UKH

Price: £38.00

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Someone in Norway selling a 7kg piece of Fontainebleu sandstone. Yours for a bargain at 499 NOK/ 38 GBP current exchange rate.

https://www.finn.no/bap/forsale/ad.html?finnkode=261227987&ci=4

Not mine*

In reply to mrbird:

£38 you say? Where's my hammer, I'm m off to Stannage....

Seriously that's a crappy thing to do I hope it's haunted by the ghost of some gnarly old blustard who duly curses the owner to suffer permanently poff'ed footholds for eternity.

In reply to ebdon:

Good idea. See if they would accept a swap? What's the going rate for Stanage grit to Font sandstone? 7kg to 7kg?

Aye it's pathetic and cretinous.

In reply to mrbird:

Strange thing to sell or buy, though isn't it a bit of a leap to assume they've broken it off? It would be much simpler to just pick a chunk up from the floor, especially at one of the quarried areas such as Calvaire.

It would still be poor form to be removing from the forest either way. 

In reply to Lhod:

You say ‘poor form’. I’m wondering about the legality of it. I believe Fontainbleau is ‘owned by’/part of The National Forests Office (Office national des Forêts)? Or have I got this wrong? If so, isn’t this a kind of theft: i.e. stealing national property, and then making money out of it, i.e. out of something that is owned by the state.

Wikipedia says The National Forests Office 'main tasks regarding law enforcement are the fight against forest degradation, poaching and pollution ...'

In reply to Gordon Stainforth:

A confession here, I have a bit of loose rock taken from a campsite in a famous climbing area about 30 years ago. Sorry.

In reply to Pedro50:

I have quite a few pieces of rock, mostly taken from summits. Sadly, none of them is labelled so I don’t know which piece came from which mountain. 

In reply to Gordon Stainforth:

Think there's a difference between picking up a wee pebble souvenir for yourself and bringing back 7kg chunks to sell online for 40 quid a pop.

In reply to mrbird:

Yes, that’s the point I was making really. If it became commercial and someone started selling large quantities of rock from a national park I think they could find themselves on the wrong side of the law..

In reply to mrbird: its been on there on and off for several years.  I think he's also wanted more in the past, but I don't know the seller 

In reply to Gordon Stainforth:

There are multiple commercial sellers of large (huge) quantities of rock in the Peak District National Park....  valuable business after tourism, agriculture, forestry..... the Hope Valley cement works is apparently the largest single employer (Wikipedia) in the Park, grinding up rock & selling it

In reply to wbo2:

Maybe he's hit rock bottom.

In reply to buxtoncoffeelover:

Incidentally they'll run out in 2042 or speculation has it some time quite a bit sooner! (but they're keeping those cards close to their chest). Not limestone running out but the type/quality of shale onsite. Shale (or clay) is the other principal ingredient for cement.

In reply to mrbird:

Pretty pathetic isn't it. Selling by the Kg. Who wants quantity over quality? What would be better is if it was the key hold taken from the crux of a climb. Imagine something crucial from a route with real history, the famous  hands that used it...that's far more value than some random lump, what an amateur!

OK, so let's  start it easy and low key... I'd say £20 for a lump of master's edge, anyone buying? And how about something from one pebble slab for £100 (prices go up as it gets scarcer).

In reply to CantClimbTom:

I know you're only joking but this sort of thing has genuinely happened (e.g. Karma) where someone has gone around chipping key holds off iconic problems.

I'd suggest it's best not to discuss or joke about on a public forum, just on the off-chance that it plants the seed in someone's mind.

Old thread about this: https://www.ukhillwalking.com/forums/rock_talk/karma_chipped_in_font-3742

In reply to Lhod:

Point taken....

In reply to Pedro50:

I'm sure I 'sent' that 45 years ago! Have you done the sit-start?

In reply to CantClimbTom:

Rather boringly this is part of my job so I can't help myself....

The 2042 date applies to somthing like 50% of the uks hard rick quarries as it used to be the case permissions had no end date, but in 1982 someone decided this was a bad idea and all quarries should have an and date. This would be in the far future and 60 years seemed a good number.  What will happen in 2042 I dont know but the industry are quite worried. I suspect the majority will get extensions, so don't get your hopes up for lots of new climbing venues in 18 years!

In reply to ebdon:

Thanks! I think it's been debated before, that quarries heavily blasted for bulk products like limestone for cement or hard rock for road grit make terrible fractured rock for climbing. I did some access work back in the day (catch fence) and some stuff on some sites was a shattered fractured mess.

If you could ask them to minimise the charges and pry off blocks with crowbars, rather than blast and load, we'd be eternally grateful as it'd be very climbable.

The rumour, which is possibly just that and not based on fact? (can you confirm?) is that the shale on site may become uneconomic to extract as quarrying progresses, which in turn would spoil the economy of cement production on site. As mentioned it might be total nonsense though, so any actual facts on that would be appreciated.

In reply to CantClimbTom:

You're not the first person to make the suggestion about blasting! Alas I don't think quarry managers pay much attention to the enjoyment of lowly climbers.

I'm afraid I don't know any details about the Hope site (my work is more on national supply of construction materials) but that is certainly an interesting rumor. Sometimes with big cement plants because they are so expensive even when the local quarry runs out of rock/permission the materials are trucked in from satellite sites (I.e Rugby) however I can't see loads of HGVs loaded with rock being very welcome on the hope valley. 

In reply to CantClimbTom:

When has that every stopped anyone? Music to Gary's ears!