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Pioneers of Tassie's Best Climbs 20-Sep-2016 At 8:57:32 AM simey

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On 15/09/2016 Tastrad wrote:
>So Wendy..a good thing that most people don't put up new routes? Where
>would the existing climbs have come from? Check out this wonderful video
>from dave macleod..sums it up perfectly for me.
>http://www.rockandice.com/video-gallery/dave-macleod-the-unknown

This video is a crock of horse shit. He spouts on about the wonderfulness of new routing like it is some sort of higher spiritual realm. And then we watch footage of him climbing something where he has obviously top-roped the crap out of it beforehand (given the amount of chalk it is covered in).

I fail to see the difference between him doing that, or anyone working any route near their limit.

I would argue that the intensity of experience of going ground-up on any established route beats the shit out of establishing a new route which you have rap-inspected/rap-bolted/top-roped first.

Even doing the first ascent of the Free Route on the Totem Pole wasn't particularly intense because I had rap-inspected it and bolted it. The defining moment was rapping down it for the first time and seeing it was possible. Climbing it was simply going through the motions. In fact it was far more intense going back to repeat it years later when I had forgotten all the moves and was cursing myself for having spaced the bolts near the top.

I won't deny that establishing routes ground-up can be pretty memorable though.

But I completely dismiss the idea that new routers do all this work for the greater good of the climbing community. New routers love doing new routes and that is their primary motivation.

Like Wendy pointed out, track work and re-bolting is often a thankless task that is often far more beneficial to the climbing community.

And the idea that only people who establish new routes can vouch for the quality of others new routes is absurd. I would say that they are often the worst people to ask if you are wanting an un-biased opinion.