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Institutional Racism in American Climbing 4-Apr-2011 At 4:44:22 AM Olbert

Message

On 2/04/2011 pmonks wrote:
>On 2/04/2011 RNM wrote:
>>It is completely retarded, and quite scary. Like so many things in the
>>States, I think it comes down to "that is just the way we do it"... suggesting
>>another possibilty usually results in a blank stare.
>
>Well said! Drives me bananas too, and don't even get me started on ridiculous
>bolt placements due to the anti-abseil-bolting "ethic" over here. "Solid
>Gold" at Joshua Tree being one of the single most egregious examples I've
>seen - shockingly bad bolt positions which really detracts from what is
>otherwise a ripper of a climb.
>
>Olbert, did you get on "Solid Gold" while you were there, and if so, what
>did you think of it?

I got on it - and yes I completely agree. The first half is well (if not over) bolted and then suddenly a massive runnout. At the end of the runnout before you can clip the bolt you have to do a heinous mantle! What started as a great thin technical climb turned into a silly runnout (and dangerous!) route. The crux for me was definitely the dodgy mantle about 20' out from the last bolt - a fall would have resulted in ending up near the ground with some bad bruising and grazing (if you were lucky).

The second pitch is worse!

Post edit: Although I may have suspected, I had no idea that it was the ground up ethic in JTree. The guide had nothing to say about the crux being 20 foot out from the nearest bolt and 3 foot below the next. I actually backed off the second pitch because I had no idea where the hell the climb was meant to go - the last bolt I thought indicated "go up here" but it didnt. It was stupidly silly bolting - there was a rising crack underneath (had good gear), which the FA obviously stood on to place the bolt. The climb actually traversed farther along the crack and then topped out over some really precarious slab climbing. The risk of fall was high where you were meant to top out and the bolt was about 3 metres right and slightly down. Why the f--- was the bolt placed there? If there was a bolt at the top out, correctly placed then it would have been ok and I wouldnt have backed down - as it was with 9 months more of a climbing trip to go I decided which was more important (getting to the top or enjoying 9 months more of climbing).

With a bit of rap inspection (not even rap bolting) the bolts could have been placed better on lead. With rap bolting it would have been the route it claimed to be in the guidebook.