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Liquid Insanity 25-Apr-2018 At 11:29:52 AM Wendy

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I'm a longstanding objector to bolted highline anchors. i had heard that the ethic at araps had moved to placing natural anchors, which i am very happy about, but there are still highline bolts there that i object to. i haven't been to any of the more recent places i have seen them set up, but i hope they were all on gear, trees and bollards, because i struggle to see any reason you couldn't find a suitable natural set up at almost any location at the mount by moving around a bit and working out those challenges should be part of the skillset required to participate. like the skillsets you need to participate in climbing and why i object to catering to the demand for easy sport routes because people don't want to develop the appropriate skill set for easy rock which is almost always protectable with trad.

I'm still trying to work out why i dislike higlining anchors so much. you can probably tell me i just don't get it, and you'd be right, i don't, but it seems a bit like abseiling. you're doing the same thing in different locations. and sure, some of those locations might be nicer than others, but is the difference of experience enough to justify putting in anchors for 4 different lines in essentially the same place? would you say it was ok to put 4 sets of rap anchors in just for the experience of abseilling down a slightly different position on the cliff? if people want to set up removable anchors, they can set up highlines every 2m for all i care. but when it comes to putting in half a dozen bolts per line, i want to know what makes that line sufficiently special to justify it over existing lines and lines possible without bolts. yep, i can see pr perp is a spectacular location. but do you need to walk over a suspended line at multiple sites in that spectacular location? what makes it different to just doing the same one again other than ticking that you've walked from this arete to that arete and the other arete to the next?

i do think the same thought process needs to be applied to new climbs and rap anchors as well. i'm probably worse about higlighing anchors though because i can see when individual climbs are sufficiently unique to justify bolting or cleaning. i can even see that the highline across central gully (ugly and noisy as it was and questionable though i am about the amount of vegetation destruction involved in getting the ropes across there) offers something unique over the shorter lines. i just don't see enough variation in most highlines to say any more than same shit, different place. even the triangle on the bluffs. is there any point to all three other than saying you've done a cute little triangle? Is it just a more skilled version of someone putting in anchors on every face on the bluffs so they can say they have rapped every face of the bluffs?

Flame away if you want. Or try and explain to me what makes each highline unique. I don't care if people want to go out and build natural anchor highlines anywhere. Hell, even above existing climbs, though it might be polite not to hog popular routes for any length of time. it's first come first served at the cliff. i don't understand why you'd want to do it, but if you're not damaging anything, and being respectful of other cliff users, go for your life. if you want to put 6 bolts in each one, it needs a lot more explaining.