I have no words…
A product of climbing focusing on ability over history. A whole generation that stands on the shoulders of those who came before, never looking down, only grinding their feet back and forth.
What’s strange about this story is that the desire for “adventure” usually comes with a desire for history imo. Afterall, it’s the history that leads us to where the adventure is.
It would seem that these guys know a little something since the most obvious no-nothing meathead move would be to rap bolt since that’s all you’d understand from watching videos. To attempt to “set” (sorry brad) a route via aid and hooks is not the most intuitive thing for someone with no background in the lore of the activity. I wonder where they got the idea in the first place?
Ok, I guess I did have words…
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In the evolution of cultural perspectives on what is acceptable, it would seem that one cannot discount the subconscious aspect of the act of participating in a route (pre or post) being an acceptance of that route’s lineage. As more and more people climb Straight Up, they are internalizing an unspoken image of bolts in the middle of another route. This then becomes part of the new personal creation of history and thus an individualized perspective of a valid way forward.
Individual history when clashing with a longer social history requires the individual to either claim their mistake or claim a right to change the path of history. Human nature will oft choose the former over the latter, both consciously and subconsciously.
Now that I think about it, the same sort of thing is done in guidebooks as well with some authors refusing to add info about chipped/etc routes due to the addition of acceptability by being in an “official” source like a guidebook. The same account of how the routes that exist and the attention paid to them last longer than the arguments and justifications that swirl around them for the lifespan of the individuals that hold them.
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Never consider one generation to be the one the “holds” onto style and knowledge and ethics; responsible for enforcement until they finally “give” to the next generation to take over their role. Even the word “generation” should be in parenthesis.
Change is fast and slow, back and forth. Old timers who “look to the future” new timers that want to keep a thread connected to the past. There will always be people on every side, the only thing that truly matters is which point of view has the audacity to act.
Ethics and style permeate places just as much as they do generations, culture, etc. the Pinnacles has a feel to it. Consider where that came from. It didn’t come from the people that work to continue it to this day, it came from further back, from people where some are even D E A D now. The few that do stand up, come from that thread and “feel” that’s been developed over time on the wall, in coffeeshops, online, etc. You can see a wave of new climbers coming, the reality is that a wave CAN (and always has been) be moved by a small few. Take the “apes” in this thread, people everywhere while they’re bolting, but the ones that stop AND ACT, talk to them about how and why and why not and so forth and so on. Walk away and later, there’s a bolt or two, but nothing to the top and nothing since (I think). Think there’d be more bolts with the person that stops and acts was supportive of the actions? Damn right. With people telling me I’m right, I’ve done some stupid, crazy, insane, amazing, right, wrong things. With people telling me I’m wrong, I’ve been more conservative; I’ve stopped, gathered more info, “felt” the area more and made better choices.
This is why Ethics and Style are so interesting, because they transcend individuals and arise from community, something so ethereal that when you trace it back to its source, it gets muddy at best. Consider though, we are part of a mentored sport. Everyone that survives links back to the past; some link back early, others much later. That past though keeps changing as well, my generation links to the one before, depending upon their link to the one before to keep the thread going, next generations links back to mine, everything a game of telephone receiving misunderstood words that have to be reinterpreted based upon new context and on and on and on. Purity is a good goal, but it’s a fools errand to become obsessed.
Things will be fine. Change the path of the river as much as your single body can. After all, we do not act because of our desired result in the future, we act because of our perceived understanding of what has happened in the past.
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My comments pulled from the context of the following thread. “Original Thread Topic on MucnCrud Forums“
