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General Climbing Discussion

Topic Date User

New bolt on Blimp - Bundaleer 12-May-2018 At 2:44:21 PM chalkischeap

Message

The bolt on Blimp needs to be removed. It's a classic mid grade climb and the bolt changes the character of the climbing too much. The old piton was not to be trusted and good trad gear can be placed instead.

Some people don't believe in the thin end of the wedge/slippery slope argument but if this bolt is left in, someone will later use it's presence as a precedent to replace the old carrot bolt with a shiny ring bolt. Other trad climbs will be in the firing line, using the Blimp test case.

It's never going to be easy with a mixed protection local ethic. We are talking about a renegade, forbidden activity (bolting) so trying to bring climbers into line is impossible.

The no-bolts style works just fine on UK gritstone, mountain crags, Gogarth etc and the climbing scene is better for it. You can have a psyche-up day on committing trad and a gym-style performance day on sport crags. It gives you two contrasting fun things to do.

I think that it's too late to achieve a bolt-free Rosea. When the going gets tough or inconvenient, the bolts go in - even on trad climbs. It's our local ethic and it's been around for decades.

In any case, the rock is often too compact to be fully trad e.g. Taipan. We are stuck with mixed protection climbing, differences of opinion and a few mis-steps.

I'm sure that the Blimp bolt will be short-lived.