Bolting a personal viewpoint

This is to support those who have bolted, done things the way they thought were best and to those who get off their butts and get out there climbing WI- whatever, 5. whatever M whatever.

Bolting is not a simple task. It requires effort, thought and some good rigging skills. Basically putting up new routes is a labour intensive trade skill set, like a plumber or electrician, with a really poor pay scale, apprenticeships are hard to come by, and usually requires a driven individual who seeks hardship and grief. Bolting can be done on Lead or by Rappel. Well, Rap bolting is a lot easier and usually provides for better bolt placement (this is not a certainty). Leader bolting, also known as ground up, means that when bolting, one hangs of an Aid piece of gear, drill the bolt, then continues upwards and these bolts are usually placed in areas where natural gear is not available. Why place a bolt?

This allows for face climbing on limestone, which does not lend itself to great gear climbing. Most sport climbs are set up by Rap bolting and bolts are placed where they can easily be clipped, and when you fall, you will not hit the ground or a ledge. Bolts themselves are incredibly strong; strong enough to hold a car and can take repeated falls without failing. What about the ground up routes and gear climbs?

There are numerous routes in the Rockies, which follow the weakness of the stone and are good gear climbs. Most of these have been done ground up, placing gear and at times bolts. These routes offer a different side to climbing, where unlike sport climbing, one does not fall. These routes are referred to as Traditional, where one must climb easily within ones ability, for failure (falling) can lead to serious consequences. Trad routes do not always follow a direct line and often weave around and go over ledges, providing more things to hit on the way down and can leave you in no-mans-land.

Bolting, no matter the style is not easy, it requires much more work, than most climbers are willing to do and it is hard manual labour without pay. However, once completed the payment is huge! The climbing community has extensive history of hacking on route builders, but you see very few of them out there building. I hack on certain builders, but in a way that is constructive. One-builder places his anchors at least a foot above or to the side, where they could easily be clipped, but he is consistent and one should expect it from his routes. A few others crowd existing routes. Crowd? Meaning they place a route to either side or in the middle of existing route(s) and when climbing, you have to figure which bolt is for which route. Very irritating when rock space is not yet even close to being tapped out. What the heck does this have to do with routes?

Well, when poor bolting, crowding or anchors diminish your overall experience, it can ruin a route. Kind of like when you buy a nice bottle of wine and the corking is bad! Clipping bolts and the anchor should NEVER be difficult. They are there for protection, like your rope and harness. If it were hard to tie into the rope or put your harness on, where would that stuff end up?

Style? Is there style in climbing? Yep, but it is very different that runway fashion. There is Mountaineering, Alpine, Ice, Trad, Sport and Bouldering. One gets up at all cost and can require lots of support, jumars, aid, fixed lines, pin bashing garbage leaving; when done, grovel back to camp, hope for food and all your limbs, grunt at your partner, basically Survival. Alpine, is a distilled version of mountaineering, same goal, but with only a few climbers, little or no support, quick fast and Survival mode, but unlike mountaineering, it can be done winter or summer, rock, or rock, ice and snow. Ice-climbing frozen water up to vertical and at times overhanging, cold, delicate and thuggish, but you get to some really cool places and can be a great adventure, plus you get to use tools and crampons. Mixed climbing, a blend of ice and sport climbing, rock to ice or ice to rock, you have got tools and crampons. Trad, climbing rocks weaknesses, placing gear or drilling bolts on lead, like a house of cards, if you screw up, or the rock says see-yaw, it gets really ugly and serious, falling is not an option but trad can bring you into the rock more than sport. Sport, climbing rock faces of all angles, current trend is overhanging, clipping bolts so WHEN you fall, you do not get hurt; sport is about pushing your limits and falling is a part of it. Bouldering, distilled version of sport climbing, climbing on boulders, where the difficulty level and movement is crucial and the catch.

Today, the blend of Sport and Ice (Mixed) has caused a huge division in the community, it is seen as a non-valid style, because it seems to serve no purpose and the old school says its already been done! Well to follow that logic, Trad and Ice are training for Mountaineering. Pretty shallow thinking, maybe it is invalid because their real reason is it is TOO HARD. Alpine climbing requires a certain skill set and certain body parts that not everyone has. One can only push the alpine edge for so long, kind of like running through traffic; eventually something is going to happen. I would rather be in a vehicle. One can climb to late in their years, but one must be particular about what they are climbing and fewer things can go wrong with bolted routes. You will still be climbing, but the experience changes. To all who grew up climbing with the Freedom of the hills, remember it is freedom, not my view of the hills, or the only valid style for the hills! If you want to boulder, sport climb, sport mixed climb, alpine slogs, alpine rock, alpine nasty, ice big balls, ice rambling; hey, its all climbing, different aspects and all require the one key ingredient: OUTSIDE, ROCK AND ICE and that NATURE EXPERIENCE.

Most climbers learn from older climbers and form their own path and obviously some have chosen one, which takes a bit of both the sport area and the alpine and mixed them into a new version; Sport Alpine. Shit, how could a person blend an invalid ethic with a pure (the only reason to be climbing) ethic? How dare he or she! SOUND FAMILIAR?

I have heard sport climbing on rock, or rock and ice is invalid, not a real thing! Wow! That takes balls to say! It implies that what the speaker does is the only valid style! It sounds very myopic, a small-minded person with limited vision. Funny thing is that this kind of reasoning comes mainly from the Traditional and Alpine climbers. I have rarely heard a Sport climber state that other forms of climbing are invalid. I have heard them say really silly, irritating and erroneous things, could this be the flexibility of youth?

I have heard many climbers say; well that kid may be strong, but can he hang it 50ft out on 5.10, Shit, what kind of logic is this? How about if the kid turned and said; hey old man you may have big balls, but can you hang off this hold, little-own move off of it?

Yep this all sounds like a bunch of bitter whiners, bickering about how big their balls are, we might as well be in Rideau Hall with Access filming us belittling each other as our illustrious government representatives learn to do, maybe we are in Rideau Hall?

This is not to say that we all live with peace and love for each other, but with RESPECT for all styles of climbing and climbers. There are many climbers I find irritating and would not go climbing with them, but it does not mean they are not climbers or really good ones, simply different personalities. Hey, lots of climbers think I am a prick, but they still respect my climbing abilities. This is what really matters in the climbing community, respect.

This is written by a SPORT CLIMBER who is tired of people disrespecting each other in their personal pursuit of a lifestyle sport with no self-imposed constraints. We eventually have constraints imposed on us by length of life, marriage, kids, finances, injury, other limitations; I definetily do not climb the way I did in my 20s and I rarely push it to the edge anymore, simply because my choice is to enjoy as much of CLIMBING as possible and knowing that pushing the edge costs at best time, and I want all the time I have.