Unfortunately not all the climbing news out of South Africa is good as I got the below message yesterday outlining how one area in Rocklands is now closed and others could follow if the situation doesn’t improve. Stop me if any of the problems sound unfamiliar.
For years climbers have been enjoying the world-class bouldering in the area known as Rocklands in the Western Cape, South Africa. Many climbers have been oblivious to the fact that Rocklands is owned by five different landowners: four farmers and Cape Nature.
When climbing became a prominent activity in the Cederberg, the Mountain Club of South Africa (MCSA) and Cape Nature (CN) drew up the Cederberg Environmental Management Programme (EMP) to jointly manage climbing in the Cederberg, including bouldering in Rocklands. It was agreed that permits would need to be purchased in order to maintain the pathways and environment of the bouldering areas, which all cost money, and that climbers would need to adhere to certain rules in order to prevent irreparable damage to the environment. It was found through the EMP that bouldering has quite a substantial negative impact on the environment – more than sport or trad climbing. The private landowners have been allowing climbing on their land under the assumption that climbers would manage their climbing the same way that they would for Cape Nature Land.
Unfortunately, when Rocklands became internationally famous, this set of rules was not communicated effectively to the international climbers. As a result, the land began to suffer and the environment has sustained significant and continuous damage. This complete and utter disrespect for the land has caused both Cape Nature and the landowners to start viewing boulderers in a very negative light. All land belonging to one of the farmers has as of Saturday 28th June 2013 been closed to climbing; this includes Tea Garden and all areas from Klein Kliphuis down to Clanwilliam on both sides of the road. Anyone caught climbing in these areas will be prosecuted and probably fined by the landowner. To continue climbing in this area will only damage the reputation of boulderers even further.
The Wild Card is no longer accepted for Cape Nature Land and the permit is R60 per day per climber. The MCSA is scheduling meetings with CN to find a middle ground for this recent development.
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Fortunately, CN has agreed to accept the Wild Card for the 2013 bouldering season.Delaney Carpenter (Chairperson of the MCSA Rock Climbing Committee, Cape Town Section) recently stood up at this year’s Rock Stock to inform all climbers of the current deteriorating relationship between climbers and the Rocklands’ landowners and has urged all climbers to adhere to the below rules when climbing in Rocklands:
Bury your faeces and carry out your toilet paper. If the ground is too hard to bury your faeces, please carry it out with you and dispose of it in the campsite bins. Poop bags are available for free at De Pakhys. (A special note about this: Tea Garden has been closed primarily due to this problem. Animals such as baboons may eat human faeces and could contract diseases such as Tuberculosis and hepatitis, which could prove detrimental to the population)
Do not litter – carry everything you bring in with you back out with you and dispose of your litter in the bins at the campsite.
Stick to the allocated paths marked by cairns and as illustrated in the guidebook. Diverting from these paths causes far more erosion than is necessary and may cause the extinction of certain sensitive plants in the area.
No graffiti on rock surfaces. (Black Shadow boulder has been closed to climbing due to graffiti)
No pof is allowed in Rocklands. The resin damages the rock surfaces and this damage is irreversible.
Most climbers have the attitude that things are not as bad as people say they are; that Rocklands will always be available to boulderers; that as long as they aren’t caught, there’s no problem. Boulderers don’t need to be caught defying these rules. Human faeces, filthy toilet paper, litter, cigarette butts, trampled vegetation, graffiti and pof are all evidence of the disobedience of climbers.
There are four farmers who make their living off of their land – the land that boulderers are trashing. One farmer has already closed her lands to boulderers. It is only a matter of time before the other three do the same. CN is clamping down on boulderers; their rangers are making more visits through the bouldering areas, insisting on permits.
The complete disrespect of boulderers for the land on which they climb is a very serious and very real threat to bouldering in Rocklands.
Rocklands bouldering is in peril.
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Rocklands does not belong to the climbers.
Our access is not a right, it’s a privilege and our treatment of the land is the difference between us being allowed to climb in Rocklands and us being banned from climbing in Rocklands altogether.
Irresponsible boulderers have caused this problem and boulderers are the only ones who can fix it.
Please respect the land you climb on in South Africa and adhere to the above mentioned rules. Your privilege to climb in Rocklands depends on it.
– Notice from Delaney Carpenter, Chairperson of the Mountain Club of South Africa Rock Climbing Committee, Cape Town Section.
Nothing unfamiliar here at all, unfortunately. Everybody that visits a crag has an impact.
Do things have to get worse in order to then get better?
Like other areas before it, Rocklands may have to charge steeper fees and introduce more stringent access procedures to keep the erosion and degradation in check. I for one do not have a problem with that.
“Rocklands does not belong to the climbers”
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Come with dollars and euros and maybe you do not that a problem with that. But it could get prohibitively expensive for us locals.
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when people refer to “pof” bans, are they also referring to chalk of any kind, or do they just mean resin?
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Pretty sure they just mean pof, chalk can be washed off, pof sticks around.
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Rocklands is a free for all with no oversight. This makes it great, but is also destroying it. Everyone flies in and does their thing, there is no giving back in actions as simple as establishing trails. But the idea that farmers are going to close it is just silly. It has been a HUGE source of income for them.
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If you happen to be someone who litters or doesn’t know how to bury their poo and leave no trace, you better damn hope you never let me, or thousands of others who think just like me, catch you. Litterers are a low form of scum.
Learn where and how to properly take a dump in nature. Be prepared with trash bags and waste bags. Minimize your impact and respect your environment that you are using for your pleasure.
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knowing how to treat the outdoors is more important than knowing how to climb. Gyms should make people take a class on leave no trace at the same time as they give a belay class. There is not much worse than seeing a field of tp in the woods because people dont know any better. ALL trash should be carried out and stay on marked trails. same could be said for large ticks on the stone. after all the most important part of climbing is the stone.
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what is “pof”?
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pof = dried pine tree resin
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It is always quite disheartening to see fellow climbers (and a significant population of them) mistreat these areas, especially when it is really easy to not be a jerk. Walk on established trails, avoid trampling vegetation, clean your tick marks, carry out your trash, bury your crap, leave the boombox at home. Is this really so difficult for people to follow through?
PS – people are really using pof now?
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What’s most disheartening to me is how unsurprising this sort of news is. It’s more a reflections of human nature than anything specific to climbers, but it is still unfortunate to see.
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Really bad that this is happening. Last time in Rocklands our crew spend a long time picking up peoples rubbish. Hope it gets resolved for our next trip
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