UKH

A cautionary tale.

I was out on Stanage on Friday, I'd just done the first few moves of Parasite and was placing gear in the break, when a grapefruit sized lump of rock hit the crag about a metre to my left. Apart from the shock no harm was done.

I had a similar experience near Neb Buttress on Bamford Edge a while ago, but the disturbing thing about this incident is that the rock had come straight down the crag ie it had not been casually thrown off the top but dropped down it.

After untying and getting to the top, the likeliest looking culprits were what looked like an organised group of about 20 teenage kids, who we had heard passing noisily overhead earlier. They were a few hundred yards away by then , so I just left it at that. In retrospect probably a good idea, so that the impulse to bray somebody subsided.

Other recent posts have highlighted similar issues, so take care people, and be wary of lingering unseen at the bottom of crags. It saddens me to feel the need to post this.

Isn't it great that so many more people have discovered the outdoors thanks in large part to the tireless efforts of many within the outdoor industry.

Their efforts to increase participation by lowering barriers to entry have served us so well by ensuring that everywhere is now rammed with people trashing the places they've come to see.

What a load of blame deferring rot. Teenagers have been doing stupid things on crags, including projectiles of various types, for all my life (from my earliest childhood memories of nearby northants quarries (no climbs there though) in the late 60s. I was first bottled on a route on Black Rocks in my first year of climbing obsessively in the late 80s and have been multiple times since. The worst behavior I've seen was on Woodhouse Scar after the turn of the millennium.

The main thing that has changed is we can moan online as well as in the pub and (maybe more to the point) the idiots can share their bad behavior on their phone to fellow idiots.

The 'outdoor industry' helped educate me on specific issues for caves rivers and crags, as a teenager, on an adventure week away (that were beyond the normal countryside stuff I knew from home). 

I've no real problem with people being encouraged to visit and use the outdoors, none of us has any more right to be there than anyone else. Granted there are problems in teaching people how to behave and respect these places. Anybody who's never been out in a national park probably isn't going to give a damn about what happens to them now or in the future.

From the look of it, the group I referred to weren't being properly supervised, with nobody keeping an eye on the stragglers.

Arguments about access can go on another thread, I'm just hoping to point out an increasingly common hazard.

I can see where you're coming from but an upside of greater interest in the outdoors is a greater awareness of its value and a subsequent desire to look after it. Consider the recent outcries about privatised water companies making money hand over fist whilst pouring untreated sewage into our rivers and lakes. What about the protest over the banning of camping on Dartmoor? If only a small minority participate in the outdoors then there's no chance of taking on vested interest and privilege.

I'd say the outdoor industry influence has dropped and maybe that's part of the problem as their influence seemed very positive to me from my experience as a teenager and subsequently talking to friends and relatives. Certainly Mountain Training seem better than ever with their focus  on conservation and sustainability in their courses. Outdoor climbing groups and student groups are certainly better behaved on average than when I started being a keen climber. Council funded and school funded trips to outdoor centres were common in the 70s and 80s but much less so now, due to austerity.

I really fail to recognise pec's view on blaming the outdoor industry. I could blame social media, reduced spending on youth support, covid restictions forcing people to play in the UK rather than package holidays, and even some industries that exaggerate outdoor adrenaline stuff for shit advertising.

I don't think you can blame the expanding outdoor instructing industry, it  interfaces mainly with those that want to get outside have a go and learn . The finger of blame lies more with Instagram and tik tok which draws people to the more remote fragile and occasionally lethal locations  for that all important photo or video regardless of their impact.

As has been said before thick kids will always be thick kids, when I worked at the leeds wall in the late 90's a school group got Bo**ocked for throwing handfuls of pebbles at the Aston Martins on the JCT600 forecourt

Did you never climb at Finedon Slabs?  I learnt to climb there and learnt nifty footwork dodging thrown rocks.  What an education.  That was the 1980s though.

Finedon Slabs!!!! Possibly the worst 'crag' ever, but Northampton wasn't blessed with anything better. Only visited on a couple of occasions before electing to head north for Slawston Bridge, Markfield Quarry and Beacon Hill. Eventually discovered the Peak District, & never looked back

Sadly no. I climbed trees buildings amd structures.

Clean loose rocks from popular crag edges.  If there is nothing to throw off, then it isn't going to happen. 

Go for it. If you could start with the Orion face on the Ben that would be grand.

Ta.

Well that post reeks of entitlement, classism and xenophobia, congratulations.

Yip. I got shot in the a##e with an air rifle in 1982 doing a quarry climb. 

Thought this was going to be about  coprolites

It doesn't even need to be loose to get thrown off at the moment. At Curbar on top of Elder buttress you can see that a large boulder was recently dug up, and then pushed over the edge above Predator (E2 5c). Its shattered remains lie at the base of the crag.

I wouldn't worry, apparently selfish dicks have been in the outdoors for a very long time.

If it had been any closer it might have been.

Poor effort, you forgot to add racism and transphobia to that list.

That all sounds very familiar to my upbringing.  In my defence, as a teenager, I could cycle to Finedon during the evening.

Even though it's described in fascinating detail in the guidebook I never made it to Finedon when I lived on the south side of Leicester. Slawston always seemed to get in the way 😁

I used to live in Finedon, when I was in the Scouts (mid 80's), we used to go there to abseil. From memory, the biggest danger was trying to not step on the used hyperdermic needles. The Slabs are still there, albeit with a big fence around them.