ROCK CLIMBING NEWS ITEM

Rock Climbers Not Guilty of Destroying Plant Life

THURSDAY, 29 JUNE 2006

Research has repeatedly shown that climbing routes have half the plant richness of unclimbed cliffs. These studies have given climbers a bad rap and led many reserves to put their cliffs off limits.

According to researchers, plants make climbing dangerous because the roots break up the rocks. Climbers would prefer climbing solid stone cliffs over plant-covered ones, which makes the ecology matters on rock face not totally an issue.

Research on easier routes for novices will also be done to ensure that they are not being damaged.

To read more about this news, check out www.newscientist.com