Pete Livesey Retrobolts
Monday, June 2nd, 2008
Pete Livesey (prophetically) – Retrobolts – The Back Page
Climber and Hill Walker Magazine
‘It has come to my attention recently that some climbers are using bolts for protection and that there’s a big argument about it that’s stretched from a phone-in on Radio Lancashire right through the columns of The Independent to the office of the Keepers of Scottish Antiquities. So – I’ve bought the biggest drill you’ve ever seen a hundredweight of industrial bolts (Pete could not afford 10,000 or two hundredweight of bolts as could the – BMC in 2007) with great solid steel eyes on the end and a two foot bit!, (sadly, Pete never knew about the BMC’s ‘bolt garden’: http://upload.pbase.com/images)./12214835o/original
As I write this I can stare out of the window and see a wonderful piece of rock that is completely devoid of natural protection, it has only two scary routes and is crying out for bolts to enable climbs to be put up at today’s standard. Yes, the lack of bolts on the Cow face at Ilkley is holding back my progress and of course the progress of British climbing in general. By the time you read this I’ll have the job done along with several other bolting jobs I have in mind, and there will be a matrix of 48 reassuring steel eyes spaced neatly about the face of the Cow.
I have other projects in my sports plan: there are some wonderful blank spaces at Frogatt and Curbar totally devoid of natural protection. But the ultimate aim is the creation of a dozen or so routes on Cloggy’s Great Wall – a real forgotten crag that needs pepping up and reintroducing to the brave new world of sport climbing.
Now before you start reaching for your pens to tell me what to do with my biggest drill in the world, let me tell you what I have read what my friend BMC has to say about where I can bolt, when I can retrobolt, what ever that means, and where I must never set foot with the hint of hard metal about my person. The trouble is I don’t understand it; I don’t see any logic in what purports to be a reasoned policy statement. In fact, it seems to me that a statement like the BMC’s bolt rules pronouncement is opening a real can of worms, to say nothing of the red rag it shows to any spirited sports climber. I know, its a contradiction in terms, but there must be at least one or two spirited ones out around.
Why, BMC, do you tell me I can bolt my crag, in my back garden – one of the biggest, steepest and finest piece of rock in Britain, in an SSSI which specifically designates damaging the rock as a prohibited activity?
Malham Cove is much more worthy of protection than dirty old Dumbarton Rock: and that’s a climbers point of view. What must the Nature Conservancy Council think, with the conservationist BMC permitting (condoning) bolting on a very fine and admired peological SSSI? It is undoubtedly an access hot potato, and I suspect a position that the undoubted integrity of the BMC’s industrious access officer finds problomatic.
In those areas where bolts are acceptable, the BMC “feels that every effort should be made to use natural protection first.” But the bolted parts of Malham Cove fit that very criteria there are natural runner placement all over the wall above the Catwalk. They may be difficult to place and more spaced out than the bolts, but the same routes could have been done – eventually.
Why can’t I bolt Gritstone? I just don’t see a logical argument against it. It has much less in the way of natural runners than limestone, on the blank walls anyway; much of it is quarried and most of it is already more environmentally abused than limestone.
The BMC, however, tell me I can bolt on certain agreed quarried crags and on agreed parts of certain limestone crags. Well who “agreed”? I didn’t, and most of the climbers I am aquainted with didn’t either. I do know who agreed – it was the climbers who had put the bolts there in the first place: in other words, it was a post event agreement. As far as I am aware there is yet to be an agreement to bolt on a crag tht has not yet been bolted.
The BMC agreed with the status quo – it would cause too many waves to disagree with an existing bolted area, and if you want a new crag or area to be designated a bolt zone you just go and bolt it.
Now this is not meant to be an anti BMC argument, but I do think the BMC’s honest (really!) attempts at resolving the bolt issue have been hijacked by the few sports climbers at the expence of the great mass of traditional climbers.
Instead of recruiting biased experts and sports climbers to formulate policy, why did the BMC not use its represenataive body, representative of all climbers (well its members) the Management Committee to formulate a policy that was both acceptable and logical for all climbers and would satisfy potential environmental and access issues? It may have meant removing bolts from one or two crags and permitting bolts on others, but at least everyone would know where they stood and the sports climbers would have a clear defined area.
What a mess the area committees are creating for themselves, at least I assume it is they who will decide where the lines are to be drawn on each limestone crag delineating the bolts and bolt free zones, Kilnsey and Cheedale will be a jigsaw puzzle of bolts and bolt free routes, with Cornwall the Channel Islands and Pembroke being completely bolt-free zones.
Visiting climbers will quite reasonably observe, however, that there are crags in all those areas that have blank sections with no natural protection – some limestone and certainly none of the taboo gritstone stuff. Why can’t we bolt them? they will say.
Its a bit of a mess and doesn’t make much sense, but I’m sure the adaptable climbing public can live with it. What really worries me is whether those controlling access can live with bolts(**). WANTED Info on the terrorists who have painted red all the natural belay points at the top of Twistleton Scar.’ Pete Livesey.
Since Pete’s untimely death the BMC have flooded the British climbing scene with at least – 10,000 expansion bolts distributing them to all and sundry. The SSSI that is Malham Cove has not yet (2008) been cleaned of its illegal bolts. Pete would also be incensed at the new Peak Bolting Fund (2007). To the contrary in January, 2008: http://www.thebmc.co.uk/News.aspx?id=2347 (**) apparently they can Pete...
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Dave+Turnbull+BMC&search=SearchThe British Mountaineering Council Bolting Gritstone in its 2007 Christmas Message to rock climbers, mountaineers and hillwalkers.
Under the guiseof – Access and Con-servation: Malham Cove (SSSI) http://www.thebmc.co.uk/News.aspx?id=2347is to be retro-bolted (whatever that means) in 2008. The finest crag in the UK to be once again, re-desecrated with the apparent blessing of – none climbers. 30 pieces of silver no doubt, changed hands (or will change hands) somewhere along the way.
http://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?t=229571 http://thebmc.co.uk/Search.aspx?q=bolts
The brave new world of Sports Climbing sponsored by the – British Mountaineering Council and staff at Plas y Brenin (BMC/BMG) who recently put their stamp of approval on Ceasar Maesti’s bolted route on Cerro Torre (during his failed second attempt) giving their stamp of approval to the Rape of a (another) Mountain…
Mick Ryan recently stated in Dec 2008, on UKclimbing: ‘The issue (regarding the BMC flooding UK climbing with bolts) will soon be forgotten.’ Er, no it will not…
Category : Bolts
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