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Soloing - A question of ethics? 23-Oct-2006 At 3:13:38 PM mpage

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Interested in others opinion on the topic of soloing, not the practice itself but rather the 'soloists' relationship to other climbers sharing the cliff. The following scenario occurred over the weekend:

I was starting off seconding the first pitch of a route at araps and a fellow started soloing up and past me, when I reached the belay and was ready to lead off on the next pitch, this person was blocking the line of the climb while trying to retrieve a stuck nut that had been left apparently a few days previously. I was happy to let him hang around trying to get it out as the view was nice and we were on a lazy pace that day anyway. 10 minutes later the nut was retrieved and the fellow starts soloing up again after placing a half kilo rock in his pocket? asking what he's doing he just says "Don't worry about me, I won't fall" after a minute puzzling this development I realise that he is chasing after another nut 10 metres above me and starts bashing away with his rock. At this point I decided that I wasn't particularly comfortable with someone of unknown ability swinging a rock above my head and moved out of the fall line. After a few minutes bashing around he gave up and yelled out to look out because he was on his way down again. So after about 25 odd minutes I was on my way again up the route with this incident far from my mind while enjoying yet another great pitch at araps. But the question remains in my mind as I think back to the climb, why put an unrelated group of climbers in a position where your actions could potentially risk their lives unnecessarily?

Normally I'm happy for people to climb in their own style, as long as that style doesn't effect my ability to also enjoy the cliff, so what is the prevailing ethic out there?

-- Faster group (roped or not) should ask permission to pass slower group.

-- Slower party must give way because ....

-- Relax, if they are confident in their abilities you should be too, oh and rock never breaks anyway;

-- Soloing should be done at obscure remote places so that other climbers / public need not discover mangled bodies at the base of cliffs.