Climb Eastern Canada

by **The Mitt** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 11:19 am

Anyone know anything about the bolts at the top of the short cliff at polly's? Looks like they were set up so people could toprope.

Mitt

by **tracstarr** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 11:23 am

i thought that happened a few years back. but maybe i'm thinking of another spot. it hasn't been done anytime recent with the use of the cns drill i know that.

by **The Mitt** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 11:30 am

The bolts look pretty new and I don't remember them there from 2 years ago. The ones at Prospect are really old, but I am pretty sure the ones at Polly's are pretty new.

Mitt

by **chameleon** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 11:52 am

I think Vertigo put them in a few years ago.

S

by **dcentral** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 12:12 pm

Vertigo takes a lot of groups down there. It's a really nice easy wall for beginners.

by **The Mitt** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 5:20 pm

I should have known. Is vertigo still going? Gotta love the rock pollution.

Mitt

by **Stevo** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 5:55 pm

They have been bugging me for a while, maybe I'll strip them next time I go there. This is a preservation area and climbing should be as low impact as possible.

Steve

by **Nate** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 5:59 pm

Is there other anchor placements possible around there Mitt? If not, is it really rock pollution?

Nate

by **The Mitt** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 6:11 pm

I never really looked around for natural anchor placements but I am sure they are there. Next time I am hiking with the dog I will take a look.

Mitt

by **Stevo** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 6:21 pm

A buddy of mine led all those lines with trad gear before the bolts were there. I don't recall that he had any bother rigging up belays. Anyway, you can pretty much solo those lines if you are any use at all.

by **Nate** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 6:31 pm

I think the people that vertigo works (or worked) with are pretty much useless in that since then. I consider them boulder problems like the rest of the routes there but, for a plump wee one I suppose being up 20 feet could be a fright.....

Nate

by **Nate** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 6:32 pm

sense*

by **tracstarr** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 6:38 pm

well, i think the deal was that it was for taking little kids out climbing. easy to get to, easy to climb and the bolts made it easy to setup. They use to take a lot of groups out. Sure you can lead it on gear if you are not bouldering them, but i don't think that was the point. I don't see the harm. they've been there a while and with little concern. And it's doubtful that there would be anymore placed. and if you do remove them if vertigo was to startup again i'm sure there would be new ones placed again. anyway, just my 2 cents.

on another note, we now have a $36 hilti drill bit that's gonna make a lot of new holes

by **Eager** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 6:59 pm

Speaking as someone who has used those anchors for the purpose afore mentioned, I'd vote no to removing them. As much as I don't like the anchors there, setting up natural anchors around the pollys cove wall is difficult to impossible to unsafe, requires large amounts of gear mostly large cams, and looking for possible new anchor points requires walking around on top of the endagered nova scotian seaside clifftop habitat in a preservation area, defeating the purpose of the anchors to begin with.

It's for the kids.

by **dcentral** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 7:08 pm

Well put C-rock.

by **The Mitt** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 8:39 pm

Just seams kind of odd that a business, can abitarly decide to place bolts where they please. I don't really care that much, just out for a walk looking at lines and saw these things.

Well if it was for the kids then I guess its alright, wasn't vertigo making money taking the kids out? hmmm What happens when the next company wants to take kids out to dover and put bolts at the top of warmup wall and do toproping there? or Keyhole wall? or all of mainface. I bet people would be pissed off to see bolts on top of "the bear". Just seams like a slipery slope.

Anyway the sun will still come up tomorrow, I'm not trying to piss people off just, putting some thoughts out there. Great day, Great hike out at Polly's and some killer lines yet to be done, closer to dover side. Really boggy though. Flies are still really bad.

Mitt

by **The Mitt** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 8:41 pm

Sorry for the bad grammer, forgot to proof read and spell check, wish we could edit posts for grammer

Mitt

by **Nate** » Wed Jul 05, 2006 6:45 am

It seems odd that anyone can arbitrarily place bolts where they please

Nate

by **Stevo** » Wed Jul 05, 2006 7:04 am

I think the important point is that Polly's Cove is part of a preservation area and only a tiny proportion of Nova Scotia land is protected. Being close to Halifax, Polly's Cove is subject to high visitor pressure and has become noticeably degraded in the 8 years that I have been going there. It makes sense that visitors should adopt a "leave no trace" ethic. Unfortunately there are uneducated morons that tear up the bog with ATVs, cut trees for firewood, gather up rocks to build poor looking inukshuks, and leave beer bottles lying around. Climbers can hardly feel superior to these people if they are going to leave permanently fixed gear littering the rocks.
If you want to top rope kids up easy rock then go to Eagles Nest or Columbus Wall. Sounds like these bolts were placed to commercially exploit a public resource.
That is the sermon for today.
Preacher Steve

by **Eager** » Wed Jul 05, 2006 9:00 am

Again, I think the anchors were put in place because, 1. There isn't good, safe natural pro for anchors, and 2. trying to find suitable anchors would require degrading the site further. I agree that a company shouldn't place anchors willy nilly, and when guiding for Vertigo in the past I used natural anchors whenever possible. Someone from a climbing community that are sport route hungry could of easily bolted some of those problems as sport routes. The fact is there are anchors they served a justified purpose. It is a preservation area, i agree, which is why I said I never really cared for the anchors in the first place, but considering those bolts have been there for probably close to five years and no one has mentioned them until now, goes a long way in showing how much of a impact they make. Weren't we just talking about how inacessible learning to climb outside in NS is, about two months ago.

by **Zamboni** » Wed Jul 05, 2006 9:49 am

C.R.

Eagles nest is being re-developed as an "Easy Out door Place to Climb". Any future companies or persons will most likely want to take groups out to this spot, than any other.

The question I pose to the Climbing Community is....

-When was the last time anybody climbed these lines?

After Eagles nest is re-developed, would anybody ever take "The Kids" to Pollys cove again? If not, than I think we should take a proactive approach and remove the anchors.
Conan.

by **ben smith** » Wed Jul 05, 2006 10:37 am

I say let them be- I'm not a huge fan of bolts but like eager said- to find nat. pro requires arseing around on delicate cliff (boulder) top ecosystems where significant erosion is already evident. plus chopping and patching is going to be uglier than just leaving the bolts in my opinion- and its only one anchor as far as I know

by **dcentral** » Wed Jul 05, 2006 12:13 pm

Again the nice thing about taking kids to polly's cove is that they can boulder while waiting to top rope. It's a really nice open area where you can keep an eye on them and keep them safe.

You can't say the same for Egales Nest. There's a lot of glass and garbage around and the cliff edges aren't really productive or that safe for keeping 10 or 12 kids occupied.

by **The Mitt** » Wed Jul 05, 2006 12:26 pm

So when polly's becomes the next Eagles nest where to then? Area 51? put bolts there? The answer is to fight to keep Eagles nest a clean safe environment if instructing kids is your thing, not keep moving from s@#t hole to s@!t hole

I'm not against bolts just against the reason they were put there, its all about convenience. By the way was the CNS drill used?

Mitt

by **dcentral** » Wed Jul 05, 2006 1:18 pm

Will there be a slip and slide on your slippery slope? Cause that would be a lot of fun.

by **The Mitt** » Wed Jul 05, 2006 1:26 pm

LOL. Hey for once a positive discussion and no major arguements.

Mitt

by **Nate** » Wed Jul 05, 2006 3:07 pm

About the question of when is the last time the bolts were used, I used them a couple months back to practice leading on those cliffs a little bit and top rope with some other climbers. I suppose thats about as much as we can say about the frequency of use of a lot of the bolts in Nova Scotia though. It'd be a good place to teach trad clinics I think, that would be a useful purpose for the bolts perhaps....

Also, eagles nest isn't in the shape it's in because of guided outtings. Lets put this in perspective...

Nate

by **The Mitt** » Wed Jul 05, 2006 3:12 pm

No your right but I have been to crags that were in bad shpe due to guided outings.

Mitt

by **mike walsh** » Wed Jul 05, 2006 4:37 pm

leave em be... and theres not much for "lines" there. The bolts are all over easy V0's but it would be a sweet place to climb for little kids who have never been outside. Why would you take them out now after somebody has allready drilled the holes and gone through the trouble of putting them there...seems like a jerk type move cause the place isn't covered with bolts, theres only a few...

by **Eager** » Wed Jul 05, 2006 7:38 pm

Yes! Eagles nest is awesome! I remember the last time I was there, somebody was teeing off with there driver as I was topping out Sea Gully.

Climb Eastern Canada

Bolts at polly's

Bolts at polly's

Who is online