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Araps Rebolting 13-Jan-2006 At 11:25:19 PM Jonesy

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On 13/01/2006 Dave J wrote:
> People looking for a bit more variety in their climbing might then like to embrace such > things as natural gear, rusting pitons and the odd run out. Replacing bad bolts and
> adding thew odd anchor to prevent erosion is a good thing...using
>the term "Re-Equipping" as an excuse to grid bolt arapiles is not.

Dave J,
I couldn't agree with you more. Just out of intrest do you (or Simey or anyone else) know of any bolts (or indeed pegs) at araps that have actually failed? I know of one (Weeksy on Fortress -but that was a contrived situation). It might be important to place it into perspective that bolts aren't exactly leaping out of the rock al la thailand. How many of the hundred odd accidents that have occurred at Araps over the years have been due to bolt failure? I know of two accident's in Oz (Rob Le Breton & Martin Pircher) that occured due to bolt failure (not counting your arse puckering near miss Dave J). Any one else --> some objective measure of the risk could shed more light.

All,
Dave mentioned in his previous post the Common Knowledge bolts...

I suspect those bolts were placed so that a person (who's name I can guess at but not confirm so I won't say) could top rope the route into submission before redpointing it in contrived fashion and probably on pre-placed gear. Oh what fun.

The sad thing is that aside from alteration of a well established route (not to mention landscape etc), they've robbed themselves of an awesome onsight whilst simultaneously destroying the experience for the next person. The existing natural belay was more than sufficient - my second dogged the hell out of it and had to hang to retrieve a piece - and I remember quite enjoying scratching around on a short/tight rope rigging it together in a nice evening light.

To quote Chopper Reed "Not angry, just disappointed".