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Chockstone Forum - Crag & Route Beta

Crag & Route Beta

Area	Location	Sub Location	Crag	Links
All NSW	(General)	(General)	(General)

Topic Date User

Rings on 7-Aug-2012 At 10:00:37 PM dhunchak

Message

There's a great scene in Crackaholic where some dude describes the first time he sees Minaret (E8) and says to himself "shit, will I ever be able to climb this route". Years of training and climbing later he does it, and I bet it's one of the best moments of his life. I think one thing that I don't see being mentioned in these debates is what the bolters are taking away from the climbing community by lowing the commitment level of routes. If five people climb a bold route in 30 years, but have an amazing experience on it, is that a worse outcome than if 1000 people climb it, but have an average experience? Having bold routes at all grades is very important motivator for some people (like myself), who will stay up at night dreaming about the day they'll be fit enough to find themselves standing at the base with a rope coiled at their feet. It's not just ego involved in establishing a bold route - as some say "a testament to themselves and how great they are" - I see bold routes as an invitation to join the first ascentionist at their level. And when we create pathways for people to climb at a certain standard with minimal effort by taking shortcuts, we enable them to cheat themselves out of one of the greatest experiences available to us - the realisation of a dream previously thought out of reach. Most of us will take the easy road if it is available, just like it's dangerous to have piles of cocaine lying around the house (you'll use it), it's dangerous to have too much protection littered around the cliffs - we'll have a bit of fun, but we won't go out and do other things which would likely be more rewarding. Cheers.