JIM BRIDWELL MEMORIAL

As new vistas are opened, changes will inevitably occur. Moral decisions will have to be made about certain technological innovations, such as chalk and resin. I am not arguing either course, but if some development makes one route easier to climb, it will make another route possible, and for that route use of the innovation may be obligatory. That in turn may make a two-sided coin: a nuisance to climbers and a boon for manufacturers. As far as the consumption of products is concerned, decreation will be the responsibility of the whole climbing community.

Ethics are also due for alterations. Top-roping will probably be used not only for physical conditioning and confidence building, where bouldering will not suffice, but also as a prerequisite in the case of dangerous unprotected leads by the climbing avant-garde. We may frown at these ideas, but they are likely to become selectively assimilated as part of the future norm.