Posted: Mon Jan 14, 2008 11:00 pm
Please let this thread die an obscure and quiet death.
Nooooooooo. It can't die. I'll have nothing left to live for....
I think Bob's statement is a word of advice in order to keep your ass out of a potential hospital visit until that magic someone appears to fix the worn out gear. All bolts are suspect - especially on older routes. Live with it. And as Ashtray points out, there are too many people out there climbing now that feel they are entitled to have safe routes. The gorge isn't a friggin' amusement park. It isn't a gym. It isn't your backyard wall. It's maintenance and your safety are not guaranteed. At the absolute very least, climbers should be able to gauge the condition and potential dangers of a sport route. People shouldn't be out there climbing if they can't look at the rock and tell if it's going to be soft, brittle or bomber. And for shit sake - use the guidebook as a "guide" along with your own eyes to get a determination of the age of the hardware. If you are not comfortable with it, move on. There are more routes in the gorge now than there ever has been.
It is true that many routes should be re-bolted. Earlier in this thread it was mentioned how Terry used to get pissed when someone would bring up that a route had a bad bolt. You know why? It was all about his beef with climber entitlement. Why should he (or anyone of a select group) have to be the one to fix the friggin route that a person would run laps on over and over again but never attempt to fix? If someone asked him to fix a route while offering up at the very least the cash to do it, then he was cool about helping. But, when someone copped the attitude of "Hey, Terry - fix this route I want to climb" - well, he wasn't shy about telling a person how he felt. True there are more people willing and able to help now, but there shouldn't be a big outcry from the general climbing public of how a place needs to be immediately fixed or we all will die. I'm sure it will get done. Until then - take the risk, or go climb someplace nice and safe(r). To the people that can't help out with the re-equipping of the routes - give some cash to the re-bolting fund. Otherwise, quit your pissing and moaning as you are falling all over your current project and f'ing things up for the rest of us.
In the meantime - if someone bites it at Funk - just say you were camping at the top. Campers always seem to be "climbing" when they fall off the cliff. Maybe we can turn it around.