UKC

Had a wander up to Blackstone Edge today to enjoy the decent conditions and weather to find Blackstone Slab had very noticeable blots of blood left on the left hand starting hold (which was also coincidentally calked in chalk).. it didn’t strike me that any effort had been made to remove it as some of the chalk brushed out by hand. Is this something the community feels is acceptable? 

Grim. 

The only justification is if someone got badly injured on said hold and had to rush off but can't see this as being likely.

I hope you've never followed closely behind me on a finger crack. 

This is one for CSI Hollingworth.

Ah! Shot, was he, Fawlty?

I split a tip on a boulder on Tuesday and managed to leave blood on it.  I tried to brush it off, within a couple of minutes, but it was dried on and I couldn’t get it ask clean as I would have liked.  I then had the dilemma of scrubbing the hell out of it but decided not to because I didn’t want to polish the rock.  I taped my finger and carried on projecting.

Unfortunately, it happens.

I appreciate that in the case you’ve highlighted, there should have been less blood and less chalk there

Bit of a dodgy image hosting site you've chosen, I'm afraid. If you visit on Android, it has an immediate popup asking you to allow notifications and if you foolishly or accidentally click "allow" it creates a notification a few minutes later trying to scare you into thinking your phone has been hacked (with links that would undoubtedly lead to more trouble if you followed them). I would recommend that other people don't follow the link and I'll report the post to the mods in the hope that they remove it from the post. Not blaming you, Philip, it's way too easy to accidentally use a questionable site without realising. Just sharing the warning.

There wasn't any water to hand?

First on Google that came up for ‘free image hosting’.. no such pop ups or warnings on Apple. Are you sure your Android isn’t already compromised? 

Im well aware that bleeding happens, no issue there.. more so the blatant complete lack of effort to clean it up. I’d have been picking it out with my finger nails or giving it a rub with a bit of heather if I didn’t have anything else better suited to the job.. especially given the long run of dry weather forecast, good conditions and likelihood of other visitors.

It would be interesting to know how many of your dislikes are for the bloodstains and how many for your complaining about them.

I was assuming they were responding to the finishing question of whether it was something that was seen as acceptable practice.. but I don’t particularly care if not, I’m pretty certain I’ve never left another climber annoyed by my crag etiquette so my conscious is clear 🙃

Yes, very confident of where the notification came from because I've used the website notification functionality before and it shows which website generated the notification. I've also seen nothing like it before, and nothing more since I blocked the website. iOS is generally more secure than Android so it's quite possible that they don't try it on there, or don't succeed. Also possible that it's luck of the draw whether they actually try that tactic on you or not. Would make them much more likely to get away with it for longer. Or that it depends which adverts load on the page. As I said, I'm not blaming you, just warning other people.

Was it the first Google result or the top advert? Google are making it increasingly difficult to tell the difference and adverts are often more questionable results for some search terms.

This old forum thread suggests that the site used to be known for hosting questionable adverts, but wasn't necessarily out and out bad itself, which might explain both my experience and other people's lack of similar issues:

https://forums.malwarebytes.com/topic/230372-s5postimgcc-false-positive/

Liberal use of domestos will kill off any germs, removing and delaying regrowth of any pesky vegetation too.

First proper result, I'm well aware of advertised 'first results'. No issue on my MacBook or Windows PC either. There was a big story a while ago about a lot of websites falling foul to malware infused adverts when they used an external advertising provider which embedded the providers code in to the page but not the adverts themselves. Can't remember the specifics but it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest to find it was still a utilised method. 

Why not use Google photos? That is free.

Because I don’t have a Google account. I’d have stuck it on my own hosting if I’d have posted it originally from my laptop but hey ho.

I didn’t have any.  I did have a can of Pepsi Max that I was saving for the drive home but it didn’t occur to me to consider trying it.  

As it happens, a couple of weeks ago, I founds dried drops of blood on my front doorstep - no idea why - maybe an unlucky postie.  Anyway, I tried cleaning it off, twice and it’s still there.  Blood is not easy stuff to shift.

It's a bit mingin isn't it. 

I witnessed a young kid at my local indoor wall last week spit on his hands and rub them together worlds strongest man style before heading up an auto belay. Looked like he was with his family and like they were maybe a bit new to it all, hence no chalk. 

I've come off a climb and not noticed straight away that I've been cut and blood has been trickling out of me and onto the wall. 

Perhaps the offendor on this occasion was also too focussed to notice.

Am I the only person not really bothered by this? It's just a bit of dried blood, not going to hurt anyone. If it was a pool of blood, bone, and brain fragments at the bottom I might be a bit annoyed.

What was wrong with your own photo gallery on here?

Or, more to the point, is anyone other than the OP bothered by it?

It’s just a small amount of blood. Clearly trying hard and they’ve ripped a chunk out of a finger or something. It happens 💁🏼‍♂️

Rock is porous so the blood will never come out anyway. Hence the phrase .. Like trying to get blood out of a stone” 

I wouldn't be too bothered by it either but there is a non-zero chance of contamination with blood-borne viruses. Hepatitis B can remain viable for 7 days and Hepatitis C several weeks. 

What are the odds compared to say, an asteroid strike?

It's extremely unlikely, just pointing out that a bit of dried blood isn't guaranteed to be a benign substance.

About 1 in 300 people in the UK have hepatitis B. This population is less likely to be bouldering. 

I see. Grouse crap all over the place as well. Should we be worried?

Are the grouse injecting drugs too now? More likely to be those immigrant red-legged partridge and pheasants.  I'm just going to stay inside watching GB News and rocking backwards and forwards. 

I always find one of these works well for prepping the problem nicely.

https://www.bosch-diy.com/gb/en/p/universalaquatak-125-06008a7a70

No... 

There's a reason US highway patrol carry (or at least were rumoured to carry) neat Coke to wash it away! The acidity in the Pepsi might have done the job but probably damaged the rock as well. 

What I'd like to know is how this thread is over 24 hours old and still nothing done by the BMC. They should have put out a statement of condemnation and had an access officer up there to power hose the holds by now. There's a serious risk of climbers getting HIV or, worse, seeing excess chalk.

At least it wasn’t the top of a finger.. like what my mate found in the sharp pocket of Tricky Dickie at Split Rock!

WHERE IS OUR MONEY GOING IF NOT ON THIS?!