I just wanted to say a little something about the archives. There is some great stuff back there. When I suggest that it might be a good idea to go back and read the archives on the bolt wars, I’m not saying “Hey shut up I’ve had enough of you.” I’m saying, “no, really, you should GO READ THEM.” They are really insightful and well articulated and say the same things that we’ve been saying but much, much better than *any* of us have recently. From reading these it seems that in a lot of ways that things are better than they used to be.
1. People are better educated now. 2. A lot of resolution has taken place about “local ethics”. Zion has been accepted as bolt-appropriate. Escalante, Swell, North Wash, The Reef, have been established no-bolt. People seem to be generally happy with this. 3. More people are pushing the envelope of clean canyoneering. 4. There is less bolt-chopping and when there is a reasonable effort is made to inform people and not a lot of bolts are being chopped where no *obvious* natural anchor exists.
Anyway there is some great stuff back there, especially from Jay-Z back when he used to participate, and even some rational stuff from Wrona.
Check out the thread starting around message #250 re: bolts and bolt pulling Message #312 RE: chains in Zion. Around #230 or so is a good discussion of glue-ins Around #100 or so is a thread on consensus cleaning of some Zion canyons, pulling unneccessary bolts. Anyway have fun.
I’d love to talk about that crutch idea…sounds funny but actually viable. And Bill may I suggest a Springbar tent pole as a pack-pushing device? Steve
Steve Brezovec
Another pack-pushing idea: perhaps a ski pole/probe combo, i.e. the ski poles that screw together to make a long probe. Good for walking with as poles when exiting the narrows and stiff/sturdy enough to push up 20lb pack? Possibly..