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Fully sick bolt wars at Araps 8-May-2016 At 9:09:12 AM Wendy

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Hysterical isn't it? Gordy has obviously set the standard of behaviour in Natimuk.

Actually, I put those bolts in and I was way off in the Northern Group yesterday. The people turning up were simply people who also thought it was a reasonable decision to put the bolts in and wanted to climb the route. The person who redpointed it recently asked Glenn about putting bolts in it 6 months ago. He said go for it. She got as far as getting someone to put in anchor above it (which I do think is overkill, being 3m from the existing rap station and with natural anchors available as well, but said pom was happily using) before deciding she would just fudge gear into it on abseil, backing up existing bits of dodgy fixed gear with a few equalised aliens and preclipping the rope into gear at 5m to protect the start. She also said she was happy for it to be bolted (in front of said winging pom), she just wasn't going to do it herself.

Now I am a wonder at fudging gear in on abseil as well. I do it all the time. I could easily have done the same thing on this route. But if a route is not reasonable to expect someone to do safely ground up, hasn't been climbed in a gazillion years and could be made a much more climbable route by 2 bolts that the first ascentionist agrees with, i'm happy to put them in. Having some manners and interpersonal skills, I did talk with Glenn about them and where I thought they should go. One protects an otherwise hard start with no gear til 5m. The other one replaces a piton. Said winging pom insists there is a blue alien placement next to the piton. Which is all fine if you have preinspected the route with an extensive rack hanging off you and fiddled in the best possible gear into sub optimal placements and put a nice long draw on it for easy clipping. Anyone climbing ground up is just going to clip the piton and go and one day the piton will fail.

Of course, now that he has stood up for his principles though, said pom has his work cut out for him. Procul Harem, Trojan, Taste Sensation, Tres Hard. Hell, even I had lead Bygone before the bolt was put in it. Honestly, the experience of hundreds of grade 11 leaders has been ruined. Someone should do something about it. What about that belay on Watchtower Crack? It was done for years without it and with modern gear, you can even supplement it with a 6 camalot. Steve did The Good Fight entirely on gear, now it's a sport route. Shit, Roland put a few extra bolts into Counting the Days and gave me permission to do the same with Playing with a different Sex. Revolution Rock was copletely retroed and Gordy has put yet another rap anchor on the ledge above it. That's 3 on a 10m ledge. That bolt on Exodus 2 might always have been there, but it's half a metre from a bomber 3 rock. Enga's new route retros Visual Laxitive and has another overkill rap station and Antique Roadshow retros Underneath the Colours. Then there are all those chipped holds around the place. There won't be time for any climbing left there are so many ethical atrocities to fix. But I do expect I show of principles by doing them all ground up without the fixed gear before ripping anything out.