With any luck, spring is turning to summer and hopefully we will be granted a few continuous days of sunshine and dry rock. It’s been a long time coming and if you’re an outdoor climbing wimp like me that needs warm rays and dry rock to head out, it’s time now. 🙂
So this season brings us opportunities to get outdoors and meet up, climb, chat and put all that indoor practice we have existed on, during winter, to good use.
So a few things first……
WELCOME TO ALL OUR NEW MEMBERS TO CAWA
…… It’s a real pleasure to have you join the CAWA family, and we look forward to sharing with you our upcoming events and functions for the season. Also a big Hi Again to our re-joining members. Thanks for keeping your membership updated with us.
Secondly you will see above and on our media sites that we have a new Post Office Box number address – So please change your CAWA details to incorporate our new PO Box. Many of you don’t use the PO Box but those who do are encouraged to change your details.
- Climbing Trips :
We’ve been fortunate with most of our climbing trips over the winter season, expect the last public holiday long weekend where our Mt Frankland trip was washed out.
CAWA are looking to move the Mt Frankland climbing trip to a better weather zone in the future. Stay tuned for a new set of trips coming up soon. They will be posted on the CAWA web and the CAWA FB page.
We are considering a new format for climbing trips outdoors – which will not need any registration. We will be trialling a “pop-up” style of climbing trips, where at short notice we will post an event and a location and it will be open for CAWA members. The structure around registrations has not been successful and consequently it’s been difficult to prepare for the trips. This will give more flexibility to our members and the CAWA Committee members who attend.
The “pop-up” trips will be in addition to the usual CAWA format climbing trips such as :
- Eaglestone in late Aug, early September
- Mt Frankland on the Queen’s Birthday long weekend (which may be shifted)
- Albany/WCH Xmas trip
- Willy’s on the Australia Day Long weekend
- And Kalbarri in June
Again, these “pop-up” trips will be determined by your demand, short term weather forecasts, availability of a CAWA Committee member’s attendance. It gives you flexibility and choice as we intend to post “pop-up’s” more regularly. They could be a day at a quarry, a trip to Wellington Dam, Blackwall reach or a weekend at Eaglestone Rock.
We are making it easier for you to climb is it suits you…. So it will be a trial for the summer season and we should report back on how it goes at the next AGM.
If you have any comments to share about Climbing Trips, use the CAWA web Forum and post up there, or you can email us at cawa@climberswa.asn.au
- Programme for lower off ring bolt anchor maintenance :
CAWA has reviewed current practices in Australia and have decided to roll out a programme to add “sacrificial” mallions or snap links/hook to lower off anchor ring bolts on selected routes in Western Australia.
Over time with increased traffic in the sport of rock climbing, lower off bolts have been used to top rope and rap through which has increased the erosion load to the bolt. In many other areas, mallions or snap/hooks have been installed to take up the erosion load of the ring bolts. This increases the safe working life of the ring bolts, and where and when necessary, the mallions or snap/hooks can be inspected and replaced easily.
CAWA has a sub-committee formed led by Jonas Hollingworth who will provide a program of the routes to be attended and will also keep records of the conditions as noted. This will be posted and updated regularly on CAWA media sites.
- Revised Calendar of Events :
We’re working on updating the Events calendar on the CAWA web and it will be updated in the near future.
Please email us your suggestions and expectations so that we can better address the wishes of the membership.
An early mention of the next CAWA AGM, it’s coming up in February 2014. We’re always on the lookout for members who want to help to run CAWA. It’s the commitment by the CAWA Committee that gets things done for our members. So if you want to make a difference and want to provide your support and energy, CAWA is “hiring now”….. OK, it’s for the love you do it, not a paid job, sorry…
I just wanted to get out a short note to let you know we are all coming out of hibernation and we will see you at a CAWA function in the near future….
Safe Climbing – Tony Brebner, CAWA President and the rest of the CAWA Committee.