Chockstone Forum

      Sponsored By
      ROCK
   HARDWARE

Chockstone Photography

Australian Landscape Prints

Chockstone Forum - General Discussion

General Climbing Discussion

Topic Date User

The Irish Solution to The Ben Lomond Problem 26-Sep-2017 At 9:48:17 AM RhythmSection

Message

On 24-Sep-2017 Tastrad wrote:

>The slippery slope is real. The first bolts went in on the Organ Pipes
>in the early 90's to the dismay of many old timers, and now the place is
>completely festooned with bolts.

I'm not of the era of classical pipes climbing but many routes from the 60's,70's,80's that i've repeated up there had/have a shit load of fixed pitons in them. It seems a pretty natural progression to go from fixed pitons to bolts. Why is the piton not looked at with the same level of distaste in people with staunch "traditional ethics" as bolts? There are some magnificent bolted/mixed routes on the mountain but there are also some worthless ones. Ben Lomond and the mountain are also two completely different places with separate histories and "essences" (by that I mean the feeling one gets when there) and I'd never want the two to be like each other.