did you mean "thief" ?

If I see gear it is always free game. Simply don't leave your gear if you don't want it "stolen". I wouldn't expect my rope to be at the bottom of a climb if I left it, nor should you expect draws to be there when you get back if you leave them.

So let me get this straight, If I need some bolt hangers, manky old pins or pieces of chain I should feel free to go to the local crag and strip off the fixed gear and anchors since anything left behind is fair game? Or is that going a bit too far? It's only ok to steal gear if it's convenient? This discussion has drifted off track. With the exception of a very few crags with permadraws, I do not see people leaving gear on projects around the Wasatch very often. This discussion was started by someone who was in the middle of bolting and cleaning a new route, which seems to me to be a different situation; there are a lot of established, popular sport crags that in the heyday of their development had gear left on them while routes were being put up. The routes get finished, the gear goes away, no big problem.

This thread is really sad...I can't believe there are so many people here trying to justify stealing someone else's draws...simply mind boggling!

Once you voluntarily leave behind non-fixed gear, it says to me that you dont care about that gear. Are you so naive as to believe that it would still be there when you returned, you got exactly what you were asking for, congrats!

My goal was to get this ridiculous thread to 7 pages, I greatly underestimated how easy it would be to push peoples buttons.

Not really, just bored. I have a feeling you will never leave your gear behind again.

Just tossing some gas on the fire, I guess, but

IF, say, you are climbing a route and can't make it past the crux, and you bail, unless you have some skilz, you're going to end up leaving at least one draw

Now, is that draw booty or what?

But in this case it wasn't left because Justin couldn't make it past the crux, Justin left his draws, clipped into his bolts, on a route he was in the process of bolting for the community, or lack thereof, to enjoy. Taking the draws wasn't about removing a supposed eye sore from an area either as his rope was left hanging on the same route. This was person with some climbing knowledge who was out to steal draws. The worst part about this, is that it was probably a person Justin knows who stole his draws. That person most likely knows that his ill gotten draws are Justin's.

I love how everyone says.. yea go climbing, stop sitting on the computer.. nice very nice.

With so many readers of this thread, I'll throw this in for educational purposes:

How to safely retreat from a sport route

This is the kind of thing that can happen when people are out of touch with the local conventions. I had a similar experience when I went to a new area. As I'm roping up, I see that the entire route has been equipped with fixed chalk. I didn't think anything of it because I don't even use chalk. Then this guy comes up the trail and he sees that my hands are white from trying the moves and I have no chalk bag. He starts to get real mad and says it's his chalk and I'm trying to steal it. He finally cools down when he sees my swami belt and realizes that I don't know the customs of climbing there in the projects. I do my best to brush my hands off into his chalk bag and he leaves after giving me a stern warning. After I finally get up the route, I scrape the residue off my hands and into a snack-size baggie, which I leave at the base for when its owner returns. With a little thoughtfulness and consideration, everybody wins.

Sport climbing is for pussies anyhow you should give that up for some real traditional climbing. that way I can rack up some new cams when you leave those on your next route.

Stolen gear = bad mojo. stolen gear is bound to cause you some issues. bail gear (ie single draw/biner, sling, stuck pro.) bueno

I just busted the 100th post cherry!