Being a young talented climber with sponsors must have it's ups and downs. The downside would be these film crews follow you around, which in this case, have no business shooting something like this.

Of course I´m "stirring up the shit". And who are you to tell me I can't have an opinion? WTF?

The moment a climber becomes sponsored, they lose the true meaning of being a climber...at least in my book. This is a prime example of that.

RR

That's a pretty ignorant statement. How many big badass routes around the world you think would get done without any kind of sponsorship?

How did climbers ever do anything before sponsors, amazing isn't it? Read "Escape from Lucania" sometime.....

If this is true it's messed up beyond words.

The climber is absolutely responsible for this, if he wasn't so intent of self promotion and documenting his "great style" none of this would have happened.

Oh the irony of placing 60 bolts to film a climb done in....better style? Wow.

This is why I hate the superstar climber trend. Swoops in with an entourage, leaves a huge mess on the mountain, and leaves it for someone else to clean up. Seems too Hollywoodish to me. Whatever happened to 2 guys, a pack, a rope, and a mountain

It depends on what you read and how you interpret it, but some of it is true. It's o.k. to discuss it with words IMO.


His "great style" was an attempt to free climb the route. The physical evidence left behind is fact. It's some 700 meters of fixed rope and around 60 bolts. Tell me why the climber, in which I suspect you mean Lama, is 'absolutely responsible for this'?


Not that ironic since 450 bolts were left by Maestri on the FA in 1970.


If you hate it so much, why waste your time commenting? I hate Britney Spears but I don't waste my time on her blogs and threads leaving unnecessary comments.

Predatory birds swoop and you seem to watch too many movies. You've used the words "superstar", "Hollywoodish" and "entourage" all in the same post. I would call it "a climber(or sponsored climber)", "a free climbing expedition" and "climber's partner, film crew and guides"

from the Alpinist article....

"However, to capture the footage they desired, the Red Bull film crew documenting Lama's ascent installed about 60 new bolts. The crew bolted a new rappel line to the ground from the Col de la Patiencia. They also and added a number of new bolts above the col, according to Horacio Graton, an Argentine guide. Many were in locations "where there is readily available natural protection and where not even Cesare Maestri drilled in 1970," said climber and Patagonia historian Rolando Garibotti.

At the end of the season, Graton and three others were hired by Red Bull to clean up what the film team left on-route. The four carried away gear from the col and 700 meters of rope from the route."


The Alpinist article doesn't seem too biased, which is good, cause a lot of other stuff I'm reading is completey biased.

And lately I've found myself really hating that Michael Jordan. That guy went out and tried to score 40 points a night and win so many championships just so he could get more free gatorade and nike shoes and make a better name for himself. James Naismith is my new hero. A ball and goal is all that guy ever had.

Hi RC.com folks. We've posted a story about this situation at Alpinist.com:

http://www.alpinist.com/...ama-compressor-bolts

Erik Lambert
Online Editor, Alpinist.com

I would stop drinking Red Bull until I see how this plays out, but I already don't drink it. Not my cup of liquid candy.

Will Gadd's perspective.

http://gravsports.blogspot.com/...-bull-patagonia.html

Thanks for that link. Interesting to hear from a RB sponsored athlete.

GO

Now that seems a little more balanced, thanks. I don't have a dog in the fight, but it seems to me Lama and Red Bull are both going to pay a price for this for a while to come, and maybe rightfully so.

The situation seems pretty unethical, but from the perspective of somebody who has precisely zero experience in Patagonia (just like the vast majority of climbers out there), what we're talking about is more bolts on arguably the most notorious bolted climb in the world. I'm not justifying it. I'm just offering that this may be what was on their minds during the project, i.e., "Hey, at least we're not butchering something pristine."

As for the 700 feet of fixed rope, I guess there were some details missing from the original version, since they didn't actually abandon any of it. Long before this issue blew up on the Interwebz, every inch of it was already gone at Red Bull's expense. (And by the way, a bolt hole certainly can be patched with so little trace that even the bolter won't be able to find the holes. It's pretty easy, actually.)

I would stop drinking Red Bull until I see how this plays out, but I already don't drink it. Not my cup of liquid candy.

Rolo's main point about the fixed rope was that it shouldn't have been there hanging on the route for almost the entire climbing season. Although it also seems pretty lame to me that all this stuff was left behind by the "expedition", even if some locals were hired to clean up after.

What's your favorite multi-pitch wilderness route where you come from j_ung? Aside from the bolts, how would you and your friends feel if a group of Argentines hung fixed ropes on the route for the entire climbing season (so they could make a "rad" film) and then took off back to Argentina, even if they paid some locals to clean up after? I don't know, maybe you'd think that was pretty cool?

I hope I would react the exact same way I am now: gather multiple sides of the story and then formulate as informed an opinion as I can. Past that, I'd voice my further opinion that the matter should be handled amongst ourselves, rather than on the Internet. If you've read my post after the one you quoted, you've seen that I suggested that very thing.