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Comment by chabes

15 hours ago

The mountain should have never been bolted in the first place.

The debate that it is an established route and thus should be left up comes from a place of entitlement.

If you can’t climb the mountain, what are you even doing there? There are plenty of mountains in the area that can be climbed instead.

Same can be said about the Dawn Wall of El Cap. Harding should have never bolted it. Removing his bolt ladder was the ethical move by Robbins.

8 comments

chabes

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ofrzeta  14 hours ago

What kind of ethics is it to decide that these walls must be free climbed? If you want to do that, fine, go ahead and ignore the bolts.

  • dwd  13 hours ago

    There is the "Leave No Trace" principle where you do not leave anything behind.

    This is why you see in trad climbing the lead will place cams and nuts, while the last in the group on that pitch retrieves them.

    • ofrzeta  13 hours ago

      Sure there's this principle but this just moves the need for justification. Humans leave their traces everywhere so why this principle for mountains? There are many traces that should be removed such as hydroelectric power stations, river straightening and so on. Is this whataboutism? I just think a few bolts in a mountain don't do much harm and as a casual observer of these mountains you won't even notice. Also I am very much for "leaving no traces" in the sense that everyone picks up their trash.

      2 replies →

  • chabes  2 hours ago

    I am of the belief that we should leave a place better than we find it.

    When litter is in my path, I remove it. To do otherwise would go against this fundamental principle.

    Natural places should be protected from the widespread exploitation by humans. We are destroying the entire planet. Why can’t we protect the places we have long agreed should be protected? Enough with the anthropocentric BS already. We are a part of the world, not separate.

  • arethuza  11 hours ago

    I don't think it's just a matter of ethics - some legal entity owns these mountains (park authority of some kind?) and drilling holes and placing bolts done without the permission of the owner sounds like vandalism to me.