RE "locked" Overlook thread

Hello climbers near and far,

I have been staying away from MP forums for a good long time. It was brought to my attention that my name had come up on the Overlook thread so I had to have a look. Now I have a few things to say..

RE the campaign to bolt the rim of The Overlook:

Yes, there are 2 or 3 Junipers with some exposed roots, and climbers are entitled to some blame for that. But it is not true to say that these trees are dying. They have lots of green on them. It's completely normal for Junipers to have dead branches on them, more the older they get. It's also normal to see trees thriving on hillsides with some of their roots exposed. It's also very common to see dead trees that no one has ever used as an anchor. The lifespan of a Juniper is 350-700 years, for Pondos it's 300. I'm confident that all of the trees in question will outlive everyone who is reading this. Even if people were to never go near those Junipers again, the erosion has already happened. And it's down to stone so it cant really go any further.

The top outs on these climbs are part of the climb. If lowering anchors are added it changes the climbs, and not for the better.

We can plant trees, we cant grow new crags.

The opinion that bolted anchors should be added at The Overlook (and The Forks) is not a consensus view. The many eloquent and rational comments expressing the opposing view prove this.

These are Traditional climbing areas. If one prefers bolted anchors they can go to The Pit, The Peaks, Solitude (upper or lower), Hobo Jungle, Winslow Wall, or Diablo canyon. Plus many many more.

The Flagstaff climbing community does not need to apologize to dissatisfied out of towners. We have fantastic, uncrowded crags.

RE my name coming up on the Overlook thread:

So this was interesting. It appears that someone went back and deleted several of their comments. And from what remains, I can see they were having some quarrel with a MP user going by the name of "Johnny First". It seems like the individual who deleted their comments had first thought Johnny First was me. Then they edited their comment guessing it was someone named Eric D,  I don't know just what was in the deleted comments, but I can see that it was ugly and that my name came up. Which is strange since I was not even aware of this thread. MP user Johnny First called out the individual who deleted his comments as a bully. This is accurate, I have had my own experience with this individual.

I was contacted via email by one MP project user last year, when the debate was raging about bolts at The Forks. He had heard about me commenting on a friends FB that "NAZ has it's share of immature a**holes with shady ethics". He assumed I was talking about him. What followed was him telling me "you're a dying breed" (I'm flattered!), "soon you'll be gone so what you think doesn't matter" (oh really?), "...will be the best thing you do for your health all year" (concerned about my health, how kind), and "Do not ever talk about me online again". Well now that I see that you are bringing up my name on MP (even if you did edit it to Eric D, then delete the whole thing) I don't see any reason I should refrain from talking about you. You are a bully. And you do not speak for Northern Arizona climbers.