Making Way to the Top of the Totem Pole

Tasmanians call them seastacks, tourists call them a World Heritage Site, and scientists call them a rarity. And the rest of those familiar with Tasmania’s strange and ethereal rock formations refer to them affectionately as the Totem Poles.

Situated on the tip of the rugged Tasmanian Peninsula, a brilliant collection of 300-meter high dolerite sea cliffs sit—or, I should say loom—above a foamy ocean. If that doesn’t provide an adequate image (and I’m sure it doesn’t), think of cramming dozens of birthday candles on a well frosted cake. But the candles are lichen-swathed, composited rock, and each swirl in the frosting is a crashing wave. Cropping up like mammoth, rocky cornstalks on an Iowan farm, the formations appear to defy all laws of gravity and geology.

Of course, the Totem Poles are a favorite spot for tourists keen to appreciate the natural beauty of the relatively untouched Tasman National Park. Possums scuttle around the cliffs, fur seals, whales, and dolphins play along water’s edge, and endemic birds squawk happily above. More recently, though, the seastacks have attracted a new clientele: adrenaline-seeking sports tourists who attempt to scale the faces of Tasmania’s iconic rocks.

High winds and thick sea mist make the climbing conditions unforgiving—nearly impossible. Ever since a 2002 Greenpeace stunt, when two climbers hung a billboard-sized, anti-toothfish poaching banner across the cliffs, climbers from all around the world have been nonetheless enthralled with trying their picks at this difficult, vertical climb.

toothfish is sold as Chilean seabass in the United States, and is a popular commercial fish harvested for international consumption. Heavy industry around the Tasmanian peninsula is driving the slow-reproducing fish extinct: the fish isn’t sexually mature until it is 10 years old, and will live as long as 50 years if untouched.

As one climber said about the stunt, “While this climb may look dangerous, our climbers are perfectly safe. Unlike the toothfish and seabird populations, which are in serious danger from pirate fishing.”

Sources:

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