Climbing legend Jim Bridwell weighs in on “The Big Chop” on Cerro Torre earlier this year.
Here are a few quotes:
“This aggressive policing of individual liberty of others to conform to their ideal of morality are nothing less than fascism”
“In brief I would say; it is not a right to change or destroy someone else’s creation, it only takes away the right of all others to repeat Maestri’s route”
While that’s certainly true, Malcom, I don’t see how that validates the “chop.”
Also, we’ve all done and enjoyed routes that were established with bolts that later generations of climbers could have easily done without. Does that mean those first ascentionists stole those climbs from the future, too?
All I can say is that Maestri forever took away the rights of climbers to follow to have a pristine route.