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General Climbing Discussion

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undersized carrots at the county 10-Jan-2011 At 9:29:47 AM voodoo

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I find whole obsession with trying to preserve the original experience of a climb quite inconsistent. Especially so when it's being held up as a rationale for preserving something like carrot bolts.

It's strange that in our community seem to think that altering a bolt from a carrot to a fixed hanger or a ring makes a massive difference to a route, yet we ignore the fact that so many other factors change over time to make the experience on a route markedly different to that of the first ascent.

We all like to have modern shoes, we routinely climb routes with racks of cams on lines that were first put up with hexes (or pockets full of rocks), we climb safely in the knowledge that our ropes aren't pieces of hemp tied under the armpits - all this, apparently, doesn't rate a mention. It's a bit like the fatuous 'historic bolts' arguement that "well, you can't replace that bolt because it was good enough for the FA". Well, yes - but when they did it it was shiny and new, not a flaking brown loose droopy ribbon of rust! So not only does gear and equipment change a route, but even something out of our control like time itself.

In the last 40 years (or even 20) our sport has changed a lot, and that goes far beyond what bolts are on a route. Of course, those that are still sawing up planks of wood and collecting pebbles can ignore me entirely.

It seems to me that the only cogent argument for the machine bolt is to preserve a quirk. I can completely understand that line of reasoning, although personally I don't find it a massively compelling one. I'm pretty sure that I could happily forgo standing at the bottom of a route realising I'm three plates short because last week someone forgot to give me back my brackets! :)