Squamish "wall dancers" on the chief, new bolt anchors?

Watched some very entertaining "wall dancers" doing a routine hanging just left of the split pillar, involving 5/6 dancers doing coordinated jumping and twirling on rope.

Rumor (again, rumor until someone can verify) has it that they drilled a bunch of new, shiny bolt anchors specifically for this purpose.

Anyone know any facts here? Also, rumor has it that this is going to appear on the youtubes some time in the near future. . .

Also note that I am not a local, if that matters

It's Cirque du Soleil.

I'm pretty much against bolts whenever possible but...

What makes their installation of anchors less valid than a climbers? There are bolted anchors all over The Chief. They want to play, so do we.

Alex Whitman wrote:I'm pretty much against bolts whenever possible but... What makes their installation of anchors less valid than a climbers? There are bolted anchors all over The Chief. They want to play, so do we.

Assuming that the rumors are accurate (I might end up checking that out at some point this upcoming week), 5+ new anchors (i.e. 10+ new bolts) for essentially one-time use seems to be pretty far to the dark side of the grey area.

That's the Genius Loci of Squamish these days. Even more entertaining is who was involved in the bolting.

I'm in Squamish now. No dancers that I've seen. The Grand Wall is awesome and yes there are bolts all ove the place.

rocknice2 wrote:I'm in Squamish now. No dancers that I've seen. The Grand Wall is awesome and yes there are bolts all ove the place.

Also here in Squamish. I watched them, as did half of people at the campground at the chief. They were here for a few days, gone now. The anchors in question are left of the split pillar. If you were here a few days ago, you would have seen their fixed lines and gear hanging all around. I climbed past them on my way up the the grand wall.

Video?

vimeo.com/81904606

Video finally got posted. There are some shots where you can clearly see the bolt anchors in the middle of nowhere. At least 6 of them, probably more.

Jason Kruk is listed as the lead rigger. As in the same guy who famously chopped 100+ bolts off the Compressor route.

I don't get it.

shoo wrote:Jason Kruk is listed as the lead rigger. As in the same guy who famously chopped 100+ bolts off the Compressor route. I don't get it.

Pretty typical of moral extremists ..It's terrible..unless I or my friends want to do it. You see it all the time with bolt chopper types.

I personally don't have much of a problem with them installing some anchors if the resulting art was really good, as long as they remove them afterwards and patch the holes well.

I can't see how their placing and using bolts is any different than climbers doing it.

There is nothing inherently better, ethical or moral about clipping bolts when climbing than hanging by them and twirling about.

climbers don't own the Chief or any other chunk of rock.

That's the dude who shit his pants when he got stuck in Boogie 'til you puke.

David Sahalie wrote:I can't see how their placing and using bolts is any different than climbers doing it. There is nothing inherently better, ethical or moral about clipping bolts when climbing than hanging by them and twirling about. climbers don't own the Chief or any other chunk of rock.

There isn't anything different at all. The issue is one of utilization. Bolts are more favorable if they enable more enjoyment of the resource, however they are being used. These bolts are effectively only going to be used once, ever, and there are tons of them. Relatively large impact to the area, relatively low usefulness to anyone.

Edit: Post from blog troupe below. The bolts are clearly visible. I have no idea whether anyone came back and chopped/patched them later.
aeriosa.wordpress.com/2013/…

So how about the R and X death slabs in places like the Black Hills and Toulome that have been climbed once? By your logic, those bolts get pulled.

David Sahalie wrote:So how about the R and X death slabs in places like the Black Hills and Toulome that have been climbed once? By your logic, those bolts get pulled.

Sure, the logic holds just fine, thanks for verifying.

Edit: There may have been some more justification if people thought that people would later use those bolts. In the Squamish case, it is unreasonable to think that anyone else would have any use for those bolts, especially given the volume of them.

I can't see how the wall dancers are that different than climbers really? maybe they left them for future dancers or so they could come back and twirl around some more. How is that different than bolting a route, adding a belay station, or rappel anchors? Just because YOU don't participate doesn't make it wrong.

as for Kruk and Kennedy...personally I felt that Lama freeing the route right after they chopped it made them look like complete tools and their stated reasons were lame - more of a smoke screen for a massive ego boost and publicity. they think because they climb hard they are entitled. at least they could have backed that up with actually freeing the fr*king route! I bet they clipped some of the bolts on prior ascents and used some lower down to get up that high. all in all pretty pathetic. sure it is cool to have the mountain remain true to original form and climb hard....but that isn't how it went down in history. I'm just not sure how someone else climbing the compressor route to the summit takes away from free climbing (which they couldn't even do) the peak. all about ego.

Looks pretty awesome to me... i dig it.

shoo wrote:Jason Kruk is listed as the lead rigger. As in the same guy who famously chopped 100+ bolts off the Compressor route. I don't get it.

It is obvious that he thinks that Cerro Torre and the Chief are different cliffs, in different countries, with different local ethics.

will these people be out doing a holiday special show on the cliff this weekend? Admission fee?