Is bolting canyons 'dumbing down' canyoneering?
Or not bolting is keeping canyoneering dumb?
Anchors: Checkers or Chess?
This question (title) comes from subscriber Alex M. Thanks Alex!
His question is in the context of a rhetorical question, as in how to debate and untangle this subject that is ideologically entrenched in communities around the American Southwest, and Australia.
The usual reasons
Through the years, I've come across enough discussion on this subject, that I think I can summarize them into these lines of argumentation. Do not place bolts in canyons because:
Is about problem solving
Is about Leave No Trace
Is about the preservation of wilderness aspect of canyons
The real reasons
But it does not take much discussion back and fro to see the hypocrisy, or naivete behind these arguments. Once you peel the arguments one by one, you get to the core of what is really behind each one:
Is really about imposing a way to do canyons onto other people. If you do not like bolts, you do not have to use them. You can still exercise your problem solving urges and figure out a natural anchor, or your toggle stick or whatever. But you insist on no-bolts-for everybody. An often these types chop the bolts out to enforce their ways.
Natural anchoring 'skills' are Leaving plenty of Trace behind in the form of plastics and rock scarring. Every time you leave webbing or cord behind, is like leaving a plastic bottle, and a soda can behind. Trash.
It is really about the preservation of practices and beliefs, not the preservation of wilderness in canyons. These types care more about their beliefs than the actual wilderness of the canyon.
Chopped bolts
Arrested development
The real dumbing-down is the arrested development that communities experience when nobody grows technically enough to figure out proper sustainable bolting. A proper bolted canyon with an aim for wilderness conservation is more technically demanding than the tree or rock far back from the edge. And in the end, this is the real reason behind ardent anti-bolt types: They refuse to grow technically.
These series are not a call for widespread bolting. The region is not technically developed to know how to bolt, or how to use clean installations. The first step is to acknowledge the problem.
Past posts in this series:
Understanding the Colorado Plateau Canyoneering Bolting Debate
The future of Desert Canyoneering in the USA