The Climb From NT Government Tourist Brochure, circa 1983. Photo likely taken by Derek Roff, Chief Ranger between 1968 and 1985 Text reads: Sheer rock looms before you, stretching 348 metres up. It seems like madness to try to climb it. But for many people the climb to the top of Ayers Rock is one of the greatest challenges of the Australian outback. About 50 000 people a year climb the Rock. But you have to be fit. It's steep, sometimes slippery and it's deceiving. You seem to climb forever. Each skyline appears to be the last but in fact, you cannot see the summit until you are 100 metres away. It takes about 90 minutes to reach the top. But when you get there the spectacular view makes it all worthwhile. After proudly signing the achievers' book, all you have to do is get down. Don't be mistaken. The climb down is just as difficult as the climb to the top.
Our mountains belong to all of us. The Right to Climb them and bask in their views that inspire awe and wonder is as old as the human genome. This long-established cultural tradition is under threat by a small group of bureaucrats determined to impose their way on the rest of the world. It is right to Climb because we have the Right to climb. If you don’t exercise your rights you lose them. Don't let petty nanny state bureaucrats take them away.