Pissing On A Dream

Well not quite, but perhaps not so far off either. I can, however, clearly remember being dumbfounded, and having my guts feel a little punched in, as I rounded a bend in the trail and saw that some malevolent magician had vanished the bolts off of my friends' and my route.

"Walking On A Dream," is a line my pals and I bolted and climbed in February of 2011. It climbs adjacent to "Little Red," ( pg. 319 in the Handren guide ) at the Hidden Corridor area of Sandstone Quarry. For the life of us, my buddies and I cannot conceive of the reason someone would want to chop the route.

We have considered and discussed the idea of the perpetrator having local ethics on their mind while chopping, but unless we missed some detail, no ethical reason can be found. This is not a crap, "let's just bolt a pile for fun today," type of route. In our opinion, obviously. This climb is not choss, it's also not been chipped or manufactured in any way. The bolts were thoughtfully placed so that they could be clipped from stances by a person of virtually any height. The route is not over bolted, but is also not dangerously run out ( excepting the whole inherent dangers bit ). It's not a squeeze job, and no bolts can be clipped from the nearby gear route. This line is also not protectable by any other means than bolts.

Instead, this is a striking, perplexing climb that contains sustained, thought provoking movement from start to finish. I'm obviously undeniably happy to have discovered, prepared, and spent forever figuring out with great friends whether it was even possible to climb, "Walking." This is why we are so dismayed to have found it boltless. This route is interesting and exotic to Red Rock, in that it was inspired by and climbs like something you might find at Joshua Tree ( ala Sidewinder ). I guess I have a case of "Proud Papa," and I want people to have as many fun and "What the heck do I do now," moments as we did. This was probably a superfluous paragraph but oh well, I want people to understand where we are coming from.

Because we cannot come up with a reasonable explanation for why someone would want to erase our route, we came up with the only plausible, albeit abstract solution. We feel this to have been a misguided and misdirected act of retaliation.

About 60ft. north of our line, just above a boulder choked section of the path, lies an unknown route which someone has chopped. While I don't feel that chopping that climb was necessarily the correct course of action, I can certainly understand why someone would be upset with the way the climb was prepared and want to send its developers a clear message. The unpublished line had obviously had its bolts spray painted gray, in situ, leaving streaks of paint running down the cliffside. Also, a drilled pocket has now been putty'd over. The bolt holes have also been patched.

My friends and I saw this route before it got chopped, but never made it our business to climb it or harm it in any way. We left it alone and let it be. We are not in the habit of involving ourselves in bolt wars. We feel that since these peoples' route was attacked, they incorrectly assumed it was us ( due to the proximity of the lines and the time table in which they were both installed ) and have decided to retaliate with a bolt war. Well, bolt skirmish anyway.

If this retaliation theory is correct and you or your friends are reading this post, understand, we absolutely 100% did not touch your route in any fashion. Your misguided efforts to fight back and "right a wrong," are misdirected. Furthermore, if you or anyone has a problem with ours or any other route, I believe the most noble and adult course of action, would be to get in contact with the developers and discuss your issues thoughtfully with your thinkin' brain. Also, I'd like the hardware you took, back. Not likely I know.

There are hundreds of thousands of routes put up all over this planet, by and for thousands of people. While I may not be able to climb them, or agree with how or why some of them were developed, I never make it my business to alter them. I'm not the rock climbing Boss and am in no position to hold court over what should and should not be allowed. Therefore I don't damage other's climbs and I expect my routes to remain undamaged as long as they fall within the guidelines the Red Rock "community," has set forth.

I know this was probably a long winded read and i could have simple written, "You chopped my route, FUCK YOU! I challenge you to a game of slapping supple white gloves across each other's immaculately groomed Edwardian faces!" But I hoped a more thoughtful, informational approach would be best. Also, I am trying to learn how to use paragraphs as one poster suggested for an earlier writing of mine. After my editor got home from vacation and rubbed my nose in my lack of paragraphs, shame caused me to weep uncontrollably, tuck my tail and wet the bed for a week. BAD NONPROFESSIONAL WRITER, YOU KNOW BETTER! Any more tips so I don't receive further tongue lashings at the main mast? Seriously though, I do ask that locals be willing to step up and vocalize their disapproval to anyone they witness vandalizing established routes. I certainly will.

We rebolted about a week ago and as of now "Walking," is in a climbable state. I certainly hope it stays that way. We don't need to swiss cheese the cliff, people. Also, I still have the cam I posted about finding at the top of the first pitch of "Classic Crack of Calico," if you happen to notice one of yours missing.

you gotta catch the fucker and whack em' with the yo hammer. works like a charm.

1j1 wrote:

That's lame dude! It is a cool line and quite perplexing to do for sure!

Of all the routes bolted in the Calico Hills, I don't know why this one would deserve chopping.

1j1 wrote:Any more tips so I don't receive further tongue lashings at the main mast?

Just use your "return" key instead of "tab" or the space bar. Extraneous spaces are just deleted when your post goes up.

More important than avoiding tongue lashings, more people will read what you wrote. Personally, I read what I assumed to be your first through third (only because they were short) and last paragraphs. Couldn't fight my way through the rest. If you hover your cursor over the "EDIT POST" in red font in the top left portion of your post, a button will appear that will give you the option to edit your post. From there it should be easy to create paragraphs with your "return" key. If you're ever unsure what your post will look like, click the blue-font "PREVIEW MESSAGE TEXT" button right underneath the dialogue box.

Condolences on your route. What was it rated? I scanned the rest of your post but didn't see it. But maybe you wrote it out long hand.

Thanks for the useful info on how to remedy the problem Marc. The space bar is exactly what did me dirty. I'll fix the problem and make this story more legible after work.

youtube.com/watch?v=IONyLZn…

I'm still learning about the area, but is the Hidden Corridor within 0.25 miles of the Sandstone Quarry? If so, isn't there a bolting ban from the BLM seeing as it is 0.25 miles away from a historical site? Like I said, I'm still learning, but perhaps this was part of the issue?

Thank you for the support fellows. Killis, I'd gladly take you up on the glue-ins lesson, but let's hope it doesn't come to that.

man, i love rock climbing as much as i hate rock climbers... at least the righteous chopper has saved all of us from damnation: thou art more pious than thee most certainly...

This news saddens me! I remember climbing this route shortly after the equippers put it up and sent the thing. I remember thinking what a fine, thoughtful route and what vision the FA party had in establishing it. My thought about this route being chopped is that a gift to the climbing community by a selfless group of climbers, some who are close friends, has been stolen. Thieves should have their hands cut off. In this case chop a finger for each bolt chopped on the route.

Sorry to hear about your route deconstruction. I could go on for several sentences about how it is impossible to deal with the self righteous except on their terms, but no one's listening anyway.

I'm curious; did you replace the anchors in the same holes?