A short history of Cerro Torre, the most controversial mountain (2012) • Hacker News Board

Re: A short history of Cerro Torre, the most controversial mountain (2012)

#61

Post by snypher » Mon, Jun 15, 2026, 11:32 PM UTC

butlike wrote: post #56

brian_spiering wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the USA, there was a person who was traveling around removing bolts. The person showed up in our local area. A couple of members of the climbing community had a conversation with the local police. The police had a concern about him creating a potentially dangerous situation of people trying a climb and expecting to find bolts only to find the bolts missing. The police went out of their way to arrest him. They got…

Why not just install ladders at that point so everybody can join in and climb. Or maybe a ski lift system to the top? Where's the cuttoff? When it becomes personally too hard for you, the tool that assists you is allowed? Someone else's bolts make it easier. It's a shame the local community chose this route.

You don't have to use the bolts if you don't want to.

Also, the local community can make whatever decisions it wants, not decisions that satisfy 'whoever' else.

Re: A short history of Cerro Torre, the most controversial mountain (2012)

#62

Post by snypher » Mon, Jun 15, 2026, 11:35 PM UTC

butlike wrote: post #59

ofrzeta wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What kind of ethics is it to decide that these walls must be free climbed? If you want to do that, fine, go ahead and ignore the bolts.

Because it breaks down if we use another example. Would you want to solve a rubik's cube that was pre-turned so there were only 3 flips left to complete the cube? Changing the state of the activity (adding bolts/belays/ladders/etc.) is not in the spirit of the event, just as almost finishing a rubik's cube for someone else isn't in the spirit of actual event. Put a different way: the climb becomes the bolter's experi…

>Would you want to solve a rubik's cube that was pre-turned so there were only 3 flips left to complete the cube?

Well no, but I wouldn't get mad if someone else wanted to.

Re: A short history of Cerro Torre, the most controversial mountain (2012)

#63

Post by dwd » Tue, Jun 16, 2026, 3:16 AM UTC

chabes wrote: post #60

ofrzeta wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am all for free climbing. But I don't really like this perspective from a high horse. So it's fine for comparatively rich people to fly there by plane to free climb Cerro Torre?

My point is about letting wild places be wild, not about the environmental impact of climbing as a whole.

It's about leaving it in the state you would like to have found it. No rubbish, no abandoned equipment, no bouldering-style puzzles already solved because someone has stuck a bolt there.

I do wonder whether the boulderers find it annoying when a boulder is clearly already solved by the worn, chalk marked hand holds. Probably explains why many seek out new untouched sites to solve first.

Re: A short history of Cerro Torre, the most controversial mountain (2012)

#64

Post by ibotty » Tue, Jun 16, 2026, 11:16 AM UTC

liversage wrote: post #24

matheusmoreira wrote: post #5

> police arrested them and confiscated 102 bolts That stood out to me... I understand that rock climbing is Serious Business to its practitioners and people on internet forums, but these two guys actually got arrested for removing those bolts, which is a whole new level of serious. Was it really some kind of crime to do that? What happened to those guys after that?

I've heard a variation of the story where the police took them away (i.e., "arrested" them) to protect them from what was becoming an angry mob.

Hayden Kennedy said that on the enormocast.