How to address faux pas at the crag?

Tim Lutz wrote:Bring a boombox with 90s gangtsa rap, a pitbull and crag baby and you will clear the crag.

Micheal Schneider...

Thin Air face certainly is a popular spot for guides. This crack you speak of is on thin air face or aeration buttress above? And yes I've run into a couple of guides there whom thought they owned the wall as well.

Can't even imagine the gunks now. Last time I climbed there was in 2001. If I head back home we head to NH.

i think the same..I got shit from (most) guides about not being a local..well my partner owns a house at the base of Cathedral and you from Scotland...

I've adopted the opening line, "Hey, are you all open to a suggestion?" if I see something dangerous or questionable going on with another group. I can learn a lot about the person's disposition by the way they answer the question. Often, people are open to a suggestion and this is a good ice breaker.

Last weekend a group of teens were TRing a steep route here at a local crag after one of them had led up the route. Instead of TRing on the end of the rope that goes through the draws, they were TRing on the leader's end and taking somewhat nasty swinging falls at the start of the route and dragging through rocks at the base of the wall. No major harm, no major foul, sure, but I didn't want to see one of them ruin their day with a twisted or broken ankle so I asked if they were open to a suggestion. I think pride got in the way and they answered, "No", but I still offered the suggestion politely anyway. They carried on "tetherballing" but later, after we had left to another wall and returned, they had taken my advice. They may have thought I was a jerk but if it saves an ankle (or worse) I'm fine with that.

I think gyms should be held accountable the same way bars are, third party liability.

I don't think I've ever had someone get snappy with me when I've given them advice. If you approach them with an air of concern and not indignance, generally they're at least somewhat receptive. And the occasional snappy remark is a small price to pay for spreading good technique/ethics.

always want to say something when i see it but never do, it's just bad form to tr through the anchors or hog the warm ups (at main or waimea). i usually just move on or don't even go where the crowds are. Went in a gym the other day and it took me an hour to get through the gym awarness, bouldering, and tr cert (not even lead) it is what it is with insurance i guess, but maybe they could throw up the old access fund poster of gym to outdoors transfer, i dunno? we can't make more rock or inject commonsense... i think i'm going surf and get high on the weekends and learn to swim on the weekdays

While I respect a guides need to lead and try to reduce risk and keep the day from going to hell ,they often do get an " I own the place" attitude.

H,
the Thin Air rout seemed to end off to one side but the guide was on it, or so he claimed so I climbed out the finger crack. What ever it was, the guide and his clients jaws went slack, and he reported me to some guy with a very noticeable lisp,
who tried to tell me off,
and ended with "you'll never work in this town again."
With the lisp, it was too funny, I broke out laughing,
Is it to late to say sorry Joe?

Watched a similar scenario play out at thin air last fall. Party of 3 in front of us stitched pitches one and two together and the leader was bringing up her climbers. Ems guide taking two people up toe crack to thin air gets to the belay, as she is already belaying her climbers and from what I gathered, said that because he was a guide their party would have to wait and let him and his clients pass. They let them pass and it was about an hour later that we could finally get started on our climb. After talking to other people later about it I heard that the EMS guides do things like that quite often.

Michael Schneider wrote: With the lisp, it was too funny, I broke out laughing, Is it to late to say sorry Joe?

scienceguy288 wrote:I also like the saying, "never attribute to malice what you can to ignorance..."

dog poo + chalk bag

I've been on a couple climbs where there where no rap rings but instead just 2 hooks -not shuts, just open hooks with no gate, at the time I'm always like man I gotta clean off this? And its always fine (although I've never encountered these on super steep routes which are hard to clean) but now I'm thinking hmm might stop people top roping directly off anchors, I mean who wants to fall on that! Lol

To get somewhat back on topic.. I've almost exclusively adopted the policy that I won't say anything to people doing something dangerous unless the are unknowingly putting themselves, or more importantly, others, at risk. As for belaying right off anchors, that's pretty obnoxious, and I usually say something. That shit is not cheep, and if people are using them for a TR I'm going to say something. If someone's not on a route, and I'm there first, they don't get to hold it by shouting over. That's not how life works. If there really waiting they can wait at the bottom. Empty TR's are super annoying. Usually when I find them a bit of talking gets them to leave it alone. All this said, I hate climbing at Rumney.

This post reminds me of the "thug Life" videos on the net these day. if you really want to be aggressive at a group that just has ropes hanging with no one actively climbing, just pull their rope and hop on haha. (not seriously recommending this but it has crossed my mind)

Zacks wrote:I've been on a couple climbs where there where no rap rings but instead just 2 hooks -not shuts, just open hooks with no gate, at the time I'm always like man I gotta clean off this? And its always fine (although I've never encountered these on super steep routes which are hard to clean) but now I'm thinking hmm might stop people top roping directly off anchors, I mean who wants to fall on that! Lol

As someone new, it sucks that aholes are turning people off from offering sound (and needed) advice. I try to climb with much more experienced people to make sure I don't do something stupid, but I will go out (and be extra cautious) with someone who's green like me if necessary.