RRC Archives

I don't think I ever thought a first bolt was too high off the ground until a recent trip out to City of Rocks.
First bolt 25 feet off the deck with challenging climbing just seems plain stupid to me and a waste of a good line when the rest of the line is safely bolted.

Danger: 1st Bolt on Trinket Man is very high above a mantle and other moves with a dangerous 2nd bolt also.

Manky Bolts: I have never had a problem with them(None have pulled on me). I thought cut bed frames made neat hangers.

Grade doesn't match difficulty: I usually blame myself.

Not designed for shorties: There Goes the Neighborhood. Every hanger is out of reach from the stances.

Steered line: Herd Mentality. I felt like the line deliberately tried to urge me to not go into the second hueco.

Arbitrary anchor: Chainsaw Massacre. Nuff said.

Choss, Choss, Choss: Crumblies at Bronaugh Wall. Couldn't even kid themselves on this one. Had to call a spade a spade.

Love it All: I willingly climbed these routes for one reason or another.

S.C.I.N.: I define Sport as a game played with a ball. Sorry, but S.C.I.D. Sport Climbing Is a Diversion.

I hate steered lines the most, choss is second. Steered choss, now thats just plain retart.

Just looking at the Percentages so far. 45% are voting for the first two or the third. Which are sort of the same thing. Nearly half of the voters seem to be worried about getting hurt on sport climbs as a result of the bolts. No wonder Muir Valley is so popular. It seems like Rick Weber has his finger on the pulse of the climbing community. Having talked to him briefly. He was taking steps in eliminating the concern for unsafe bolts or bolting patterns. Way to go Rick.

Way to go, Team Suck.

Way to go Rick.

And

Way to go, Team Suck.

i hate crappy routes...choss, stupid bolting, contrived lines, etc. it's weird that entire crags/walls are known for this, while there are so many good areas out there.

HOMO wrote:It seems like Rick Weber has his finger on the pulse of the climbing community.

Oh yeah!!! Another quality insight from a lover of Man-On-Man action.

Buster wrote:
Loose bolts are the worst!

Nice cartoons, btw. That was very rich. At this point, I think you have elevated s**t talking to the level of an art form. All of us obviously have much to learn from the master....

Loose or dangerous bolts are sucky indeed (besides the fact they make the climbing more exciting and the lines for the route are usually smaller).

But soft grades ruin it for me more than anything. When you do a route that is hard for the grade (or just right) then you know what you have personally accomplished. When the grade for a route is soft, I personally feel kinda cheated. I hate when this happens, "Oh, I onsighted that 12c, but it felt like 11d."

The next for me are overbolted rigs. They suck too, but that is a subjective valuation and it should be approached on a case by case basis. For example, Blank canvas looks overbolted from the ground, but I was happy to clip every one of them and the climbing really lended itself to the bolt placements (except the 3rd to last which needs moving).

cracks that aren't bolted suck.

We are gonna bolt your ass together then.