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get involved: access, environment, BMC / Re: Spad climbing
« Last post by petejh on Yesterday at 05:00:19 pm »I think a decent compromise is us following the very simple rules already in place as asked for by the land owner(who has every right to tell us to fuck off)! What is it with us as a group..? And our sense of entitlement and inability to follow simple rules, access is only going to become more of an issue, if we can’t do better, we deserve everything we get…
This, and arguments similar to this, are commonly heard in cases like this. To be clear I'm not in favour of antagonising those with a legal right to make life difficult for climbers. And I am in favour of access agreements where time and circumstance have arrived at this formal approach being the way to preserve climbing access - and this example seems like a place where not risking rocking the boat is the most sensible approach. (and request a few discreet very low profile 12mm glue-in clippy-stick access bolts to tidy up the pinnacle, preserve vegetation(?), and 'replace unsightly old fixed gear'...)
But be honest about the wider scene rather than make-believe. It's rarely as simple as: 'lets follow the rules'. We can pretend that climbing takes place according to landowners' rules if that's what suits our argument at the time, but climbing doesn't happen like that in reality.
If you truly believe in a fairytale of 'we only do what the landowner has explicitly permitted following a formal request' then don't ever climb on the slate, and strip the Diamond access route tomorrow. Then relax in a warm glow of knowing you're righteously following the landowners' rules (oh what you really think Mostyn Estates want to know about and agree to a via ferrata on their land?!). Loads of other places where we just go and climb and place all sorts of fixed stuff without seeking explicit permission.. and hope it turns out ok.
No coincidence that two people making a case against bolts here are JB and NY. JB lives in that far-off unsullied fantasy land known as The Unspoiled Trad Environment. I think NY probably often visits there on holiday .