Within the past 2 - 3 weeks someone selfishly chipped a handful of new footholds into the Indian Rock crag in Berkeley, CA. One of the chips removed a glassy foot on "Watercourse" and replaced it with a tiny ledge. If I recall correctly, there were at least 5 new chips; mostly between Watercourse and Beginner's Crack.
A local, and regular Indian Rock climber addressed the hold chipper. The notice read:
"To the hold chippers at Indian Rock, people have climbed on the holds you chipped for many years. I have been climbing on the pre-chipped holds for over 20 years, some of my friends 50. Hold chipping is not the ethic at Indian Rock. What you have done can not be undone. Look up climbing ethics and get educated. Please learn to climb by taking your hold chipping ass back to the gym!
Sincerely, concerned Indian Rock climbers.
P.S. Thanks for F'ing it up!"
EDIT: Removed last sentence, but won't remove the P.S.; those are the words of someone else.
There's definitely a surge of frustration and sadness from people who've been climbing the crag for some time. In all the years folks have been coming to the area, no one has chipped holds. The local climbing community cares about the area too, a few months back a Touchstone gym had a volunteer-based 'clean the crag day,' where tons of rubbish was removed, and a new base of mulch was laid down. The city also recently repaved the sidewalk that lead to the main climbing area, before there were some hazardous drop-offs that could mess up one's knees.
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