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General Climbing Discussion

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Manufacturing 8-Jul-2005 At 10:54:40 AM oweng

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Before I read the letter in Rock Neil is referring to, my opinion on bolting a hold to a route would have been "you must be joking!" By the end of reading the letter I wasnt so sure.

The most telling point to me was that I dont really currently have an issue with the placing of a single bolt to allow an aid move on a otherwise free route. Bat man starts are pretty rare (ive never actually done one) but they seem to be around and condoned. A bolt on hold is no different in impact to the rock, and allows the aid move to be eliminated making the route more pleasent. As long as the bolted on hold isnt dayglo orange and matches the rock, and as long as a second bolt isnt required for protection at the same point, its hard to argue (for me) that a single bolt on hold would be worse than a single aid bolt placed to allow a batman start.

To me then im faced with either

1) supporting the bolting on of a hold at the start of routes to allow them to go free (from where its a small leap to start supporting drilling a pocket instead of bolting on a hold, or

2) changing my opinion on aid bolts / batman starts to free routes (as they could be the start of a slippery ethical slope).

A tasty ethical dilema! Anyone else got an opinion? Im confused....