Hopewell Rocks undergo spring makeover to improve safety

Specialists are combing over the rock face at the Hopewell Rocks, knocking down anything that may have become loose over the winterto ensure the ongoing safety of tourists.

After each winter, the conglomerate rock that makes up that natural wonder has several unstable patches. Before the park can open, Stephen Woodley's team rappels down the cliffs and sea stacks.

"These are rocks that are going to fall anyway," said Woodley, noting his team of eight don't change the overall erosion of the rocks.

Woodley's crew focuses on the areas where there will be high tourist traffic.

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Either rappelling down the cliff face or climbing up some sea stacks, they quickly look for the areas that could harm guests.

Katrina Cook has been scaling the Hopewell Rocks for about eight years, long enough to enjoy the views while performing the precarious work.

"You have to have your wits about you and there's lots to pay attention to," she said.

The work Cook does is not so much digging rocks out of the wall, but rather coaxing what will fall down.

Some of the pieces that come tumbling down can be as big as a car, but Cook said even the small pieces can create havoc below.

"I mean even a small rock, if it hits you, is a big deal," she said.

The work is so essential to safety, that Kevin Snair, the park's interpretive services supervisor, said he wouldn't want to open without it.

"We take our safety of our guests extremely seriously," he said.

While the scalers are able to increase the safety of many locations, even they can't reach everything.

Woodley said those areas are roped off to keep people away from them.

Over his eight years working at the park, Snair said it feels like the number of areas roped off seems to grow.

But every now and then, even he is surprised by what opens back up.

Last year, one of his favourite areas was deemed safe after spending years blocked off.

"What a treat it was to go through there again," said Snair.

The park appears to be having better luck with another location this year.

New-look park

The Elephant Rock sea stack suffered a collapse in March altering its famous appearance.

While one of its two passageways has been blocked by tonnes of rubble, the other has been cleared for usage by Woodley's team.

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Snair said he's relieved to know guests will be able to access the other beach safely through that passageway. "It really would have negatively impacted our guest's visit," said Snair.

"We are so thrilled to know that that is going to be able to stay open."

Knocking loose trees and rubble down may take away the immediate threat of injury, but the park can't guarantee nothing else will fall.

"There's always a bit of risk," said Snair,

"You can never make the place 100 per cent safe."

Snair said it makes sense to keep your distance from the rocks, if not for safety reasons, but to properly take them in.

"They're massive, they need to seen from a bit of a distance," he said.

While a big part of the scalers' duty is ensuring the safety of the park's guests, they also do a lot of observation work.

This year, the nesting peregrine falcons have taken up residence in an old raven nest away from prying eyes.

Before Woodley's work is done, his crew will check in on the nest to see if anything has hatched.