Official Statement released by Adventures Are Us Limited. We are providers of outdoor activities throughout the Peak District and beyond. Our customer base is wide and varied, catering for all ages and abilities. We are constantly asked to accommodate disabled clients as well as children with special educational needs. This is a great challenge and we always try our best to provide exciting and inclusive activities for all group members whether able bodied or otherwise. With many disabled clients it is impossible and potentially dangerous to move too far from a parking area. As we all know Burbage North is soon accessed from the car park and therefore ideal to provide a semi wilderness environment for those who otherwise would not be able to enjoy what the rest of us take for granted. Credit should be given to Kier who have been quick to appreciate this and are upgrading access and paths from the car park. We have been running zip lines for many years in other areas including private quarries, all the zips have been substantially shorter than the one at Burbage, but all of them have been impossible to access for disabled clients, hence our trials at Burbage. We thought long and hard about the feasibility of running a zip line at Burbage and we did consider all aspects. I wish to run through the sequence from the first idea to trialling the zip line. Firstly the idea of the zip line was not to make more money for our company. We already have regular clients, the Burbage zip was conceived solely to provide an exciting activity accessible to all abilities, it would not provide extra money, it would provide inclusion. On this subject we never had any idea to allow a pay per go activity, we never get involved in these type of activities all our clients are pre-booked and always will be. The next stage in our planning for the zip line was to find suitable anchors. Not only did the anchors have to be suitable for their primary purpose of anchoring the zip line and associated rigging / tensioning system, they also had to be selected with reference to. 1 Environmental Impact 2 Consideration to Boulderers / climbers 3 Consideration to Walkers 4 Location of footpaths / Access for disabled clients Looking at point No1 Environmental impact. It should be obvious to everybody that it is impossible to engage in any outdoor activity without having some impact upon the environment. Nevertheless it is incumbent upon all of us to minimise this impact by good initial planning, group management and ongoing dynamic assessments. We are absolutely satisfied that our systems are very robust and would stand up to the closest scrutiny. With reference to the Burbage zip, the take off and landing areas are on rock, we planned this to ensure minimum soil erosion even though this caused us numerous other safety related problems which we eventually overcame. Also I wish to make it absolutely clear that we rig with ropes not steel cables and the zip line itself is semi static rope of suitable strength. Where the rope is attached to the anchor both the rope and anchor are protected with purpose made protectors ( not a bit of carpet) Group management and correct environmental briefings ensure that our clients are aware of their responsibility to minimise impact and to leave nothing behind. Good environmental planning underpins everything we do, but our ongoing dynamic assessments take account of other factors such as excessive recent rainfall or general overuse, we simply don’t allow our clients to wallow around in the mud and cause erosion. I know for a fact that we can run the Burbage zip with less environmental impact than a group of four people bouldering. I am not saying that climbing and bouldering are inherently damaging, clearly they are not. I enjoy climbing and bouldering in Burbage valley and beyond and would defend our sport with vigour. Point No 2 Consideration to Boulderers / Climbers. The anchors we have chosen are obviously enormous chunks of rock, they have to be. Anyone who has studied vector mechanics will understand the forces involved when zips and tyroleans are loaded, otherwise please accept they are considerable. There are about four suitable anchors on Burbage West from a safety point of view, but only one of these is suitable from the point of view that it does not interfere with boulderers and climbers. The selected boulder is not the easiest to rig to because of its shape and inclination. We selected this boulder out of respect to other crag users (crag etiquette). The simplest thing would be to use one of the other boulders, we did not go for simplicity. Furthermore the landing site on Burbage East is a random patch of rock, which is not suitable for climbing or bouldering and we have never seen anybody anywhere near these rocks. Point No 3 Consideration to Walkers. Yes the zip does pass over the path on Burbage West, but it is 40 foot above the path. There is one possible moment of conflict when we start to tension the zip and the rope leaves the ground. We mitigate against this by keeping the ropes on the ground and asking walkers to be aware of them. There is usually nobody around, but we simply wait for any walking party to pass before we begin tensioning. The ropes are above head height in around four seconds. Our initial attempts to tension the system were done at the bottom of the zip, we changed to top tensioning after our first attempt so that we could ensure the safety of walkers on the Burbage West path. As a side we have had several walkers approach us and make favourable comments, whilst we have been running the zip. One walking party sat and chatted to us whilst we were rigging the system, because they wanted to see us zipping across the valley. They described the zip as truly wonderful and a great idea. Point No 4 Location of footpaths. This was a major consideration for us with the intended disabled users. However please note that this is number four on our list of priorities for anchor selection, because if we could not satisfy the requirements of the previous points, point 4 would be irrelevant. We have tried to make the take off and landing as close to paths as possible, obviously this minimises the environmental impact, from a practical point of view it means we should be able to get even quite severely disabled people on and off the activity. Being absolutely honest we still have some reservations about the potential difficulty of getting severely disabled clients up to the path on Burbage East. We have experimented with rigging to a higher boulder to make this easier but the slope of the zip is then too shallow and the client ends up 40 feet short of the landing zone and it is hard work to pull them in. Up to now we have set the zip line up on 4 occasions. These have all been test runs with our instructional staff and friends. It was necessary to test and prove the system prior to contacting the land owners and managers and other interested parties such as the RSPB and Natural England as it is an SSSI. It would have been impossible to answer questions regarding environmental impact and how it could be done without inconveniencing others in the valley, until we had actually run it a few times to overcome the inevitable problems which always arise. During one of our test runs we were approached by Bill Gordon (PDNPA) who is the warden for the Stanage / Burbage Valleys Bill was kind enough to give us the landowners and managers details so that we could seek permission to run the zip line. We have contacted all the relevant agencies and await their decision. The RSPB have also told us when not to run the zip to protect nesting birds (1st April to end Aug). It is unlikely that we would have a need to use the zip line on more than ten occasions per year and for around 3 hours per session. The zip line is set up and removed the same day and leaves no evidence that it was ever there. The intended use is primarily for the disabled. It is set up and run by professional qualified instructors who care passionately about the environment and in particular Burbage Valley. The decision whether the zip line can be run or not will ultimately rest with the landowners and managers. It will also be their decision as to the frequency, they may tell us ten times is too much. Concerns regarding other providers setting up adjacent zip lines and turning the valley into a theme park are unlikely on safety grounds. There is really only one suitable top anchor which is safe and avoids conflict with other users. If other providers wish to do similar zip lines, this would be fine by us. It would be quite simple for applications to be submitted to the landowners in the same way we did. If the landowners decide that ten occasions per year is enough then we would have to accept an equal share. It would make sense to only allow one zip line on any given day I hope that after reading this you have a clearer understanding that what is proposed is very small scale and will have negligible impact upon the valley or other users of the valley. After reading all the posts on UK bouldering I was quite upset and genuinely sorry to have caused so many fellow climbers and boulderers cause for concern. Although as stated previously the originator of the blog should have researched more before upsetting so many people. I understand John Horscroft is a journalist and regular contributor to climbing magazines. I know next to nothing about journalism but I suspect thorough research underpins quality journalism, speculation, rumour and mis-direction must lead to the opposite. John the next time you need accurate information regarding any of our programme activities please give me a call. There were some posts on the blog which were quite neutral even though the item was introduced in a negative way. The minority who suggested that Burbage should be a climber only environment, are of course entitled to their opinion, I doubt however they will gain much support from the wider world of climbing let alone the other users they seek to exclude. Cycling is not allowed in the Burbage Valley but I guess it’s ok if John decides to do it, make your own mind up. Finally you could email the land owners as suggested on the blog and prevent the Burbage zip line from going ahead. To be honest if enough people are still opposed to the idea now that the facts have been correctly presented we will stand down without question. We respect the opinions of anyone and everyone who uses Burbage Valley. We do not have the right or desire to diminish the enjoyment derived by visitors to the valley. Furthermore we want to keep good relationships between instructors and others in the valley because we are all on the same side. And finally again. Yes finally usually denotes the end but I have just been reading the latest items on the uk climbing blog. It would now seem that a minority have turned the debate into in a vendetta to drag my company through the mud. Someone has decided to lie and suggest the zip line is for hen and stag parties, this is utter nonsense. One or two others are suggesting that we simply do not know what we are doing and are going to kill somebody. The final comment is a positive one for us and warns a previous respondent that what he is saying is potentially libellous. Litigation would be a last resort for us but is now sadly under serious consideration. Having read all the diatribe regarding the right and wrong ways to set up a zip, it is clear to me that only one respondent knows anything about the subject. There are little snippets of accurate knowledge in a few of the posts, but zip lines and tyroleans are simple devices, which are easy to set up and run safely. There is an inter-relationship between the initial tension applied to the ropes, the secondary or actual loading by a person and most importantly but not mentioned by anyone the actual angle that the zip line is pulled into when the secondary load is applied. As for Karabiners being bent out of shape, the Karabiners we use are rated above the rope breaking strain and without giving anything away we rig the system so that the Karabiners and knots are not loaded with the full tension of the zip line. Yes we do know what we are doing, my lead instructor is ex fire service and has 32 years experience of rope work and rope rescue, we’ve been doing it for 16 years, no deaths yet. For balance I would also like say a big thank you to those who have left positive posts. I promise you especially that we will not let you down or spoil your valley. Now that I have your attention and hopefully you like me a bit more than you did. I want to ask for your help with another related matter. The one positive thing which has come out of John instigating the blog, is the bringing together of a group of like minded people who really care about Burbage Valley. You may or may not be aware that each year particularly in the summer months groups of youths descend upon Burbage valley carrying bottles and cans of alcohol, non of which are carried back out again. Each year our instructors are picking up more and more rubbish left behind by these people. It has reached epidemic proportions and we are unable to keep up with it. We now only remove bottles which are broken and a danger to people and animals. The area we are mostly talking about is in the plantation and around the western edge near the river. I encourage you to spend a couple of hours walking through the woods and you will not believe it. They are also lighting fires and to fuel the fires they are chopping down trees. I am convinced that with the wrong type of conditions, a dry spell coupled with high winds we could lose the whole plantation in one night. I am not telling you this to direct your attention from the zip line, if the zip bothers you, do what you think is right. I am seizing the opportunity to bring some collective brain power to the biggest single problem which is set to destroy our valley. We have picked up broken wine and cider bottles from the area where you all boulder presumably they throw these away on the walk out from the valley. We have even picked broken glass out of weaselling problems where we and other instructors send children through. We now have to check every weasel hole, every time. I think we should all meet up in the new year with stout rubbish sacks and gloves and try to clean up the plantation area. Afterwards we should adjourn to the pub and discuss how we prevent this wanton destruction of our valley.
Kind regards to everyone. Darren Thomas - Operations Director Adventures Are Us Limited With full agreement by committee members.
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