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THE AUSTRALIAN RE, RETRO-BOLTING OPEN FORUM 18-Apr-2007 At 3:21:46 PM sticky

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Yeah, point taken - but let's take Booroomba as an example - how many well bolted granite slab areas are there in Australia to go to, to learn to climb there?

No-one wants to go near them because if they fall and they're lucky they'll take a ten metre cheesegrater, and if they're unlucky, they'll take a grounder or a thirty metre factor two onto a carrot bolt. Whoopee!

Look at Girra - same bolting ethic as Booromba - beautiful rock, but there's about six people who have the skills and gumption to climb even the moderate graded slab routes there cos you're practically soloing (and no, I'm not talking about the cracks or the well bolted steeper stuff at Turtle Rock area obviously). And let's leave aside the old Qld ethic that if you don't know the right people they won't even tell you where the good climbs are.

I'm not suggesting retrobolting per se, but I am a little wary of the whole "pony up cowboy, if you ain't got the mustard, go somewhere else" attitude prevalent, because there aren't many friendly bolted slab areas around where climbers can get the necessary experience to climb the serious stuff. Even somewhere 'tame' like Tenneriffe often has five or so metres between the bolts - how is a beginner climber able to learn the technique to get them to Girra if they're facing a ten metre cheese grater while fiddling with a carrot with a bolt head too big to fit RP or PFH hangers, at one of the tamest slab areas around? Or look at the Youies - often the first bolts are a good way off the ground - but after the fires that is often the crux of the route, and the rock quality is um, interesting.

Compare to, say, Squamish, where there are plenty of solidly bolted routes for beginners to get good friction slab technique on before they jump on the hard and scary stuff.

Just my five cents.