If you find gear on a route, it's booty, not someone else's crap that you need to return for them. My philosophy when climbing is that the gear must be bomber but removable. It's my own fault if I can't properly place the gear to be removed by my second. Bail gear is just that- you're bailing, too bad. Find a way to get it back, rap down, ask a better climber to go get it for you (been there) or just thank the gear gods you are on the ground safely and replace what you left behind.
BTW, if you lost a .75 camalot or a reverso(ground score) on el cap in september, thanks!

Booty comes and goes in a cycle. You leave some, you get some and it all probably evens out in the end. I've probably left the same amount of stuff for other people to have as I have collected. I once found a .75 left lying on a ledge. Not in a crack or anything, just sitting there. BOOTY!

I employ the "don't ask don't tell" philosophy.

AJS... I hit that one on page one. No body said nothin' to my chagrin

Ahhh, so you did - nice one!...must be a highbrow crowd here - they probably don't appreciate the finer points of tawdry humor :-)

-Adam

is it still booty if you left it and then come back to retrieve it?

If you attempt to give it back, its not booty

What goes around comes around, The longer you climb the more you will leave behind and the more you will find. It seems to all even out in the end.

I think its trash and you are picking it up and keeping the climb in it's proper state by removing it and giving it a good new home. I would never expect anything back if I leave it in the mountains, If I leave gear, well that was the price of admission that day, At least I got home, could of been worse.

There is an art to leaving a solid but inexpensive anchor if its a bail situation, but if its just a stuck piece then it costs the price of the piece. Ce La Vie

New Question though:

If you and your buddy are climbing together and your on lead and find a nice cam that was on the route you cant clean it or you clip it instead and your second cleans the nice shiny cam, Who gets it, the guy who cleaned it or the guy who led the pitch?

Or in the OP's case who has to find and return the piece to the owner, the leader or the second who cleaned it?

Yarr! Plunder the booty ye swashbuckler!

The trigger wire of the Trango cam I found at Turret Dome in Elevenmile years ago broke completely as I was trying to place it while climbing "The Martyr" earlier in the week.

So, do I have to pay for the trigger replacement myself or can I get that from the previous owner? I never did find the owner.


I actually think it's nice that people worry about booty being stealing, or unsportsmanlike, or uncool, etc. I'm fine laying out what rules I go by and let them decide for themselves. This common thread is certainly more welcome than...


I was going to say pro/anti dog threads, but I get a huge laugh out of those. Ha ha ha. OK, I hate shoe threads the most I think. Absolutely no controversy or potential for entertainment.

I'm with Lee on the cleaning booty on the lead thing. Sometimes I get conflicted over whether to risk blowing the onsight by fiddling with stuck booty if I'm on a route I care about. Often these days, I'll leave the booty for my 2nd unless it is easy to pluck.

But back to the original question. I've returned booty, attempted unsuccessfully to find the owner, offered to clean for the party ahead of me on the route, greedily grabbed without considering the (past) owner, and once even face to face refused to give it back because of the attitude and inconsiderate actions of the cam loser.
Context matters.
Once I even rescued a fallen noob leader, (who had managed to live through no fault of his own,) retrieved most of his brand new rack, then regretted handing it to him because his clueless, false-front macho bravado in front of his 13yo son belayer pissed me off so bad. I nearly decked him for being an ass.

I love booty... Every time i find a piece i fall in love...

I work hard not to leave gear behind because once i do i consider it gone for ever.. i assume that what i find on a climb was left the same way, they said their good byes, the gear is dead to them...

I'm surprised this is a question. Do with booty you found just as you wish people who found your booty would do with yours.

Do you best to find the owner. If you can't find them, enjoy the good karma that came with your found booty and climb safe.

Mal

Just like "there's no crying in baseball," there's similarly no etiquette in rocklimbing!

--Marc