Peter, myself and Richard had a look at the Skywalker Wall in Mountain Quarry (we abseiled over it)last weekend and are wondering what is happenning there. CALM undertook a rock bolting project there to stabilise this face, as in their opinion it was unstable.

As of today, the wall is completely unsuitable for climbing; not only it is still covered in a coat of abrasive cement filth that smothers holds in many places, there also seem to be many industrial-looking 1/2″ studbolts (often with hangers) sticking out of the wall. Many of these are right next to the old climbing bolts. At least one is placed in shattered rock right next to a hairline crack (on Star Wars, level with the Skywalker roof). The climbs Star Wars and the routes L and including Vader have many such bolts, in all cases the studs stick out of the wall 1-2″ and pose major danger to anyone who would fall there. The routes between Urban Ethics and Vader (inclusive) are not climbable (except maybe for pitch 1 of Vader and Skywalker). So questions I have are:

(1) When is the filth finally going to be removed ? one would think 4 months is enough for CALM to do the job. The task is far too great to be achievable by climbers or volunteers.

(2) When are the stud bolts going to be removed ? (presumably these were placed by CALM to somehow assist in the stabilisation works). They are very dangerous and someone will get cut up by the studs which stick out 5 cm from the face in many cases). There are about 10 studs at the top of the wall.

Before the CALM works, this was the best climbing face in Perth. Currently it is not climbable. Why not?