Bushwalk Australia

I took a group on the Gladstone Pass/Lindeman track/Copeland Pass loop this afternoon, when we got to what I thought was going to be the trickiest scramble (a 2M moderately exposed rockface , which often has 2 fixed handlines, just before the upper scramble through a hole in the rock) I discovered three spikes have been fixed into the rock face.

I am sure they weren't there 3 months ago. It certainly made the ascent easier.

In other news, the landslide section of lindeman (on eastern side of Sublime Point) is almost passable at the moment, and someone (not me) has put a whole lot of pink ribbon to mark a track through the ferns. And only 1 leech all day!

Thanks for the info Jonno, I'll have to check it out when I get the chance.

I wonder whether Jim Smith has anything to do with it all?

Jim's thing has always been in restoring constructed tourist tracks. While he has an historical interest in negotiable routes through the major cliff lines, he would definitely not be 'spiking' them.

I consider spikes on Copeland are unnecessary. When working on Lindemans years ago, people used to carry mattocks and Mcleods (and possibly even a chainsaw) up and down Copeland unaided. Just as for ropes on The Castle in Morton NP, if there isn’t someone in the party who can ascend or descend Copeland and set a rope if needed, then they shouldn’t be there.

Are the spikes situated where the rock climbers would descend? Considering the trouble they went to just to save themselves five minutes on the top section of Rock Pile (ruining the ambience in the process), they’d be the first suspects.

yes the spikes are on the section climbers use