by KENTO » May 20, 2013 8:30 pm
Okay, please someone explain the magic bullet point I am missing here that a climb up a 200 foot pristine wall done by a succession of daring hook moves stuck in a hole hand drilled every one foot or so because, " Falling is not an option " is no impact or acceptable impact in the Wilderness setting but a 200 foot climb that was accomplished by a caver/lead climber placing 10 well set holes with a power drill now is willing to take a chance on falling 10 feet or so on a dynamic rope and maybe he/she uses a hook move or 2 or 3 , also a natural anchor or 2 if lucky, quite a few daring friction moves because of that good bolt just below, in other words less alteration of the rock surface up this route. This route, accomplished with that unfair technology , the Hammer Drill is against the Wilderness Ethic and would really cause the environment , In a Cave ? to suffer confirmed impacts while hand drilling and the less than optimally placed fixed anchor where there is a BFR causes the cavers to deposit muddy footprints etc and cause rope wear nightmares for the management of the project once the need for the trade route to going cave is established, this is equated with acceptable/allowable impact? When a well placed bolted rebelay trade route could be achieved easily that results in zero contact with the cave walls.
Many people go BackCountry Skiing and Snowboarding in NPS Alpine Wildernesses all the time in Winter using a plethora of gadgets, avalanche transcievers , altimeters with Li-Ion batteries that would impact the environment harshly if lost or left behind, the latest and most expensive plastic/Foam mountain boots that use up the Earths finite resources, yet I hear no one suggesting for the sake of Wilderness Ethics that we only ski on old fashioned wooden or better yet Bamboo snowboards and use only the old fashioned Avalache cord streaming backward in a trail of brightly colored 3mm nylon 50 feet away or so in hopes someone could find me in time if I was covered by snow. That stuff used to get left behind and was an impact in Wilderness areas.
So why are there no longer conversations about Hammer Drills and Bolt routes on the climbers forums? Is it because there " Style is everything " , The Object of Climbing is not to make the climb easier , but for the Climber to get stronger, more artistic and skilled to do harder or more " Aesthetic routes " up the same Hill. In the Climbing World it became obvious quickly that any person could buy a Hilti and start scarring Smith Rocks ,Oregon/ El Cap in Yosemite/ Eldo Canyon in Colorado. What's more , every body was forced to listen to it and look at it. So it was an easy Sell for Climbers to Band together as The Access Fund to lobby for preservation of climbing areas by enforcing the ban on Hammer Drills but " Grandfathering " of the practice of Fixed Anchors.
But this is a caving forum for cave EXPLORERS , yes we need to guide ourselves to the future debating ethics now and then. But for golly's sakes let's climb up , push past limits, go deeper than before into the UnderGround Wilderness without so much attention to shoe horning a criterion that was designed for above ground Wilderness. Logistically, there is a reason there was no major Breakthrough in Lech after 1989 until Oz , the cave is indeed so unique it must be explored with a more preservationist approach. Now , it sounds like they may find another entrance out on the Western End, which would be a good thing with a carefully designed environmental gate again.
There are a butt load of more leads staring down at explorers below in that cave , all protected by corrosion residue and rotten rock , if the latest technology was sanctioned for one time only use on a case by case basis, Lech might be 200 miles now and growing. As long as we didn't leave the Li-Ion batteries behind and removed a few intermediate bolt sleeves and packed the holes once a permanent anchor high above was fixed, " I think the Underground Wilderness would survive just fine. "