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Oh Boy...
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https://www.climbing.com/news/check-out-the-underground-climbing-scene-literally/ |
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What a bunch of dumb shit. Wow. Fucking idiots. |
Billy Daffinwrote: https://www.climbing.com/news/check-out-the-underground-climbing-scene-literally/ |
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It’s all fun and games ... until you impale your belayer with a stalactite . |
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Paraphrasing here: "We wanted to leave a smaller footprint so we climbed over a specific migratory path and left our chalk and body oils all over rock that never sees rainfall." Did I get that right? |
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Can't touching stalagmites essentially "kill" them? Incredibly entitled of them to potentially destroy an extremely finite resource for some 5.6 + instagram pics |
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So are we gonna get Redemption 2: James Pearson Messes Up Underground? |
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I checked the date on this article, because I thought someone might have pulled up an old archived April Fools joke, but it def. seems to be true. There has to be something missing here I think. Cavers and local grottos are almost militantly protective of their underground resources, I just can't imagine that this is considered good form. Similarly, I am not sure if it is coincidence, but the climbers appear to be sponsored by Northface, are they really condoning this too? The two climbers come off very poorly to me personally, as well as climbing magazine. I mean last week Climbing Magazine was chastising a bolter for ruining a prehistoric site, this week they are profiting from two weirdos doing their best to destroy millions of years of geological formations in a cave..... |
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The height of stupidity and entitlement. |
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Sounds like the local caving manager and some caving expert ok'd the idea - clearly there are some cavers with the opinion that this is fine to do. Where's the dissonance with the wider community? |
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Blame Sharma! Why are open pit mines ok but this isn't? Serious question. Nothing can exist without impacting something. These guys weren't elephant hunting or supporting extractive industries by using computers. Would like to learn more if we have any cave experts here. |
J Cwrote: Do a little internet research on what kind of "rock" they are climbing and how its formed. Its pretty delicate compared to what we normally climb on. Also seems dangerous as i have serious doubt that the the formations would hold up to the cams expansion if you fell. Theres a reason this isnt widely practiced and accepted climbing. Its not like they are the first ones to think of this. Just the first ones to publish an article bragging about it. As someone upstream stated most cavers and land managers would drive you off with pitch forks if they found you doing this. |
Whisk3rzz 1wrote: Yeah, that's about how much I know about rock formation in caves as well. Pretty sure it doesn't apply here, since that is about wet stalagmites. These were specifically the already dry 'dead' formations. It'd be interesting to hear from someone who knows about this stuff. I'm also ignorant and just know "don't touch the rocks in caves, oils bad." These guys got the landowner OK; do those landowners know more about these formations? I'm sure someone knows this stuff, maybe even someone perusing MP. |
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Article on recent petroglyph bolting in the Guardian today. The following quote would seem indicative of how more and more non-climbers (reasonably) view the sport these days. Defaced Petroglyphs force rock climbers to reckon with sports destructive past "Gilbert’s action revitalized long standing debates about the checkered history of rock climbing, a white- and male-dominated sport whose practitioners have spent decades fighting to climb wherever they please, and often succeeding. " |
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It's a total non-apology too. Lame. At no point in that multi-paragraph apology do they simply say: "What we did was wrong, and we are sorry." |
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I’m not a subterranean environmental expert, I just don’t want to take part in the advanced course in bat shit hunting. |
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I don’t care what anyone says. James Pearson is one of the boldest climbers out there. I care negatively that he climbed in a cave. Whatever. He had permission.
7:20 if you don’t want to watch the whole thing. |
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Just what we need! More AF webinars to tell everyone the obvious! Link to the apology #sorrynotsorry https://www.climbing.com/news/check-out-the-underground-climbing-scene-literally/ |
Dan Cookseywrote: That was a long fall. It was not, in fact, the craziest whip of all time. |
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I think the "support and guidance of local experts" was likely limited exclusively to the owners/managers of the cave they were in, and Climbing Magazine is apparently lacking anybody with a modicum of knowledge about caves, their conservation, or the politics within the community. I have spent a fair portion of my life caving in the US, Europe, Central and South America. There are times when aid climbing does occur in caves, but never on formations. At no point would a caver think, much less say, its a good idea to climb formations on gear, frankly the rock is far too fragile and unstable. Ever wonder why they didn't just start slinging tufas at Tonsai when the bolts kept rusting out? Maybe most importantly, it would never be accompanied by a photo shoot and subsequent publication. |
Ben Silverwrote: You’re not, In fact, the craziest whip of all time. |
