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Araps Rebolting 13-Jan-2006 At 2:50:14 PM Nottobetaken

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On 13/01/2006 white noise wrote:
>its hardly getting to the heart of the issue
>arguing about whether a climb should have a bolt or peg in a bit of rock,
>people need to decide whether a route is trad or sport because mixed routes
>just confuse climbers and start deb(oring)ates and detract from the climb,
>see debutantes and centipedes to illustrate this

Unfortunately that’s just a fact of climbing life in Australia – and as a visitor it’s something you just have to accept. It’s just like us Aussies travelling to your home country and respecting the ethics surrounding climbing on grit. Mixed gear routes come from an ethic of ‘place a bolt where deemed necessary – and leave trad placements as trad placements’. Of course this ethic is highly suspect – as it all comes down to one’s own personal perception of what is deemed ‘safe’ (and therefore where a bolt should be installed) – some routes are clearly 'safer' than others.

There’s never going to be a black and white perspective regarding the equipping of routes at Arapiles – because a long time ago those two colours mixed to form grey – and that’s the exact problem being faced at present. Where do you draw the line for the placement of bolts at Arapiles? Saying that Arapiles is a TRAD crag (to quote uwhp510) is incorrect – it is a MIXED crag – and that’s that grey colour that I’m talking about. It’s a mutated form of a trad crag. Sure, if there were no bolts at all – and people respected that fact and left it that way - then obviously this discussion wouldn’t be taking place – we’d simply go and rip the bloody things out. But given that this crag is the way it is – and there clearly isn’t a line that all climbers abide to – then it begs the question: Who has the right to say ‘Yes or No?’ I think the only answer can be: the first ascentionist – and by that I don’t mean having to phone the person up asking permission to retrobolt their route – I mean the route should be left in its original state – BUT the REPLACEMENT of FIXED pieces at Arapiles should be accepted WHERE REQUIRED. Certainly retrobolting should not.

With regards to the pins on Kachoong and Mind Arthritis (for two examples) – these could clearly have been left as is.

>retro bolting is justified if a route is hugely un popular
>yet would be a classic if it were safe
A nice idea – but ridiculous all the same at a place like Arapiles. Sure – at a 90% grid-bolted sport cliff, but Arapiles is not (and never will be) one of these. And it is up to the climbers that use this cliff to keep it that way. See Dave’s comments:
>There are at least 2 routes
>of every grade (22-32) that are totally bolted up so people on a direct
>flight path for the top can work their
>way up through the grades without ever having to think about placing a
>bit of gear.
I totally agree with you regarding the re-equipping of sport routes like Nati Dread/L’Inconsequence – but if you want more than that – best to visit some of the Grampians crags instead.