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nonameclimber
Apr 27, 2004, 10:13 PM
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Registered: Apr 13, 2004
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It was refreshing to see that at least a few were even willing to consider this point of view. I didn't expect to see many who would do this.
Since the Renaissance, western civilization has viewed us as separate from our environment. Valuing nature as something to be used, a resource to be 'managed,' has taken us to the brink of global collapse. Climbing is a metaphor for life, and when climbers talk about 'preserving the resource' I cringe. In our growth-based society, 'preservation' is nothing more than lip service designed to placate our conscience in the face of ever-increasing exploitation.
Bolts allegedly reduce impact; instead they increase impact by making cliffs more accessible. Localized 'preservation' is offset by increased foot traffic and crowding. Bolts supposedly make climbing safer, but instead promote technological dependency and mindlessness. Drilling for dollars by bolting for convenience, guides trivialize valuable instructional topics like self-reliance and problem solving.
Critically evaluate your approach to life in general and climbing in particular. Unless we view everything as sacred and interconnected, we will continue to destroy the planet and ourselves. Bolts are the climbers' ultimate expression of dominance over nature. Ironically, this dominator gestalt separates one from nature, from the very experience so earnestly sought.
Listen to and trust your feelings. Feel like you're selling out when you clip a bolt? Don't clip it. Climb easier routes with purer style. Dislike seeing more bolts at your local crag? Pull them out. Stop clipping them in a moment of fear-induced weakness, and then, later on over a few beers, spraying about how you wish they weren't there. I appeal to integrity and call for action.
By using a simple lever principle, I have constructed from 1/4" plate steel a portable and relatively inexpensive puller which generates over 900 kN of pulling force. You can too. For expansion bolts, clip and pull. With glue-ins, break the bond first by rotating the eye. A large crescent wrench and extension pipe can work. If not, pull it anyway! Nature impassively endures puny human drama, and will survive, indeed thrive, long after we have gone back to hunter-gatherer life. Fill in the scar, or leave a ragged crater as testament to your iconoclasm. Do what you want.
Purify your style. Top out. Walk off. Downclimb. Solo. Reduce your hypocrisy instead of using others' to justify your weakness. Only my fear of ostracization prevents me from removing every fixed anchor I can. I have pulled some out, and may pull more, locally or elsewhere, if I want to. I cheer inwardly each day I use no fixed anchors. On some days the chalkbag and tight shoes stay at home. Know yourself, accept where you are, and start from there. The question is which direction to proceed? Towards greater self-actualization or into increased trepidation and dependence? Towards love, or towards fear?
Hemmingway once said that climbing and bullfighting are the only true sports. Some fighters have been shaving down the bulls' horns, making it safer and more entertaining for the crowd. What will happen to climbing if we continue to accept the shaving of its horns? Take your power back and think for yourself.
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fiend
Apr 27, 2004, 10:17 PM
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Registered: May 25, 2001
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I use my internet super-powers to reach through my computer and punch you in the head.
Disclaimer: I didn't read everything in your post... just the stuff that made you sound like a self-righteous bolt-chopper... err pudd-puller ... err you know what I mean.
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trenchdigger
Apr 27, 2004, 10:24 PM
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Registered: Mar 9, 2003
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Great post... I know I'm a convert. I'm only soloing barefoot and with a crowbar from now on.
~Adam~
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cin
Apr 27, 2004, 10:28 PM
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Registered: Jan 26, 2004
Posts: 105
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you seriously expect me to read all that?
Where are the pictures?
I didn't read 1 funny joke in the first two paragraphs!
it just wasn't fun.
and fun is what climbing is REALLY all about! :P
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cjcalls
Apr 27, 2004, 10:32 PM
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Registered: May 30, 2003
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nonameclimber has put alot of thought and effort into typing this post . Credit must be given where it is do. This is not the case. Your a loser.
Get a life.
Want to feel closer to nature? Go kiss a snake, live in a tree, run naked in the forest, just get off your computer. How much coal is being burnt to keep it running.
Look I have no problem eating animals, driving my truck, smoking or clipping bolts. But i do have a problem with you.
Get a life and leave the bolts alone.
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fiend
Apr 27, 2004, 10:38 PM
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Registered: May 25, 2001
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Our nonameclimber is the famed author of Let's take it to the next level and all 8 of his posts on rc.com have been anti-bolting posts.
I think we're reading posts from the Ted Kaczynski of climbing. Living out in a shack in the woods plotting the death of sportos everywhere while secretly wearing hot pink lycra under his painter's pants.
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bandycoot
Apr 27, 2004, 11:01 PM
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Registered: Nov 25, 2002
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Hey noname, the computer you typed that on has arsenic and other nasty chemicals in it that will pollute when it is thrown away. Maybe you should stop using the internet. The metal you put into your bolt pulling tool, that is the result of mining. Do you drive to the crags before pulling bolts? Maybe you should get a shovel and dig up the road while you're on your way... And the car you drove there in, well I'm not even going to start. :roll:
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dingus
Apr 27, 2004, 11:31 PM
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Registered: Dec 16, 2002
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In reply to: What will happen to climbing if we continue to accept the shaving of its horns?
Some polled heifers?
DMT
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bozemaniac
Apr 28, 2004, 12:08 AM
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Registered: Mar 19, 2002
Posts: 12
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What Hemingway really said was:
"There are only three true sports: bullfighting, motor racing, and mountain climbing; all the rest are merely games."
Don't warp the rhetoric of others to buttress up your own. I don't think Hemingway would agree with you. He would have been a Nascar fan and clipped every bolt he saw.
Weak.
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gumbobob
Apr 28, 2004, 12:46 AM
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Registered: Sep 21, 2002
Posts: 241
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SEE!!! If you let them, they will multiply! gall-darn cockroach loving hippies!
towards love? why do you guys always spout this crap--climbing is fun, physically and mentally--but i am not out to make some metaphysical connection to the rock (in fact the only time that happened, i was wearing a helmet and a rock fell and hit me--i saw stars and the meaning of Life, then i drank a beer)
stop your holier than thou crap and let me climb my bolts...or my gear (which is made with chemicals that harm the environment--did you know that?) or solo...or maybe you should go soloing--some hard 5.12, can't be worse than what would happen if you stripped my bolts...
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ammon
Apr 28, 2004, 1:00 AM
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Registered: Feb 27, 2004
Posts: 220
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Andrew, is that YOU?
Surly you can channel your energy towards a better cause.
How many bolts have you clipped to get to the top of YOUR projects?
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tahoe_rock_master
Apr 28, 2004, 1:12 AM
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Registered: Feb 25, 2004
Posts: 172
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GO HUG A TREE!!! Maybe that will make you feel better? :roll: :roll:
Matt
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watchme
Apr 28, 2004, 2:25 AM
Post #15 of 26
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Registered: Jun 26, 2003
Posts: 236
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The Access Fund considers bouldering one of the highest-impact forms of climbing. Bolted anchors allow people to not have to walk around on the tops of cliffs and trample vegetation.
Bolts do not necessarily lead to higher usage. Go into the Cirque in the Winds some time; tons of people climbing and very few bolts.
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raindog
Apr 28, 2004, 3:09 AM
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Registered: May 22, 2003
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I always thought that the Western view of human separation from the environment began well before the Renaissance. The Christian view of the separation of body and soul is directly related to this human/nature separation. The body(nature) is merely a vehicle for the divine soul. The Church believed that this separation was what made human's different--God's children. St. Francis's belief that other animals have souls was heretical for a time.
Even in the non-Christian tradition, humans developed an attitude of separation from nature. I remember reading about one of the Greeks saying something to the effect of, "Stay out of the wilderness, the city is where you want to be." Was that Plato? I don't remember.
I think that this attitude toward nature is most prevalent in Western cultures, however. Consider Budhism, Shintoism, and the beliefs of many Native American tribes. They promote a more intimate relationship between man and nature.
Does a bolt separate us from nature? In some situations yes, but in other situations, no. Many times bolts allow us to climb a route, summit and live to revel in nature, to keep memories of our experience and further our love for nature.
The answer lies in your personal values. You can argue for them, most likely to no avail, all you want. In the end, you can only climb in the style you want. It's a personal thing.
Just my two cents.
-Jeff
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sed
Apr 28, 2004, 3:57 AM
Post #17 of 26
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Registered: Aug 3, 2003
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Thanks for the intelligent response raindog - an attempt at discourse among a room full of brawling drunks. I probably would agree with most of the sentiments behind what the original poster stated if he/she didn't seem to be looking down her nose at everyone or suggesting widespread bolt pulling to spread her form of religion. That moral approach rarely appeals to anyone.
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dynoguy
Apr 28, 2004, 4:02 AM
Post #19 of 26
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Registered: Sep 6, 2003
Posts: 730
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SHUT UP
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discolegsyndrome
Apr 28, 2004, 5:04 AM
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Registered: Mar 2, 2004
Posts: 250
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Dude.. you went back at the renaissance???
What is that!?!?!
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slavetogravity
Apr 28, 2004, 5:33 AM
Post #21 of 26
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Registered: Jan 9, 2003
Posts: 1114
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I agree. At my local crag there is a crack that is bolted because the FA thought it would better to drag in a hilti drill and bolt the crack because some climber, including him, don't own a 4, and 3.5 inch cam. When me and some friends climbed it on natural gear I said what he thought about me going in to chop the bolts. His response was that unless I want the F'n tires on my F'n truck Fn' slashed :!: :!: I'd best leave them alone.
Because I value my truck tires more then my climbing ethics I chose to leave them be.
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collegekid
Apr 28, 2004, 5:51 AM
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Registered: Jul 7, 2002
Posts: 1852
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Nature is here for Man to use. Isn't it obvious? Otherwise, steaks wouldn't taste so good and oil wouldn't be here for us to burn. We can use nature at our discretion, to whatever means necessary for our own ends. Who cares about some stupid animals and trees and stuff?
When did bolts ever hurt anyone (besides the time you fell and had one lodged up your a_s)?
:twisted:
I love this site.
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scuclimber
Apr 28, 2004, 9:36 AM
Post #23 of 26
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Registered: Jun 30, 2003
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In reply to: On some days the chalkbag and tight shoes stay at home.
As a supposed proponent of low-impact climbing, maybe you should leave the chalk at home buddy. :roll: Chalk (arguably) enables people to climb just as much as bolts do, so why use it? It leaves unsightly white marks on the rock, just as bolts glitter in the sunlight. Does it physically harm the rock any more than bolts do? No, because bolts do not hurt the rock. Although you may commune with the rock, please do not suggest that it may be hurt. Nuking a mountain is one thing. Bolting a crag is another. The rock will exist long after the human race dies off. Get a life man.
Colin
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smallnutsandbigballs
Apr 28, 2004, 11:29 AM
Post #25 of 26
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Registered: Oct 30, 2003
Posts: 31
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I don't know who you are or where you hail from, but if I ever see you pulling bolts with your over-sized claw hammer, I will HAND-DRILL a 3/8 inch hole in your SKULL. Maybe bolts are good, maybe they are bad, maybe they aren't clearly good or bad, but if people are counting on them to be there because they've always been there before, then they should be left alone. How can you even consider yourself a climber if you have no respect or regard for prevalent climbing ethics or the climbing community? If you want to see a change, fight for it within the established ethical framework, DON'T go advocating eco-terrorism!
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