I just learned something new. Apparently, it is not unheard of for new, hard sea-cliff routes in the UK (typically way up on remote Scottish islands) to have pitons hammered into them on rappel by the first ascensionist before they do the FA. For heaven's sake. If you're rappelling to put the pitons in, can't you just use bolts?
I recently rewatched Hard Grit, and a lot of things struck me as kind of ridiculous. I mean, it was really just people with crashpads and pillows and mattresses and thermarests, doing toprope rehearsals, making GIANT tickmarks, preplacing tons of gear and taping it into place, climbing with four ropes and five belayers who were prepared to jump off rocks in six different directions. And then it turned out that maybe those routes weren't as hard as everyone thought, anyways. That's "trad"?
If I was going to make a parody of Committed, I'd call it "Contrived."
2 comments:
And people think mixed climbing is absurd!
No bolts. Nope.
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