lower offs in the Trench area are much less obvious and have been in place considerably longer. There may be further chipping that I didn't notice as I didn't fully scan the crag due to a large proportion of my attention being focussed on keeping my son out of the cow pats. Unfortunately my phone battery was flat so I couldn't get photos, but the unwelcome additions are all pretty obvious if someone did want to get over there and record them prior to any discussion.
Ivan
Just to add agreement. Problem 10 is about the only chipping I have seen. The glueons appeared before last September and are all low down as far as I can see. They seem pretty superfluous.
I thought this was all part of Charterhouse Outdoor centre's development(they are owned and run by Somerset County Council) although their You tube ad shows them climbing at Sandford quarry, I think. They pay Mendip Outdoor Pursuits for that privelege. The Charterhouse website does say they use Ubley Warren nature reserve for a variety of outdoor activities. I'll give them a ring.
I take my dogs there on a regular basis which allows me to to play there as well. I've yet to see any commercial groups using it, although occasionally families use the pit and trench areas.
I love it.
