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Ben Nevis - Shame on you. What a waste of a crag. 9-Aug-2009 At 9:51:46 PM JBM

Message

"Traditional"

Why do you put this inverted commas when describing the approach...?

Look - at the end of the day I am all for people creating their individual "masterpieces" to
leave their mark on a generation - ie B-Y. However, if the motives for run outs are:

1) I want to get the first ascent first (read the guide book)
2) I'm lazy
3) I could give a rat's ass about who does this route after me ("this route is all about
me")

Then I think we can leave the holy debate on style and ethics behind.

We are talking sub 18 routes on a crag that does not rate when compared to one an
hour or so down the road. Not masterpieces.

On another note - most of the original bolts were such shite quality that there are
sometimes 1 or 2 other bolts right next to them (thank god) that are meant to be used
as replacements. (messy).

However if I stick to your logic, Nick, we should actually use the original crap bolts to
maintain the sense of original adventure!! ;-)

Which reminds me, a young guy recently tried to do the B-Y on all natural gear (does
that mean he gets to chop the bolts..). I guess if you wanted to preserve the sense of
adventure at Ben Nevis - you could always skip the bolts?

Thanks for the discussion - it's pretty interesting when you look at all facets of the issue.
In this case, I simply propose that it is a irrelevant point - the crag is NOT in Sheffield, is
NOT the B-Y, is NOT Araps, etc. It's just a fun crag that could provide a lot more
enjoyment if developed better.

Cheers.