Needless bolts left on Castleton Tower...

"A new modern climbing ethic is to bolt-bolt-bolt."

Funny thing, a similar high line was rigged in 1999 with no bolts placed.

... ruin the environment.

I feel no pain or sense of ruin from the new bolts on Castleton ... The jabber of words just doesn't move my emotion button.

If placing the bolts is not illegal, and setting up the slack line isn't either, then I can understand the principle of leaving them. That's a pretty spectacular human accomplishment to make the walk between those two formations, and it's likely someone else, or the same people for that matter, will want to do it again. Then, in principle, it's really no different than climbers leaving bolts behind on a first ascent.

You could argue the quantity, or the size, or the position of the bolts, but to a certain extent, and again in principle, that's irrelelevant. Beyond that it stirs up sh#t that could come back to bite climbers in the ass in the form of scrutiny by The Man.

I think tolerance is appropriate here. If another crew had to set up new anchors to do the walk again, even one time, that's more damage to the summits.

Ethically, it would be cool if anchors for slack lining were removable. Without knowing jack about rigging a slack line like that, I would think that eye bolts could be used in relatively loose, drop in holes, since the pull is horizontal, and the eyes could be pulled afterward. However, to be an effective way to limit more drilling, this would require an understanding between all other parties who attempt to rig similar setups as to the specs of the anchors to be used in the existing holes, and probably some public record thereof to refer to before production. Probably way too much to expect, especially when climbers aren't held to any similar standard.

As to climbers mistakenly using slack line anchors for descent and having to get rescued because of it, unfortunately, the fault lies squarely with the climbers, IMO. Suggesting that bolts can lead to expensive rescues is a mistake in my mind, unless the goal of mentioning it is to encourage regulation. Slack liners could take responsibility for preventing this kind of situation by marking their anchors "For Slack Only", but again, climbers aren't held to those standards.

Rappelling off fixed anchors has always called for good judgement.

I understand why climbers find clusters of giant anchors on summits offensive, but I think in this situation it calls for tolerance on the part of climbers, and consideration of aesthetics on the part of slack liners.

My first thought when I saw the video of the guy walking the line was Dean would be proud! An amazing and beautiful human accomplishment...

My very first thought when I saw that slack line and where it was. "I wonder how they rigged that?" Followed by, oh crap, how DID they rig that!? There must be huge stresses involved, perhaps enough to lever off the top of that tower? Obviously not, but it got me thinking. I figured they would have wrapped it up somehow. Like slinging a big horn. Never figured they'd use bolts at all.

Camp 4 Collective has been mentioned - I think it was Renan Osturk and Tim Kimple who were there (I may be wrong) shooting the event. Both are well known climbers and I would be disappointed if they had anything to do with the bolting. I thought I had read that they were shooting from drones for the event so may not have even been up on the towers. I guess one could argue that they probably knew that it was going to be bolted and had the opportunity to give input, but maybe not. It would be nice before the self-righteous climbing community collectively strung them up by their balls, to hear their perspective.

Why not just take the hangers off while the line isn't being used? That would solve the problems of climbers mistaking them as rap anchors.

Does "Camp 4 Collective" smack of cheap capitalization?

Why not just take the hangers off while the line isn't being used?