Chockstone Forum

      Sponsored By
      ROCK
   HARDWARE

Chockstone Photography

Australian Landscape Prints

Chockstone Forum - Trip Reports

Tells Us About Your Latest Trip!

Topic Date User

TR: Alive in a Bitter Sea (Katoomba Cliifs) 14-Dec-2016 At 12:13:33 PM WarwickB

Message

On 14/12/2016 simey wrote:
>On 14/12/2016 rowan wrote:
>>...Climbing has no real rules. People can add bolts, people
>>can chop bolts out. people can chip new holds or fill holds in. I think
>>leaving routes of every style would be a good thing though.
>
>Climbing does have self-imposed rules/ethics which most climbers respect
>to some degree. Most of those things you mentioned would incur the wrath
>of the climbing community because they do directly influence the experience
>of other climbers.
>
>Warwick was pretty quick to remind me of another rule/ethic when I mentioned
>the idea of retro-bolting Alive in a Bitter Sea. And that is, you generally
>respect the way a route was established and you don't alter it down the
>track.
>
>However I struggle with that one, particularly if someone plays the bold
>card on a new route in a dubious manner.
>
There just isn't anything remotely dubious about it.

>That is why I liked your line…
>> I think the person who did the first ascent always deciding what happens
>to a piece of rock afterwards is a bit colonialist.
>
In my view colonialism would more correctly refer to coming after the first (original) ascent and imposing another order. In principle I'm in favour of consultation about these matters with the person making the first ascent which is what I've stressed in my earlier posts. There may well be legitimate reasons, which are agreed upon by all, to make changes to the protection on a route. Keep in mind it works all ways and endless rounds of re-engineering the protection on routes is in no-one's interests.

It's been a vibrant discussion, and as Simon says, good to read many different views.

>Anyway thanks for the recent input by yourself and Mikl. Good to read
>some other perspectives.
>
>
>