Firstly, South Wales is my local area and I love it to death, even though it may be hardly worth mentioning on the national list of great climbing areas. It also famous (well at least known) for its rich history of Sports Climbing with venues such as The Gap and Taffs well having a huge amount of brilliant routes for all levels of climbing. A lot of this work was done across the 1980's and early 1990's and by now the protection has become corroded and often dangerous. This has spawned movements such as South Wales Action Group and South Wales Bolt Fund, both with the full backing of the BMC, to try and deal with this decline of these once brilliant venues.
Just about to get out of University and off into the big wide world, I have found that climbing has been my sanctuary for nearly three years. I have also gotten very much in new routing, firstly in bouldering and just recently having met and chatted with some active sports new-routing enthusiasts, into bolting itself.
I wanted to bolt new routes (as sports climbing it is what I enjoy most of all) and I wanted to help replace the old rotten gear around the area, and after a bit of chatting, Dave Emanuel took me up to a quarry he was developing. He shows me a little line he has left for me and then goes through every aspect of bolting with me so that I do it safely and under control. The route is surrounded by other sports routes, on quarried limestone in an area that has been decreed by the local community as acceptable to bolt on. The route itself is not brilliant, a bit loose, a bit seepy, a bit protectionless and with an impossible top out. It is all fairness a poor route. However it was the first hard route I have ever done a first ascent of and I was over the moon I've finally done something that is worthy (if only just) of the guidebook. A lot of people have said if it was such a poor line why would you bother bolting it in the first place?; just because a crap line has bolts in doesn't make it any better. I completely agree with this, but as I was new to the whole process, cutting my teeth in a poor line seem more logical than possibly hashing up an excellent line through my own inexperience.
To the age old question of whether bolts are justifiable at all or should the routes be left for the next generation, I think there should also be an equal assertion of the right for beginners and the mid-graders. If South Wales was chopped all its bolts right now we would have nearly every quarry filled with E4s + but nowhere for our the vast majority of our climbers to go out for an evening cragging. Trebanog and Penallta would soon over flow! How long would these routes stay in shape if only an elite clique of climber were ever good enough to do them?
Had it been announced that a new 6b had been put up in a backwater quarry in South Wales, I doubt whether anybody would have even bothered replying to the thread. Indeed most people never reply to my threads on UKC which may have accounted for my provocative forum title that has no doubt got quite a few people fired up. However, I think the biggest outcry has originated from my somewhat lurid description of the bolting process and the ascent of Games on this blog. For instance descriptions of hammering the fuck out of everything or chalking holds without fully explaining that it was small amount of chalk followed by a scrubbing from a brush and then a bar towel to clean seeping holds, has caused quite an outcry.
I have to say that looking back, I am sorry for the tone that the blog took. Having written for the best part of the year without any outside comment whatsoever my style has become exaggerative and tongue and cheeky; intended for a small group of local friend who find funny (or sad) all my crazy themes and outgoing writing ups. This blog was never intended for a UKC audience, my first question was concerned with bolting in general as I just fancied an interesting conversation on a question I had never seen discussed in the forums (hence the title to try and invoke people to have a look), It was only after my blog was found that the conversation became about my actions at all.
As I have said, I think was a bit too blasé about my actions and about the forum post. However I will reiterate that the bolting was completely in line with the ethical guidelines set out by the local climbers in the areas, most of whom wish to see even more sports routes in the area. I like sports routes, the local community likes sports routes, we have a rich history and tradition of bolting in the area and the crags we are bolting are manmade quarried faces anyway. It was for these reasons that I did not see how outlandish my actions would appear to readers from more strongly traditional areas. It just didn't appear on the radar that on a national scale many people could be offended by such actions.
In the end, all I can say is that I have declared my actions and intents as honestly as I thought possible and kept within the established ethics of my local community, even if I was a bit naive in the way that I chose to report it! So I guess, judge from this what you will. Obviously I am never going to win over the hard core trad enthusiasts, but for people who actually enjoy a bit of sports climbing, perhaps you will now be able to see some of the reasons behind my madness!
Jamie
Cardiff University Mountaineering Club
1 comment:
That's more like it - a good post and some lessons learned :-)
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