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chipped holds are fine so long as you don't tick them.

asdf

I personally tick every hold that I think needs to be chipped so I can come back later.

ashtray and buster....

here was my current dilemma, and perhaps you can address it...

at the crux, there is some manky rock....nothing incredibly huge, but enough that if it hit your belayer, there could be some serious injury. that being said, I originally put an "X" on the underside of this flake. every time I got to this section, I found that I continued to attempt the crux without this hold, for fear of pulling rock down on my belayer, or taking the big flyer myself.

a lighter climber than I, by about 80 pounds, went up and sent this line using the manky hold. two days later, a climber of my weight went up, grabbed the hold, and it blew off in his hand. since it was "x"'d, does his use of this hold consitute just plain ignorance or is it chipping. he "knew" it was bad to start with.

my real question...is it acceptable to trundle "x"'d holds? what about cleaning off the blocks laying loosely in a ledge that might be kicked off by a lay down rest?
sholdn't the climbers just be more aware, and climb around these loose rocks?

Holds break, routes get harder (or sometimes easier) with usage. This is the natural way of things. Most places with questionable rock accept vigorous cleaning before the FA. At Smith if you don't clean your new route enough they will even pull your FA card. When in doubt break questionable holds off before someone else does accidentally.
This is different than hanging at the anchor and declaring that the hold used to clip the anchor is just not big enough and must be enlarged for safety sake. This sort of logic leads could lead to "this crux move clipping hold isn't big enough, someone might slip off it and deck, let's "fix" it. Arrogance and hubris taken too far in my opinion. What I call a dicey clip hold is a rest jug for someone that is actually a good climber. Climbing has always been about challenge and risk. Why take it away?

amen brother buster.

next question...after bolting a line, I noticed the rope ran over a pretty sharp edge....do I move the bolt, or buff the edge? buffing would remove less rock than drilling a second hole.

(terry and Rockman would tell me to pay attention in the first place to not flub up a bolt placement.)

Shit, I am certainly no authority on bolting. I've screwed up plenty of routes (climb Stain if you wanna see a good botch job). That being said, on routes that I wanted to be right I've just moved the bolts around a bit. Still, we are only human and bound to mess up. I've wanted to move the bolts on Cut Throat since day 1. There's one of them (the 5th I think) that is full biner breaker. The kids just put a big screw link on the hanger end of the draw that seems to take care of it though.

this is the second time I've heard about some older dude (even older than you, Buster) chipping at Muir. I got a physical description the first time, but don't want to start a shit storm here by posting it.

Pru wrote:this is the second time I've heard about some older dude (even older than you, Buster) chipping at Muir. I got a physical description the first time, but don't want to start a shit storm here by posting it.

chicken shit, heh!

Not usually, but since my info is 2nd or 3rd hand, I'm not going to say who the person appeared to be, as tempting as it is!