Upper West Bolton Anchors

I recently went up to upper west for a nice day of climbing in the wilderness and some peace and quiet. My plan was to finally lead the 5.7 Corner on gear, set up a top rope and let my girlfriend climb the route too. Unfortunately at the top of the climb i discovered two bolts to serve as anchors! It was my understanding that this route was PURE TRAD! Instead of slinging the perfectly good tree at the top with a few slings and using a couple locking carabiners to set up the anchor i was FORCED to clip the bolted anchor and use that instead. Does anyone know who placed these bolts? Did they get proper permission? I am just concerned that one of my favorite climbing areas - what was once the premier trad crag in Vermont is being sportified.

Bolted anchors are ok in the wilderness.

REALLY?! Bummer bro! Better get on those 5.8s or.9s no one retro's those...or say f@ck and skip the new pussy anchors. The tree hasn't died yet. Oh yeah...nice troll.

The horror! folks decided not to kill a tree. get a grip. climb more and worry less about what You think is right and wrong...;)

Troll

Nick Goldsmith wrote:The horror! folks decided not to kill a tree. get a grip. climb more and worry less about what You think is right and wrong...;)

Don't tell people to worry less about what they think is right and wrong... MP would be so much less entertaining that way silly!

I disagree on the trolling thing only because my very first post on mtbr.com was a self righteous rant like this one.

I'm giggling at Bolton being called wilderness....

well it is a full 15 minute walk from the road... sounds like someone had better go chop those bolts.

mmainer wrote:well it is a full 15 minute walk from the road... sounds like someone had better go chop those bolts.

I blame the tree- better chop it too.

Thats why I never run into anyone at hinterlands or northwest at Rumney...It's over 15 minutes and is wilderness :0

to answer your questions, yes, I know who put in the bolts. And yes he got proper permission.

There are more than a dozen sport routes at Upper West.

not trolling. just interesting in making sure our climbing areas get developed properly. all im saying is that we should be more careful with where we place permanent bolts - ideally on hard routes, like 5.10. why excessively destroy our nonrenewable rock resource?!

If you honestly feel that replaceing tree slings with bolted anchors is ruining the resorce you would do well to get out and climb more.......

slings and rings suck in most aplications.

TradDude5five wrote:not trolling. just interesting in making sure our climbing areas get developed properly. all im saying is that we should be more careful with where we place permanent bolts - ideally on hard routes, like 5.10. why excessively destroy our nonrenewable rock resource?!

I really don't know what the hell this is supposed to mean. A route easier than 5.10 needs no anchors? I repeat: there are many, many bolts at UWB. All around. Rap bolted. I assume that the corner you climbed is chockstone/cap'n's crack. The trees that were once the anchors, scotch pines, are dead. Dead trees. Killed by ropes and slings, and also by erosion from climbers stomping around. Pull your head out of your ass.

This is hilarious, funniest thing Ive read in awhile on Mountain Spray.

slings suck

slings suck

Bolts are much less impact.
the bottom line is that 99% of the time for rock climbing slings and rings are a greater impact than bolts. Ice climbing often tree anchors are the only reasonable option.

@ Nick - thanks for the tree anchor examples. i'll have to stop by a gear shop and pick up some extra webbing. looks like orange might be the strongest. if not ill go with purple. is there a specific knot i should use when wrapping the trees?

@John - it wasnt on the chockstone its called the "5.7 corner" in the guidebook. i say only put bolted anchors on climbs 5.10 or over because anything below that grade can barely be considered climbing. i've got some really strong trad climbing friends that often simul climb and run it out while climbing 5.7

Bolts are only placed at Bolton in appropriate places, I agree that this is one of them, there's plenty of over bolting going on in the northeast (Farley, Rumney) and this is not one of those places....

I cannot believe anyone is actually taking anything said by a guy named TradDude5Five seriously.

TradDude5five wrote:@ Nick - thanks for the tree anchor examples. i'll have to stop by a gear shop and pick up some extra webbing. looks like orange might be the strongest. if not ill go with purple. is there a specific knot i should use when wrapping the trees? @John - it wasnt on the chockstone its called the "5.7 corner" in the guidebook. i say only put bolted anchors on climbs 5.10 or over because anything below that grade can barely be considered climbing. i've got some really strong trad climbing friends that often simul climb and run it out while climbing 5.7