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General Climbing Discussion

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34? 28-Aug-2004 At 12:28:26 AM Onsight

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Steve had this to say (this is extracted from something he wrote about his trip):

"Sunday
The Australian ethics seem to be pretty good. Regarding bolting, traditional lines are left as such, unprotectable lines are bolted, and there is often a mix of the two which works well. As for chipping, this is a definite no go, and many routes that were originally chipped have had the offending holds filled in and the route re-ascended and re-credited.
It was with this knowledge that I went on ‘Mechanical Animals’, Australia’s first route to be graded 34. After the first ascent, probably Australia’s best sport climber, Garth Miller zoomed in for a second ascent and found a small edge useful to shorter climbers. However, before he could complete it, the first ascentionist returned to bash off the edge, claiming he didn’t use it and so was not part of the route. Clearly this has caused a stir with some people dismissing the ascent stating that it has not been climbed in its current state! Anyway It pissed me off because I would have definitely climbed it in a day had the edge been there. As it was I had my fingers on the edge at the end of the hard climbing twice but just couldn’t quite hold it. The debate goes on!"