UKC

The next instalment of the BMC Respect the Rock campaign takes us to the Peak District. Seasoned boulderer, Jon Partridge, takes us through crag etiquette, including checking restrictions on crags, responsible parking, erosion, and the need to leave no trace.

The Peak District Bouldering areas are already trashed beyond hope. Unless you were bouldering before guides years ago, you have no comparison and cannot appreciate the devastation. Last year I went to Cratcliffe, took in the full extent of the damage and left. Similar story with the Plantation.

There are hundreds of other areas many of which desperately need traffic. I think we need to revise advice on brushing at popular venues, the damage is so bad. 

There is a lot of wear in some places but that is hardly a reason to not follow the advice in the video. 

The only thing I would add is think of other visitors. I've been at the Roaches when gangs boulderers have had masses of pads all over the paths, so walkers, families and so on had to pick their way around them.  Not considerate, not OK. 

Neither are bluetooth speakers, in my view, it's the great outdoors FFS. But that's probably more controversial. 

Great to see the encouragement to avoid tick marks and instead work to improve route reading. Definitely agree sequence memory and precision are the key to success, especially on long boulders/routes. Well done Jon

Some areas are. The difference of popular problems at the Plantation/Cratcliffe/Burbage South/The Roaches/Birchen etc in the 7 years I have been going is saddening.

But for every problem or crag that is suffering from overuse/misuse, there are plenty more that are suffering from being overgrown and underused.

There was some BMC work on erosion done around 15 years ago on popular Peak areas as the main problem is that once the Patina, the outer ''crust" of Millstone grit has gone then the sandy layers get exposed and wear down. We looked at using liquids to paint on crumbling rock, but it wasn't really sustainable.

This type of erosion is what has been happening for nearly 20 years now and will sadly continue as bouldering is more popular than ever (we've also been saying that for 20 years!)

The small pock marks created by bullets for target practice on Burbage south boulders are now huge yellow sandy scoops and there's always too may tick marks which need brushing off, which again causes erosion. Much better to limit chalk use in the first place.

The boulders are indeed in a sorry state, convienant short walk in's will always trump a slog over the moor to more remote stones for the punters. It would be good to highlight some more of these and I'm not sure that we need more bouldering guides and magazine/web articles to popular places.

Whilst I applaud the BMC to keep the ettiquete campaign up, this video was made at the Roaches, a place where the sandy pink grit is eroding badly. Could it not have showcased somewhere with less damage and footfall?

Sorry this sounds rather nihalistic, but having not written anything like this for at least 8 years, probably in my final months of being a BMC Access Rep, it's all a bit groundhog day innit?

It's not groundhog day it's a useful summary reminder of an evidenced decade long BMC position. The change I want to see is, since on most of the worst eroded problems the chalk washes off, we need to stop advising brushing chalk off. Grit that has eroded through to the matrix should not be brushed in my view, as per the softer Southern Sandstone ethical advice.

Si - "I applaud the BMC to keep the ettiquete campaign up"

Indeed Steve, we are saying the same things, the crags are looking tired in some places and The BMC have always tried to be proactive in helping carry the message that they are ours to care for, but as we know too well, rock doesn't grow back and neither do areas round the the boulders and crag base.

Totally unscientific, but my guess is that there’s a large constituency of boulderers  who don’t know what UKC or indeed the BMC is. I’m at a loss to know what the answer is. Spreading the numbers out to other areas just brings on the inevitable trashing across everything eventually. Hopefully the walls opening back up will help, but in the long term, everything will be burned out whether the rock is respected or not unless somehow numbers are limited, and I’m not sure that’s a palatable solution. 

Yet Newstones looked to be heading for disaster and after action they have held up really well for more than a decade. I think with some TLC and better education the rock has a chance.