Chockstone Forum

      Sponsored By
      ROCK
   HARDWARE

Chockstone Photography

Australian Landscape Prints

Chockstone Forum - General Discussion

General Climbing Discussion

Topic Date User

Araps Rebolting 15-Jan-2006 At 10:32:45 AM Mike Graham

Message

On 14/01/2006 simey wrote:
>Mike,
>Wow, I had never heard of blind-folded abseils for placing bolts. It is
>certainly an interesting approach for keeping first ascents honest.
>
>Although Jim Erikson once said "Ultimate climbs are always done by dubious
>methods", it it is great to hear about bold routes established in a really
>stylish way. I would never have given Ride Like the Wind the same amount
>of respect if you had rap-inspected the line before climbing it.
>
>I was also interested in your comments about Moorhead having a very strong
>ground-up ethic. My impression of Mark is that of a genius and visionary
>climber, but dodgy as hell (similar to Mike Law). It sounds like Mark not
>only relaxed his ground-up approach in later years but also toyed with
>every other indiscretion in climbing (dodgy pre-placed gear, reachy bolts,
>dogging, chipping, under-grading, multi-day seiges). I'm sure his humorous
>introduction in Carrigan's Arapiles guide had quite a few self-truths throughout
>it.
>
>At least there were some characters climbing in the 80s. Climbing seems
>to have become a little more sterile in recent years, with a few of the
>re-bolting efforts another step towards that sterilisation.
>
>
Simon, it seems when it come to placing bolts honesty can have a few different shades. That experiment for me was the only time it was used. Thinking back I remember that placement having a pretty good one hand release. Perhaps a power drill could have be used on the lead? Guaranteed I would of tried that first. Funny it supports my argument not to do a route before its time.

I had to sleep on the comments regarding Mark. I hope this tactic we employed didn’t cause a radical shift in his values. I did catch an earlier comment that he said “Ethics are like the weather” I can picture him saying that in a cheeky way. I don’t know how many seasons he continued to climb there since my last seeing him until his passing. I don’t think it was many? Perhaps it was the weather?

I do know that Arapiles with all its steep terrain is quite conducive to pre-placement of protection. I read on the SCV Tjuringa thread there was an assumption of Tobin pre-placing the questionable pin on the roof and hence pre-inspecting the pitch. My knee jerk reaction was no way in hell! But I don’t want to put my foot in my mouth. He had a reputation of doing some pretty hare ball things to the point of being unbelievable. I would venture to say he aided out the roof to place that pin. To swing back on topic, Should there be a bolt there now? I don’t know

Tobin was real excited about that route from the last conversation I had with him. I’m sure he would not want it to fall into obscurity.