From: Bosier Parsons
To: Phil Wortmann
Cc: Andrew Reed; Ian Dyer; Ryan Chelstowski; Ama Dei; Bill Olszewski; Brian Shelton; Shane Leva; Stewart Green
Sent: Thursday, November 5, 2020, 10:58:06 AM MST
Subject: Re: [ppca] Contact - new submission
Phil,
I just received this forwarded email last night from Ian, and feel I need to respond to you directly.
1) I am not spreading information to discredit you.
2) I am not spreading information to your publisher, nor have I communicated anything to your publisher or with your publisher.
3) I am not trying to tell you what you can or can't do regarding a guide book or placing bolts. I have always made it clear to you and everyone, that it's a free country and you are free to do what you want. If you provide more information to the PPCA regarding your progress, I would not "use that information to hurt your efforts."
4) I am not actively starting and engaging in another bolt war. And I have not actively started and engaged in a prior bolt war.
5) I have not removed any anchor bolts as you accuse me of. I did remove five bolts (on routes that had been climbed for forty years without bolts), some fixed wires (on routes that had been climbed without fixed gear for forty years) and about 5 total anchors (comprised of fixed pins, webbing, cordelettes, and biners) all on the Golden Wall, as this wall had been climbed for forty years without having any fixed hardware at all, and is an easy walk-off. If you consider this starting and engaging in a bolt war, I'm sorry, but I do not. If I find fixed gear on a traditional climb in a traditional area that has always gone clean and free, I will always try to remove it. I realize that sometimes people need to escape off of something due to weather or due to being uncomfortable with a descent, and therefore might leave fixed gear and anchors, but removing it should not be perceived as starting and engaging in a bolt war. If someone places a bolt on a traditional rock climb in a traditional area right next to traditional gear placement opportunities, who is actually the person starting and engaging in a bolt war? The person who places the bolt, or the person who removes it? Since the person who placed the bolt is the person who acted first, isn't that by definition the start of something?
6) I am not trashing sport climbers or putting peoples' lives at risk. I have worked hard and put in lots of time to protect our climbing resources, and I think it's just as important to protect ALL styles of climbing and ALL types of areas with different established ethics and traditions, not JUST those in the climbing mainstream. Climbing is dangerous, and each individual that decides to participate understands that they are taking a risk, and that they need to use their own judgment as to what risk to take, or how much risk to take. But if someone decides that placing a piece of natural protection is too risky and instead decides to place a bolt, is it wrong to try to protect the traditional ethic of an area by removing the bolt? I don't think so, because I believe that having at least SOME traditional areas are adding valuable experiential opportunities even to new climbers, in the potential for new climbers to have to think, use their instincts, develop a sense of what might be too risky and what might be acceptable risk. This includes a walk-off from the top of a traditional cliff that has been climbed for forty years without fixed gear and fixed anchors. There is value in someone having to make that decision for themselves, and if they decide to leave some gear and rappel off, that's certainly a decision they can make. And if the next person comes along and decides to remove that gear, that's also a decision they can make. Doesn't living in a free country allow for freedoms on both sides of this argument?
7) I have never used the PPCA to veto any attempt at unity. I have never used the PPCA for my own personal agenda. I have never used the PPCA to protect my friends from climbers. (What are you saying that I'm even protecting my friends from?). The action I took on the Golden Wall was my action as an individual expressing my right in a free country. Just as your action to place a bolt on rappel or to install a convenience bolt anchor is also your individual action and expression as is your right in a free country. The PPCA had nothing to do with my action as an individual. I am glad to continue to serve the community by continuing to serve on the Board if the PPCA Board wants me to. The Board makes decisions and votes on different things and each persons' vote counts. I have no unilateral power over the Board's decisions, nor do I have any veto power over the Board. I expressed to the Board last night that as I said to you personally when you attended that meeting, I cannot tell you what to do or not do. And at this point I am really fine with whatever you do. But I will continue to try to protect climbing and our climbing resources, including areas that have always been traditional areas with traditional ethics, as it is my opinion that these areas and ethics are equally important to protect as are sport climbing areas and sport climbing ethics, bouldering areas and bouldering ethics, and so on. If the Board considers my individual actions and opinions to be too extreme or too much in conflict with the Board's mission, I told them I am willing to resign or will be accepting of their vote to force me to step down.
8) You say you count us all as friends, but this email you sent is a very personal attack on me individually, especially considering some of the false accusations you made. I also noticed this morning that you have unfriended me on Facebook, so I guess you no longer count me as a friend. That's fine, but I'm sorry it has come to that, especially considering I'm the first person you ever climbed with on Pikes Peak. Our experience up there together was in direct alignment with the experiences I had with my elders when I first climbed up there, passing down the traditions and ethics of the area. My point is to say that you have been mentored, taught, and learned these traditions and ethics from the very beginning of your experiences up there. Your choice to disrespect those ethics and traditions, and disrespect me personally in the form of the email you sent to the PPCA, is precisely why I need to act to defend myself and the traditions and ethics of our local areas.
I hope that this response will help you understand my personal perspective, and that this is by no means the perspective of the PPCA as a whole. This response should also clarify my actions and reasons for those actions, along with the explicit clarification that I have NOT personally or otherwise taken any actions directly or indirectly that would effect your ability to publish a guidebook, as it is entirely your right to do so.
Bo Parsons