60 Bolts drilled on Compressor Route in Patagonia

There is an ongoing thread about this on rockclimbing.com, entitled "What a mess," but I have not seen anything here, so I thought I would start a new discussion.

Essentially, an Austrian team, including David Lama, traveled to Patagonia to attempt to free a classic line, and in the process placed 60 new bolts where ample opportunities for natural protection, violating national park regulations, local standards and historical precedent, and international ethical guidelines.

Rolando Garibotti wrote a very good piece about it here (in Spanish):

desnivel.com/object.php?o=2…

I hope this piece gets translated and disseminated.

The story deserves to be told.

We live in a world where our tax dollars go towards bombing little kids in school within the middle east from billion dollar planes. 60 bolts in Patagonia aint gonna rock my world.

Dont clip them.

"Daniel and myself will be carrying all of our stuff into the park and out again. Transport flights are forbidden, but it’s not in our interest to leave any traces anyway."
-David Lama

Douche -

Bombing little kids in Iraq blows. So does the fact that we'll all die someday.

Climbing is one of those things that distracts us from the inevitable emptiness of life: I'm a happy, content guy (and by no means would I say life is "meaningless") but I think it's important to recognize the arbitrary nature of a lot of the things in which we engage. That said, giving a shit about bolts on a wall in Patagonia is important because it is. Yeah, it's not mass murder in Darfur, it's not fuckin' polluting the Gulf, it isn't fucking your secretary, and it isn't lying about WMDs or launching a hair-brained invasion of Cuba for no reason, but on some level it means something, if for no other reason than people care.

Let's hang on to what we've got.

Aaron

P LaDouche wrote:We live in a world where our tax dollars go towards bombing little kids in school within the middle east from billion dollar planes. 60 bolts in Patagonia aint gonna rock my world. Dont clip them.

Coming from the dude who needed to hold an intervention when too many inexperienced folks cluttered up the forums...

mountainproject.com/v/discu…

what is the climbing world coming to.... this is not OK.

P LaDouche wrote:We live in a world where our tax dollars go towards bombing little kids in school within the middle east from billion dollar planes. 60 bolts in Patagonia aint gonna rock my world. Dont clip them.

Douche - if you care about our climbing resources, you should care about this because it's an indication of where climbing and climbers are heading. I hope you have better respect for the boulders, crags, mountains, forests, and fellow recreationists than these people showed in Patagonia.... moreover, if a film crew were to promote this behavior in media, you will see similar behavior in your local crag. Do you understand?

Micah Isaac wrote:"Daniel and myself will be carrying all of our stuff into the park and out again. Transport flights are forbidden, but it’s not in our interest to leave any traces anyway." -David Lama

I'm not sure why you'd need a transport flight when it's only a few hours walk, and mostly pretty flat, between town and Cerro Torre. Anyhow, as much as I think this is lame, having lots of bolts, and bolted cracks, is actually very much in-line with the traditional standards of the area.

I dont read climbing magazines and I dont watch climbing movies so I dont support this crap. Do you? How are these 60 bolts going to affect your life?

P LaDouche wrote:I dont read climbing magazines and I dont watch climbing movies so I dont support this crap. Do you? How are these 60 bolts going to affect your life?

Congratulations for not reading the mags, but how does Mountain Project's content greatly differ from all of the other media? As to your remark on how the bolts will affect our lives, they probably will have very little immediate impact on many of us, personally. But you are missing the point entirely and your lack of forethought has you misguided. Case in point, your totally irrelevant comment on bombings in the Middle East. How are these bombs going to affect your life? Well, they probably won't affect you immediately, but it sounds like you still have an opinion on the matter (which has absolutely nothing to do with climbing). Why? Finally, if you're going to contribute to this forum, please consider your thoughts more in depth and construct an argument that is actually geared towards rock climbing.

Well said, Skip.

skip wrote: Congratulations for not reading the mags, but how does Mountain Project's content greatly differ from all of the other media? As to your remark on how the bolts will affect our lives, they probably will have very little immediate impact on many of us, personally. But you are missing the point entirely and your lack of forethought has you misguided. Case in point, your totally irrelevant comment on bombings in the Middle East. How are these bombs going to affect your life? Well, they probably won't affect you immediately, but it sounds like you still have an opinion on the matter (which has absolutely nothing to do with climbing). Why? Finally, if you're going to contribute to this forum, please consider your thoughts more in depth and construct an argument that is actually geared towards rock climbing.

dear skip- what exactly is your argument here besides "I know you are but what am I"? are you saying Mtn Project promotes driving Hummers? Does Mtn Project promote climbing illegally in Arches National park? Does Mtn Project promote anything besides climbing related discussion and a route database? No.

Do you know the specific ethics for the area in discussion? Ever climbed there skippy?

By carrying in their stuff I guess they meant used porters. I camped next to them for a few days in December and when I remarked on the boatload of supplies they had cached, they said porters had lugged it all in.

P LaDouche wrote: dear skip- what exactly is your argument here besides "I know you are but what am I"? are you saying Mtn Project promotes driving Hummers? Does Mtn Project promote climbing illegally in Arches National park? Does Mtn Project promote anything besides climbing related discussion and a route database? No. Do you know the specific ethics for the area in discussion? Ever climbed there skippy?

find another hobby... my last word.

CHOP IT!!!!!

Hi MP folks. We've posted a story about this situation on Alpinist.com:

alpinist.com/doc/web10s/new…

Erik Lambert
Online Editor, Alpinist.com

Wish wharton would've gotten that thing chopped a few years a go, wankerdom for sure.

Dudemanguybro wrote:This is an audacious display of sport wankerdom in the worst degree. The individual quest for radness comes at a high cost for all.

Well said... I will NEVER buy another RED Bull product.

England wrote: Well said... I will NEVER buy another RED Bull product.

Yea! That'll show em! [/sarcasm]

What a fail on the film crews part. If the protection is available naturally, they must have been too incompetent to notice or too worried to care. Those bolts shouldn't be on that route, but then again, neither should many of the bolts that existed before Lama was even born.