wooden platform on Goulara (5.10c) in Wheeler Gorge

Hey,
Does anyone know why wooden platform there? I can't tell from the photo but is it hung by bolts?
Thanks.
Matt

Pitch is probably too long to be lead from ground?

the pitch is only 70 feet according to the description. so that is probably not the reason.

maybe erosion control?

When that route first went up in the early 50's it was the hardest in the country. The team was making little progress per day (only inches). They didn't want to rap back to the ground each night so they invented the port-a-ledge.

It still hangs in its original place today. God bless them and their design which ushered in new sleeping developments and therefore more difficult climbs on Big Walls such as the one in your picture.

Roots wrote:When that route first went up in the early 50's it was the hardest in the country. The team was making little progress per day (only inches). They didn't want to rap back to the ground each night so they invented the port-a-ledge. It still hangs in its original place today. God bless them and their design which ushered in new sleeping developments and therefore more difficult climbs on Big Walls such as the one in your picture.

Wheeler Gorge. A creek flows through there and most likely gets high enough that a pulled rope and/or belayer would be in the water during a high flow spell. That's just my guess. I was not part of the previously mentioned historical ascent :)

I have climbed that route.... while other routes in the area do need platforms as to provide a belay spot from high water, this route only needed that platform because of the shitty eroded hillside you have to stand on to belay the route. I don't think the platform is still there.... stick clip the first bolt so when you fall below it you dont go tumbling down into the creek.

rock_fencer and Wil are right; the hill is a PITA to stand on and is eroding like crazy. The platform is no longer there.

It's been gone for years and yes it was held up with bolts. Basically the climb starts twenty feet up some third class so the ledge was put there to allow for a convenient/safe belay at the immediate start, but I just put my belayer below the third class.

thanks for the reply. I have never seen a permanent portaledge such as this. On this climb someone removed a retro-bolted bolt at the start. it seems interesting to have an area that ethics dictate pulling a retro-bolt but allows a large piece of litter such as this to be bolted on the side of the cliff. those ideas seem to conflict with each other.

That must be one popular-ass climb if someone once went to all that trouble to make it more pleasant to belay.

area ethics didn't allow for either of them, that's why both are gone

Um, yeah, that thing has been gone for a minute. Whats with the supposed 2013 pic? I belayed off that in 2001.. it sure was cozy... :)