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Pioneers of Tassie's Best Climbs 15-Sep-2016 At 12:15:43 AM Wendy

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On 13/09/2016 One Day Hero wrote:
>On 13/09/2016 tristosterone wrote:
>>But hey, my opinion doesn't matter because I am a worthless bottom feeder.
>
>Yeah, that bit bugged me too. There are so many frigging routes to climb
>now, what does it matter if most climbers decide not to add more? Trackwork,
>replacing old bolts, gardening and brushing existing routes, writing articles,
>teaching young climbers......they all contribute to the sport just as much
>as the great heroic act of rap bolting. And no one seems to feel the need
>to wank on about how awesome they are for doing trackwork.

I don't recollect seeing Tracey Skinner's name on any new routes, but I have seen it associated with an awful lot of crag care work. Still, she must be your typical bottom feeder.

The other aspect is that if everyone decided that the way of contributing to climbing or the most rewards from climbing was new routing, we would rapidly end up with a massive impact of people trashing the bush looking for and cleaning new routes. And who would be left to appreciate our new routes? Overall, it's a good thing that most climbers don't put up new routes. I think it's a great experience for all climbers to do once or twice in their climbing lifetime, but overall, it's more sustainable that most people contribute to climbing in other ways. And we can reserve "bottom feeder" as a term for people who use the resources developed and maintained by others but never assist in ameliorating the impact of climbing or helping others to become safe and responsible climbers.