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squish
Sep 2, 2005, 3:40 AM
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Registered: Sep 2, 2003
Posts: 470
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Something was brought up in another thread that got me wondering about how aid climbers conceive new lines on walls today, versus the past.
I get the impression that more modern routes have developed a tendency towards "bulldozing" a bolt ladder past dead-end lines in order to continue upward progress, and methods like pendulums aren't used as much on new routes anymore. Mind you, this is only a vague impression; I don't know if it's true.
Looking at older topos and reading the accounts of older climbers, it seems that the old-guard "no bolts" ethic (e.g. Bonatti) created routes that used alternate means to continue upward, which sometimes meant swinging down and across first, rather than punching through with bolts. Even the Nose (once also criticized for overuse of bolts) sports a swing...
Do modern routes still involve pendulums, or is it all bolt ladders nowadays? And if that's really the case, why has it progressed this way? Does the desire for a directissima overshadow "clean" style?
Armchair question, that's all...
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brutusofwyde
Sep 2, 2005, 2:26 PM
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Registered: Nov 3, 2002
Posts: 1473
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It depends, and every route is different enough to make generalizations virtually worthless.
My own current philosophy is to drill where I consider necessary.
Even back in 1987 on Hairline, I considered short bolt ladders acceptable if otherwise the route followed a logical line. The longest bolt ladder on that route is 7 bolts.
These days, in establishing new routes, I look for free climbable features on faces to connect free climbable cracks.
Where a 5.10 crack pinches off to, say an A3 seam that might go free at 5.12 or 5.13, but there is a free climbable face off to the left that goes at 5.10 and can be bolt protected, I'd rather put in protection bolts on the 5.10 face than leave the route as a 5.10 A3 wall awaiting an FFA.
Mind you, this option usually does not exist in areas that are already gridded with routes. But I tend to avoid those areas when looking for new lines to climb anyways.
Brutus
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