Stop “comfortizing” routes with bolted belays!

Multi pitch traditional routes are despoiled when unnecessary bolted belays are added with the bizarre notion of comfortizing them. One of the joys of such routes is using your judgement to decide where to stop and set up a belay. One of the prerequisites for a belay is the presence of places to put your belay anchors....bolted belays are rarely needed on traditional routes.
I have established hundreds of belays around the world over the past six decades, many of them on previously unclimbed ground, and have had to resort to hand drilled bolts for anchors exactly twice.
Bolted belays:
*scar the climb
*draw people to them and exacerbate the herd instinct in climbing
*create climber dependence
*deter learning opportunities for new climbers
*remove much of the exploratory aspect of climbing
*are almost never needed
One of the reasons I enjoy the Black Canyon so much is the almost complete absence of bolted belays.
A young climber asked me once...”how do you know where to belay if there isn’t a fixed belay?” Go figure!

Give a climber a bolt, you protect the move, give a climber nutcraft and you protect the world.

You were taught?
Oh man, that would have saved a lot grief!

Give a climber a bolt, you protect the move, give a climber nutcraft and you protect the world.

They were complaining - what kind of place is this, why aren't there fixed quickdraws on the bolts, this is stupid, etc. They wern't (sic) kidding.

despoiled

The adventure we experienced when the world was wild, was for us. It shaped us, and our dreams and values. It enriched our lives.
The problem you are having stems from the belief that others would benefit from this same experience. It’s a different time, the thrill of discovery is gone, burried under a hill of guidebooks, travel magazines, and adventure blogs. We know who to blame...

Th sad fact is people getting into climbing today are doing so for different reasons. The commitment level just isn’t there, they are hobbyists.

Ya, and they rap off of Middle Cathedral now too, the walk off is too challenging....go figure

Times have changed, and the old ethics are vanishing.

If they don't do the climbs like I did them BITD it is wrong? The older generation "owns" the rock and the new generation must follow that or else?

Perhaps if you created a meme the younger generation might hear you.

The Gunks are a junk show.

Steve A., unfortunately the Wind’s are too accessible to be considered “wilderness” any more. That doesn’t mean there isn’t a lot of rock out there that is still pretty wild.
Won’t be any bolted belays on the rock pictured below anytime soon but, if I have my way, there will be a route there in the near future.

Along the same lines, all trails and especially trail signs in the back country should be obliterated.

“It just got to be too much, and it was just too much [of] a nuisance, because people were coming in and cutting trees, trespassing on property, parking in [residents’] driveways and blocking the roads,” MacKenzie said. “The more it gets to be known, the more popular it becomes and the more people show up, and it becomes something that is impossible to control.”....

“The way I see this is that there’s been some growing pains,” he said. “With the bolts, there were more people going up there than had been. It went from being a few parties per year to a few parties per week.”

.....

“[Without the bolts] there won’t be a whole lot of people out there, trying to climb. It takes a different level of expertise [without the bolts],” she said.

Straight from the banned Warbler's mouth........

I on rare occasions pee on them.

Don't add bolts to routes without the FA's permission and if they have passed on, well you had your chance.

Black Canyon tomorrow where bolted belays are as rare as hen’s teeth.

One such FA route I rapped off one rock jammed into a crack with a sling around it.

Stop “comfortizing” routes with bolted belays!