Chockstone Forum

      Sponsored By
      ROCK
   HARDWARE

Chockstone Photography

Australian Landscape Prints

Chockstone Forum - General Discussion

General Climbing Discussion

Topic Date User

Removing bolts to create trad paradise 8-May-2007 At 11:58:38 AM oweng

Message

I like the idea of keeping a major crag in the Grampians as a bastion of 'trad' climbing. There is no shortage of crags that are ideally suited to installing sports routes.

In my mind, climbing at Rosea is all about long committing routes in a traditional Australian style. Carrot bolts were installed from very early in the piece in Victoria. They were placed on lead using a hand drill, when there was no other gear option available.

Im wondering if a voluntary ban on power drills and abseil bolting at Rosea would be some sort of compromise. This would justify the retention of the existing bolted routes (im assuming almost all of these bolts would have been placed on lead).

It would also allow competent leaders to establish bold onsight climbs on a great cliff. 20 to 30 minutes of bashing on lead to place each bolt would keep the number of bolts to a bare minimum.

Of course, it would mean some dodgy bolts would get placed. Perhaps an exception to the 'no abseil bolting' rule could be the replacement of dodgy bolts with stainless steel glue in 'carrots'.

Any thoughts?