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Crag & Route Beta

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Topic Date User

Retrobolted anchors - Witch and Wishful Thinking 12-Dec-2018 At 12:03:24 PM gfdonc

Message

On 12-Dec-2018 JDB wrote:

>I think this scenario should be a red flag for all climbers; as there
>is a huge influx of new climbers eminating from the burgeoning indoor gym
>industry, who are heading outdoors without a good understanding of the
>'ground rules'. So how are this next generation of sport climbers going
>to be educated?
>
>My 20 cents worth

Yah well I'll see your 20c and raise yuh ..
There are 3 issues stemming from this attempt at insightful commentary.

1. Lack of mentorship of the 'next generation'. It's been lamented that an implicit mentorship programme to transfer knowledge around has somehow not been perpetuated. So there are lots of gym climbers around lacking a means to transition to outdoor, trad climbing. Some of them just go bouldering instead.

2. What's considered sensible is changing. There are dozens if not hundreds of examples around where poorly protected routes were established in the 70s and 80s 'cos that's the way it was done back then'. Some of those FA's are revising their once-proud ethics, either by fixing their errors of the past, getting someone else to fix it for them, or just putting up well-bolted sport routes as an attempt at moral retribution.

3. What's considered offensive is changing. Ten years ago there would have been a rush to chop those bolts as soon as they appeared; now we're having a debate on it which isn't completely one-sided.

There ya go, I'll step back now. Let the games begin...