UKC

Wailing Wall (HVS 5a)

Hetchell

Has anyone climbed Wailing Wall at Hetchell recently, I know the crag doesn’t get a lot of traffic I don’t think I’ve ever seen another climber there. 

Somebody has drawn in permanent marker arrows to all the good holds and even wrote jug underneath one. I’ll upload a photo to the route page.
 

To me this seems ridiculous and is ruining the climb for everyone else, especially on the crag classic, so if this is you can you please stop? 
 

Additionally, does anyone have any good ways of removing this , the rock is already quite weak and I wouldn’t want to damage it further. 

That's a really nice route and it's a real shame that someone has damaged it in this way. Yes I agree, if this is you, please stop; it's completely unneccessary.

That is quite incredible!

I saw a post about this, somewhere on Facebook, maybe a couple of months ago, so I don’t think it’s so new.

It’s surprising how brain dead some people are.

This got flagged at the last BMC Yorkshire meeting. It does need cleaning up but people are unlikely to go out of their way as it's quite a locals crag I gather, so if you're local and keen please give it a go! would suggest a mild warm water and soap solution first to see if that works? 

If it's ink marker (as opposed to paint) then sponge it of with acetone and maybe some gentle toothbrushing. It evaporates completely from the surface being cleaned but wear gloves.

Screwfix 'foam gun cleaner' is cheap spray can acetone without the moisturisers and fungicide you find in nail varnish remover. You can probably buy it in other consumer-focussed formats but I can't think what.

It's worth a try on paint.

jk

Worth a try. Just remember acetone is really aggressive on most plastic and synthetic materials.

I'd advise trying any cleaning method on somewhere off the climb first. Hetchell rock is delicate.

In general not a bad idea but acetone isn't going to harm the rock and sponging isn't going to do any mechanical damage. It may kill algae/lichen but you only need apply it to the actual lettering.

Ridge is right though, it loves to eat plastics.

jk

Hi,

I'm down at hetchell all the time, I'll see if I can clean it up. I can't quite understand why they marked it, the holds are super obvious. A nervous soloist perhaps.

I'll do some research for cleaning that particular rock type, and test any methods on something out of the way and off route first.

Any advice on cleaning delicate rocks much appreciated.

Thanks Jonathan, that would be great. jkarran's advice above looks good. If you take some before and after photos that would be great , drop me a message if you have any issues. Good luck!

Hi

Yep will do