Blog from Oct 28, 2007

At the Cluan Tier yesterday, I noticed that a new bolt had appeared; a single bolt with a red tag to mark a potential project. This behaviour is unacceptable. It looks as if someone has placed the bolt off the ground 2m up the line, red tagged it and claimed it as their project. The route has not been cleaned and there are no other bolts. To stake your claim on a project, I would have thought that abseiling and cleaning the line, then top-roping it to see if it goes, then placing all the bolts would be the minimum requirment. The red tag has been removed, and next time I'm up there, I'll clean it and bolt it myself.
Gerry Narkowicz

Garry saves the world !!!

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I thought I'd find you lot down here at th pub !!! My dad reckons youz r a bit queer 4 drinkin warm piss n that !!!

Anyway , I got an e-mail from my god-father ( dalia, he's a regular on Austalia's Cockstone armchair-climbing website) and he told me about the Tote falln dwn n that!!! :O

I couldn't believe it... nearly cried
cos I was planning to go out there with dalia , M10 , and Mousey , all piled on the back of me mighty Honda XR250 !!!

Anyway , me n Travis (me best mate ) finally found the thread down in the damp, dark vaults of UKC , an reckoned use humourless poms could at least have a bit of a larf about it down the pub , so we brought it in to pin up on the wall, t hlp uz see th bgger piktr n that .

Anyway , seems theres plenty of Ben Hills on this 4rum ho found it a bit of a tickle , an apparently th yanks on SuperT and RC thought it was the best thing since 911, so lets preserve it down the pub , hey ! what r pbs 4 ???, not as good as ours in Aus of course !!!

So Moderator Mike, cheers 4 bein a good sport towards the Aussie sheila Sally, I sent her an e-mail about the Tote and she sendz me one back with a digi of her tz !!!

Anyway lets hava drink to celebrate that we climbers around the world can still (AN AREN'T WE ALL KEEN NOW !!! )go an climb the Tote .... unless something like this happens :

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Topic - Tasmania's Totem Pole collapses into sea.

by - sallyj

Yesterday afternoon, I was at Cape Hauy ( Location of the now world famous Totem Pole ) . Two young Californians, Peter Drummond & Casey Giles , were standing on the big belay ledge at the top of the first pitch, when I heard a LOUD !!! cracking sound. I turn around just as the top 40 odd metres of the Totem Pole began to fall over and crash spectacularly into the chasm , between Cape Hauy and the Candle Stick .

From my view point on top of the cape , I saw a mass of sea spray and pulverised rock dust billowing evertwhere.

I thought the two guys must be dead for sure .

However , before long, I was much relieved to hear my two new friends yelling that they were OK .

Amazingly, their trail rope was still intact, between the cape and the ledge, since the top half of the Tote had fallen/collapsed towards the south, and not against the cape.

After finally retreating to my position on the cape , we all survey the chaos below !!! A stub of rock sticking up about 20 metres above the kelp is all that remains !!!

Feeling lucky to be alive, and being towards the end of their world climbing tour, anyway, Peter and Casey decided to fly out to the States ASAP , to appreciate family and friends again , before heading over to Hawii to watch the Pipeline Masters in December.

R.I.P. The Totem Pole !!!

Sally Jamison.
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