Chads93GT wrote:In your opinion, when is it ok to place permanent protection in a cave?
This same topic has been beat to death in the rock climbing forums, and in Rock & Ice, and Climbing. I was just wondering about your opinins as to when it is "acceptable" to bolt in protection.
Opinions?
There's no easy answer. It depends entirely on the cave in question, the people setting the potential bolt, and
the local conservation ethics.
Bolts should only be placed by people who have sufficient rigging experience and bolting experience and only in
caves where the owner or manager of the cave is ok with it and the local caving community (being the people
who actually go in that cave) is ok with it. And then it's best to place bolts that won't need to be replaced
every ten years, and my personal philosophy is that any main route anchor system I put in place will be
rated for rescue.
Anmar