You bolted my route!

Mike Lane wrote:The other gentleman involved is a good guy with whom I've exchanged pm's through the years. He is very contrite about this. He offered up "Gift From Above" (.12A) as a route name, which I thought was OK. Coldshuts are OK, but not great, as top anchors. The knock on them is that they wear out with rope abrasion. These were left over from some anchor replacement initiative work we did in Castlewood last Winter, they looked old but had no wear. I use them as disposable rap anchors when checking out a wall for the first time. If the wall is worth working, I'll replace with my normal rig of hangers/quick links and chain. Its a good route with 2 different starts, ours and his; about 30' apart. They converge 30 feet up at the business, which stays sustained at .11+ for 40'. The main reason Tom and I didn't get it done on day 1 was that we thrashed around for a couple hours (there's quite a bit of stone over there, including some good looking trad lines), spent some time tradding up to the top, worked it on a tr, and then got solared out as it faces west. Since this is yet another new part of the mountain and few know how to get there, we did not feel the sense of urgency like you would at a more accessible crag. All in all, its just a shit happens kind of thing. I just wanted to intercede here before the other guy gets further trashed. Besides, we are still talking about a nefarious activity here anyway.

It is definitely a viable variation. Both versions have 4-5 clips and distinctly different climbing. Not worth a 2nd name though. Plus, I should note that we typically do not publicize the FA at Devils Head because 1) who cares? and 2) removes any incentive for going crazy looking for personal notoriety.
Instead, we go crazy anyway b/c the rock is so good there.
Of course, a proud FA of a trad line will get noted, and its up to the developer if he wants to post his accomplishment if its a sport route, ie: a mega classic or really impressive send.

At .12A, to me this is a project that all my friends will send before I do -if ever, I'm kinda tubby now and just don't climb consistently enough. So in a way its kind of a relief that it has been sent already.
I have also had a rough Summer overall, my unacknowleged route building in general has become a negative experience. This episode served as the final straw to stow the drill away indefinitely; which may be moral of this whole sordid affair anyway.

Bruce Hildenbrand wrote: It turns out that my partner and I had done the first ascent. The group of climbers asked if it would be OK if they added bolts to the slab and I said it would be OK as long as they gave me and my partner credit for the FA. To make a long story a bit shorter, they added the bolts, but didn't give us the credit for the FA. Luckily, Bernard Gillette knows how the game is played and it will be corrected in the next edition of his guidebook. Bruce