Does nobody understand BOOTY anymore?

It's funny to me that some folks think there are so many RULES about how climbers should behave with lost/abandoned gear. Give it back. Don't give it back. Ask for it back. Don't. Use your judgement. Follow your heart. Whatever. 

Nathan Sullivan wrote: ...

Of course all I ever find are mini bail biners, totally destroyed cams and the occasional UV-bleached tricam.

Tricams make really awesome bail gear. Much more affordable to replace than cams and more versatile than nuts.I'm honestly surprised more people don't carry at least a couple.

82 likes of the original post in 6 hours has gotta be a record.

I have been theorizing that leaving gear and hoping to get it back is some new dating game.  You got her number! 

I usually hold on to the junk for a while and check the forums. If nobody is crying to have it back, I'll give it away.

I'm pretty sure people's like/dislike for the booty system is directly correlated to how many trad pitches they've led.

When you are new, you are going to get shit stuck, you're going to drop things occasionally, and you'll probably bail or get in over your head more than you'd like. You are going to hate the fact that some local hardman saw your post asking for gear back in exchange for beer and good vibes, yet woke up at 6am the next morning to solo up and back down the 5.6 you bailed off of before work for those sweet, sweet cams.

Then, at some point things will turn around and you will stop getting things stuck, stop making so many poor decisions, and your rack will begin to naturally grow through the booty you find. Once you have recovered more than you deposited, you aren't going to hate it anymore. Maybe one day, you will even be the local hardman.

I left 2 cams and a sling recovering a stuck rope on https://www.mountainproject.com/route/105732617/inti-watana if you want to hike 2 1/2 hours  and climb to pitch 9 to recover it go for it!
i even posted it in the free gear forum! If you leave it, drop it, forget it at the base, bail off it, or for any reason  other then an emergency I keeping it! 

Nine times out of ten the stuck cams and lost stick clips I post here get no response, so booty. It's fine, man. No problem.

I Responded to a post here one time about a lost pair of TCPros.  I had found them and packed them 10 miles out of the Winds. I returned the shoes and barely got even a thank you. Hopefully they would do the same for someone else so maybe it equals out. I’ve been climbing a long time I have the gear I need and generally when I booty something I sell it here in the for sale forum.

On a different track. One time years ago in the Winds in Deep Lake I found four rap anchors in a row where someone had to bail, probably from lightening. I was a young climber and super psyched. Next we moved over to the Cirque to climb. A few days later we got lighteninged off a route and I left all the same bottled gear for bail anchors. I  only possessed it for a few days and moved it six miles. Didnt have to leave any of my own gear. Perfect!

You can get beer for returned booty???????????

I've returned lots of stuff: slings, carabiners, cams, water bottles. Even posted on MP and FB to find the owner(s). Only once did I even get a "thank you".

I see it as good karma to give things back to the person who owns it if you can. This stems from the time I foolishly left a fanny pack with my passport a bunch of cash, my drivers license, credit cards, etc. in the back of a pickup truck coming back from Mexico to San Diego and it blew out on the freeway. A few days after that I got a phone call from a person in San Diego. Her family had been crossing the 5 freeway late at night while avoiding the Border Patrol and found my bag filled with important documents sitting in the center divider. They just KNEW they had to get it back to me. I gave her my shipping address and told her to keep all the money (probably a couple hundred in pesos and dollars) and just get me the passport and wallet. The package arrived two days later with all my docs AND all the cash still enclosed. I hope that family prospered here. 

Interesting.  Considering how a climber might feel when they've had to bail on a route or the follower can't get the gear out (it's not a pleasant feeling) I LOVE being able to either get gear back to them or retrieve it and leave it where it might be found.  

This includes all lost gear, sunglasses, shoes, cams, nuts etc.

 It's not mine, it's lost or temporarily separated from its owner. 

Why wouldn't you try and help someone out rather than just pocketing it immediately?  I HAVE pocketed a piece of gear where it was clear that it had been lost for a long time, and the owner would not be returning to that crag any time soon.  

I was a little amazed when a climbing friend of mine pocketed an expensive pair of sunglasses he found at the top of a local crag.  I would have been inclined to either leave them there (the owner may have realised half way back to their car and turned back to retrieve them) or taken them and posted on the local climbing facebook page that I have them and can be contacted to return them.  Our local climbing facebook page is AWASH with climbers posting that they're found shoes, jackets, ropes, camps etc and the itmes can be picked up from this gym or than gym or wherever.  It;s nice to help others out.

I'd be very happy to see a cam I lost hung from the base of the climb where I lost it for me to get it back.  It would make me feel good about my fellow climbers.  And who knows? Returning gear might forge a new friendship, and, as Allen says, it might result in an increase in the uptake of beer   

As Jeffrey says though, if you try and return it to no avail it's yours, or you could even donate the items.  

I think the FIRST could of action should be to try and get it back to its owner.

Carl Schneider wrote: Interesting.  Considering how a climber might feel when they've had to bail on a route or the follower can't get the gear out (it's not a pleasant feeling) I LOVE being able to either get gear back to them or retrieve it and leave it where it might be found.  

This includes all lost gear, sunglasses, shoes, cams, nuts etc.

 It's not mine, it's lost or temporarily separated from its owner. 

Why wouldn't you try and help someone out rather than just pocketing it immediately?  I HAVE pocketed a piece of gear where it was clear that it had been lost for a long time, and the owner would not be returning to that crag any time soon.  

I was a little amazed when a climbing friend of mine pocketed an expensive pair of sunglasses he found at the top of a local crag.  I would have been inclined to either leave them there (the owner may have realised half way back to their car and turned back to retrieve them) or taken them and posted on the local climbing facebook page that I have them and can be contacted to return them.  Our local climbing facebook page is AWASH with climbers posting that they're found shoes, jackets, ropes, camps etc and the itmes can be picked up from this gym or than gym or wherever.  It;s nice to help others out.

I'd be very happy to see a cam I lost hung from the base of the climb where I lost it for me to get it back.  It would make me feel good about my fellow climbers.  And who knows? Returning gear might forge a new friendship, and, as Allen says, it might result in an increase in the uptake of beer   

As Jeffrey says though, if you try and return it to no avail it's yours, or you could even donate the items.  

I think the FIRST could of action should be to try and get it back to its owner.

Or you might keep better track of your shit if people stopped picking up after you. 

If it wasn't  for booty  I wouldn't  have a double  rack of cams,  had to send a few back for rewiring and new slings. Spent hours  working  on some of them.   

amarius wrote: Well, there are also dirtbags that consider lowering carabiners at the anchors booty.

This crap pisses me off to no end. Hate to sound crusty, but after a recent guidebook came out far more "green" climbers started coming out to the local hardman sport crag and climbing the more obscure low grade routes. Steel lower off biners magically disappeared from three routes this summer. 

I threw on climbtech mussys on one of the routes yesterday that sees the most traffic. If they need a wrench maybe they'll realize it's not booty. 

Only thing I ever left behind was a locking binder on Lakeview before the Au Cheval pitch

Dave Vaughan wrote: In the last 3 years I have retrieved significant gear on 4 occasions and taken the time to post to find the owner. All 4 times the owners contacted me to arrange a pickup. All 4 times the owners offered beer in return to be delivered upon pick up. All 4 times the owners showed up empty handed, no beer. All 4 owners were a certain younger social generation. Just saying.  Yes, I'm a crusty old "trad", but I follow through on promises. No more booty returns :-)

Not crusty enough I say, that booty would've stayed right where it was without proper bounty.

Jack Servedio wroteYou are going to hate the fact that some local hardman saw your post asking for gear back in exchange for beer and good vibes, yet woke up at 6am the next morning to solo up and back down the 5.6 you bailed off of before work for those sweet, sweet cams.

I have two degrees of separation from someone who makes a point of soloing “the local crag” the morning after a day with rain.

If peeps bail because of an accident, by all means, return the gear. Oops the pack or gear in the Parking lot Return it, anything else it's Booty. I have collected tons of it in 39 years Lol 

If you need to boast about the “booty rules” instead of just keeping it/returning it and going about the rest of your life, then you are taking yourself too seriously. It seems like the “booty rules” crew are typically 5.8 trad-only climbers who need to make themselves feel better about their own mediocre climbing.

Dave Vaughan wrote: In the last 3 years I have retrieved significant gear on 4 occasions and taken the time to post to find the owner. All 4 times the owners contacted me to arrange a pickup. All 4 times the owners offered beer in return to be delivered upon pick up. All 4 times the owners showed up empty handed, no beer. All 4 owners were a certain younger social generation. Just saying.  Yes, I'm a crusty old "trad", but I follow through on promises. No more booty returns :-)

Just the other week I was at lumpy and bootied a 3 out of white whale. the party above managed to get it stuck at a belay? They didn't even bother to clean the brand new BD oz carabiner and it took all of about 30 seconds to get it "unstuck". I get back to the base and they ask about the cam and I give it back. Pretty sure they didn't even say thank you just "oh cool!" no offers for beer or anything. On top of it all I get home and find all the cash missing from my pack... probably the last time I give back gear that is left behind. 

Not really blaming them for the missing cash but it got me thinking anyone who isn't grateful for getting 100 bucks in gear returned to them might be shady enough to snoop in someones pack?

and to answer the OP question and to keep us on topic, No I really don't think anyone gets it.