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Chockstone Forum - Crag & Route Beta

Crag & Route Beta

Area	Location	Sub Location	Crag	Links
VIC Arapiles	Mitre Rock	(General)	South Mitre	[ Arapiles Guide \| Arapiles Images ]

Topic Date User

Rap bolts chopped above Serpent 19-Apr-2012 At 3:23:41 PM Mike Bee

Message

From my point of view it's not the presence of the anchor itself that causes the fuss, its the perception (real or not) that there is a strong tend of more bolts going into Araps, and more "convenience" being brought to what is one of the proudest trad crags in the world.

By causing a fuss when new bolts or anchors that aren't universally seen as been needed are placed, hopefully it causes the bolters to think a bit harder next time before bolting.
That said, I'm neither a bolter or a chopper so I don't really know what people are thinking about when they turn on that drill.

Just throwing this out there as an idea against bolting for erosion control (I don't really believe this, but it's worth pondering I think).
A bolt changes the rock forever. One you've drilled, that piece of rock will never be the same again. But trees, shurbs and grass will grow back, soil can be moved back up hill, and so while it takes a bit of time and labour you can restore gullies to something very simliar to their original state. As a result, you could argue that the long term effects of bolting are actually more environmentally intrusive than bushbashing your way down.