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General Climbing Discussion

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Lead bolting 24-Jul-2008 At 7:50:01 AM james

Message

>Not necessarily.
>Imo it depends a lot on whether or not the future ascentionists are looking
>for 'real' trad routes that often involve boldness (adventure?), or the
>opportunity to repeat historical routes in similar manner.

its pretty pointless to try & compare 'real' trad routes with bolted routes - if someone's looking for a 'real' trad experience then W.T.F. would they doing on a bolted route in the first place? The question was asked about lead-bolting, presumably compared to rap-bolting.

but FWIW...by "badly bolted", I don't mean that bolted routes need lots of bolts very close together.

my definition (if you could call it that), would be sufficient bolts for the route to be safe (& yes I know "safe" is relative term). ie enough bolts so ground falls or ledge falls are unlikely - eg: only hit the ground if your belayer fks up, or if you fall with slack out etc. Generally this would mean bolts being closer together near the ground then more spaced as you get higher. terrain that is very easy (easy relitave to the grade of the pitch or the route) could have greater bolt spacing. A bolt at the crux is a nice luxury, but if its a clean fall then a safe run-out can make things more fun & memorable. IMO its pretty hard to achieve this fine balance if you are bolting on lead.