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THE AUSTRALIAN RE, RETRO-BOLTING OPEN FORUM 11-Feb-2004 At 10:18:22 PM hex-TROLL

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WM---nice to see you can warm your self by the caldron , without taking it toooooo seriously, dude---you're one of the few who are willing to consider new views , without worrying about what some of 'the names' are going to think about you.
Now , the journey from El Cap to Gilgamesh goes something like this :

The bit on El Cap's Nose was ' The last pitch before the summit...With nearly 3000 feet of exposure and some spectacular 5.12c face climbing over a couple of overhanging bulges...' (roll-Doll Lynn Hill , 1994).
There were some bizarre 'rationales' going around circa 1980, in the valley, as the 'super-dudes' fuelled their brains on the litt' of Carlos Casteneda in particular.It was decided that over time , the piton scars on The Nose,(and Astro'), would become big enuf to finger-lock , anyway , so why not speed up the process 'a bit'.
Inventor-of-Frenz , RayJar' was frigging in the rigging , for many days , bashing angle pitons backwards and forwards to create the 'chips' you refer to. He and a swag of others still couldn't free the traverse , until Lynn came along and took the honours (for the roof and the new face at the top).

Witch ,now, brings us to sunny Qld , Aus. : The 'Boona-bar-flies', usta tell the tale of the first 'free' ascent of a certain route that was achieved with 'jiggery-pokery' using a 'Sebco' hand drill :The crux of the route was a smooth,3 metre section ,which would be an 'easy' grade 32 today .But it was decided that the climbers of 2004 could go and %$&*@#.
2x5/16 holes were drilled , 1 cm apart, and the small piece of rock, between, was knocked out ,creating a tiny finger-nail jug , just big enuf to allow a shimmy sequence , high up to the next natural micro hold , and on to glory.
This stuffs been going on since the sixties : John Ewbank circa 1968 : "Chipping negates the challenges for future generations" ; "Too many bolts reduces the climbing experience to just looking for the next bolt-head " etc,etc,etc.

GILGAMESH---a case for 'creative-enhancement' ? : Gilgamesh is still an aid-route , but HB has come within a bees-dick of freeing it : that donga might be the difference between grade 34 and grade 37. It would definitely make a fantastic 'free-blast' but if it's Grade 37 ,then there's a few options to consider : 1) Leave it for todays 10 year olds to eventually free it; 2) Hope the Huber bros come for a visit and send it (without that 'poh' stuff) ; 3) Make one small chip;4) Glue on a small in-cut hold made of local stone ;5) Bolt on a small gym-hold( with easy allen key removal if it's too rad ); 6) Respect it as an aid route and try not to widen the peg placements.(until 1 or 2 occur ).
Compared to what some 'shade-masters' have done , these options are relatively mild,dude.
Cheers to you bro , Luv , hex-(S)TROLL.