The Blog is back. It is time to share some opinions. The Forest Service bolting moratorium did nothing. So where are we now? The main objection was the sport climbing. Well just before the moratorium, we saw 2 new sport routes. A steep one on the far left, above hard rocks with no soil damage at the bottom. And Cole and I put up a route which is over on the far right of the Tick Farm. It shares the first 3 bolts of a previous climb so no new soil impact, for any readers who are counting. We’ll likely call that one “Better Friends of the Bitterroot” but we have to get approval from Ken, keeper of the guide, for permission to deviate from the “tick” theme for names. Given his “opinion” of Keele and FOB, it’s unlikely he’ll object. So, this was an increase of 5% to the sport climb routes. I also put up some trad climbs, resulting in a 28% increase of those routes. My project for this spring is to add a second pitch to Liger. There is about 25 feet of crack and a gear placement up a little higher. After that maybe a couple bolts. It will go up to anchors which have been waiting for use for about 5 years.
A number of trad routes have also gone up on both sides of Pie for Strength. I count about 50 pitches. This means trad pitches now outnumber sport. This makes Mill Creek a trad area (guide of the new trad routes coming soon). Therefore, while we don’t want to discriminate against sport climbers and want to make them feel welcome, I do think we need to adapt to the change in the type of climbing at Mill. I did come up with one idea: The first thing is we can’t have the wimpy sport climbers running around on their thin legs. Therefore, to help bulk up the wimps, we will have them carry the trad climbers’ packs which have those heavy trad racks in them, those cams and nuts and things that make those climbs “acceptable.” As the author of most of the trad climbs says, “FOB can’t chop what’s not there.”
Other ideas to follow.
Comments? Post to the blog's Facebook page
