From: billw@ace.mentorg.com (Bill Wright)
Subject: Re: Reasons for using chalk
Originator: billw@ace
Date: Wed, 09 Sep 1992 18:11:02 GMT
Reply-To: billw@sjc.mentorg.com
Organization: Mentor Graphics 
Keywords: save your butt
Followup-To: 


Now things are getting going!  I thought the chalk hyprocrites would
start posting eventually.

In article <20138@drutx.ATT.COM>, rgo@druhi.att.com (Ron Olsen) writes:
|> Chalk has on more than one occasion saved my butt
|> from a potential disasterous fall:
|> 
|> It was raining while I was leading the last pitch of Royal Arches,
|> usually an easy slab traverse with minimal protection.  I had one
|> more move to make to the belay, and my last reliable pro was far
|> behind me.  My foot kept slipping on the wet rock when I tried to step
|> left.  A fall here would have been really ugly.  I made the move
|> by liberally chalking the wet rock and my shoe so my foot would stick.
Ooooooooooooooooo!!! Was it scary??  This is an absolute joke!  Maybe we
should ban climbing on this route when it is wet.  Then no one will get
hurt.  Or maybe we should put a god damn guard rail across this section and
people can either us it or not?!!!  This is a stupid comment.  Of course
chalk will make you climb more difficult moves.  Not every climb is safe.
Do you want to make them all safe for every imbecile who climbs???  Who
wants this?

|> I was leading an alternate to the first pitch of
|> the Flying Buttress on Mt. Meeker in Rocky Mountain National Park.
|> The guidebook said it was a 5.8 crack and then a few face moves up
|> to the belay; no mention of any runouts (that's what I get for trusting
|> a DuMais guidebook!).
Guidebooks are just that guides.  They don't have to be correct and frequently
are not.  You have to make the judgement yourself when you get in the
position.  You act like you would sue DuMais for his description.  Be 
responsible for yourself.  If you are above your head (chalk or no chalk)
then back off or don't get into that situation or live with the consequences!

|> I have had two partners take screamer falls due to greasing out
|> of cracks without using chalk:
The problem here is not chalk or lack of chalk!  It is judgement.  Your
friends were simply not good enough to be climbing that pitch without chalk.
In that situation a fall is a possibility.  Falling is ALWAYS a possibility!
Chalk doesn't change that!  It just moves the grade where a fall is imminent.

|> I was climbing the East Buttress of Middle Cathedral,
|> and my partner had forgotten his chalk bag.  On the start of the third pitch,
|> he slipped out of a layback and took a head-first fall
|> past the belay ledge, missing the ledge by less than a foot.  He got
|> a scratch on his chin, but was otherwise unhurt.  I gave him my chalk bag,
|> and he went back up and led the pitch.
These are all so ridiculous and stupid it just turns my stomach!!  People, it
is this simple: CHALK makes you climb a higher grade!  Period.  It doesn't
do any other magic to keep you safe.

|> Another partner, who at the time was a no-chalk purist,
|> took a 20' fall at the top of the first pitch of One Way Sunset at
|> Devils Tower due to sweaty hands slipping out of a steep finger crack.
|> She now uses chalk.
Is there a single logical person out there who can follow this dribble???
Your point is that chalk makes you safer?  Just climb a lower grade!  Let's
put bolts every 2 feet on every climb and then we will all be safe! 

|> Chalk may be unsightly to some, but to me it represents an added
|> safety factor.  Perhaps new substances like X-factor can provide
|> the extra safety without the visual impact of chalk.
If you want safety sit at home on your couch.  What keeps you safe in the
mountains and on the rock is your judgement!  If you think chalk keeps you
safe you are in a dream world!  Don't you know your hands are sweating??
Don't you realize you could come off?  Unbelievable! 

|> As far as the environmental impact of chalk: give me a break.
|> The use or non-use of chalk has NO long-term impact on the survival
|> of the earth or humankind; same as bolts.  
Right!  Who gives a shit if it looks like crap!  We get to tick that 5.11
route.

|> by natural forces (rockfall, earthquakes, hurricanes,
|> etc.) than by all the world's climbers using chalk.  The impact of
|> chalk is purely a visual aesthetic issue, not an environmental one.
|> Remember, much of what we are now climbing was under the sea
|> millions of years ago, and probably will be again long after we
|> are gone.
So let's trash everything in sight while we can, right?

Only your ego could make an otherwise intelligent person come up with such
crap to rationalize the use of chalk.  Why don't you just face the facts
that you climb with chalk so you can tick a higher number?

Other comments of people liking the look of chalk also hurts.  Why don't
we just graffiti up all the cliffs?  Why don't we paint topos on the climb
right on top of them with little hints on how to do the moves?  Of course
we will use water soluble paint so as to be environmentally sound...  I
am truly shocked with the stupidity and hypocrisy of these people.  Another
guy says he loves chalk and then bitches that it is on HIS footholds!!

This post should make some people very mad, but be objective about your
reasoning.  I am not saying that all chalk users are assholes.
Hey, people are going to use chalk.  I realize that.  But don't kid yourselves
why you use it. 

Flame on!  I'm ready.
-- 
             Bill Wright / bill_wright@mentorg.com

                  "When in doubt, run it out!"