>Yvon Chouinard from Rock & Ice No127 Sept. 2003
>Q: Does the rise of standards in bouldering & sport climbing spill over
>into other facets of climbing?
>A: "Bouldering & sport climbing are valuable, but they are not legitimate
>forms of climbing. Without risk, things like that are not really climbing."
What a wank!!! Not really climbing.... whatever.
I understand Bens actions are being focused on because it (MA) is a route at the (Australian) cutting edge, but i think that there are other examples which are much much more dodgy... Glueing on of plastic holds, and pieces of rock in blank sections to make routes more consistent at the grade. Perhaps if you are militant about enforcing an anti-chipping campaign, then you should not climb on chipped or comfortized routes, otherwise you are just a hypocrite. Chipping isn't new, i still climb chipped or comfortized routes, so by my own rationale I don't really give a shit about chipping, whatever, everyone has an opinion. You are going to miss out on a lot of really good routes if you refuse to climb anything which has been altered, and a lot of them you probably won't know if they have been chipped or comfortized or altered in some way (But ignorance is no excuse!).
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