World’s First 5.14—and Many World-Class Crags—Will Be Closed to Climbers

Punks in the Gym, the world’s first 5.14a, is slated to be closed to climbers—alongside a number of other world-class climbs and areas. The Australian climbing-access website Save Grampians Climbing broke the news on Monday, writing, “Parks Victoria and the Victorian Government continue their destruction of the Australian climbing community by enlarging climbing bans at Mt. Arapiles and ignoring the majority of users in any form of consultation.”

Alongside Punks in the Gym, first climbed by the legendary Wolfgang Güllich in 1985, the proposed updated closures include such zones as The Pharos, Yesterday Gully, Mitre Rock, and Tiptoe Ridge, plus the historic Pines campground. In total, roughly half of the climbing around Arapiles will be closed—just under 1,000 rock climbs.

Australian climbers have weathered heavy restrictions for the past several years, first at the stunning sandstone cliffs of the Grampians, in 2019, and then multiple bouts of closures at Mt. Arapiles—an area which both Peter Croft and Alex Honnold have famously called some of the best climbing on the planet.

In a publicly available Land Management Plan, Parks Victoria writes that the closures’ aim is to primarily protect the area’s “cultural values from harm. … Archaeological surveys have confirmed the Dyurrite Cultural Landscape is a place rich with cultural heritage including tens of thousands of artifacts, scarred trees, rock art with evidence dating back at least 3,000 years, and one of the largest stone quarry complexes found in Australia.” The plan also acknowledged that the area “is a living cultural and natural landscape for the Wotjobaluk, Jaadwa, Jadawadjali, Wergaia and Jupagulk Traditional Owners who have been a part of and cared for these lands for tens of thousands of years.”

Many active members of the Australian climbing community respect the area’s immense environmental and cultural value, but wish the closures weren’t so sweeping. In an article in Climbing from 2019, when the first round of Grampians closures were announced, Bennett Slavsky wrote that “climbers have had a longstanding positive relationship with Parks Victoria, working with the park service to protect environments and cultural sites, and obeying temporary closures. They acknowledge that the Grampians is an invaluable and sensitive ecosystem and cultural landmark, but feel that a ban of this magnitude is unwarranted.”

Longtime local climbers, including the celebrated photographer and guidebook author Simon Carter, said the Australian government is utilizing these closures to push a larger, tourism-based agenda. The Land Management Plan will expand parking on Mt. Arapiles, repave roads, add barbeques, picnic tables, and toilets—all while climbing remains off limits.

“There is no justification for bans of this magnitude, absolutely none,” Carter told Climbing. “The government’s claim that consultation [with climbers] occurred is gaslighting the climbing community. As a member of the Australian Climbing Association Victoria (ACAV) committee, I can assure you there was none.”

Carter continued: “Given the connection that climbers have with this place, and its significance, I don’t see how climbers can sit back and allow this to be taken away from future generations. No one has a problem with reasonable restrictions. As a guidebook publisher, I’ve always been all-ears in ways I can help. But it is the suggestion that one culture needs to be destroyed to preserve another that offends me the most.”

The public has just 28 days to respond to this management plan. Climbers can submit their responses here.

The post World’s First 5.14—and Many World-Class Crags—Will Be Closed to Climbers appeared first on Climbing.