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'Pass the Pitons' Pete
Big Wall climber
like Ontario, Canada, eh?
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Topic Author's Original Post - Nov 17, 2010 - 05:05pm PT
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Hey guys,
Quit ranting, and start writing. We have it within our powers to stop those wankers Lama and Putz from going back to Cerro Torre and wrecking it even more. Or at least we can educate Red Bull so they refuse to sponsor them, or better yet, sponsor them to go back and clean up their mess.
You know the story, with thanks from Rolland:
http://www.supertopo.com/climbers-forum/1319502/Bolts-chopped-on-Cerro-Torre
Here is the contact info:
http://www.redbull.com/cs/Satellite/en_INT/ContactUs/Imprint-021242752886059?CategoryName=RedBull.com&p=1242745950125
After you have written Red Bull, please reply to the post to keep it near the top, along with a copy of your letter which you can post up below. I am so ticked I wanted to get this started, I will reply with my letter shortly.
Suggestions for the letter:
 Red Bull is not a climbing company, so they probably don't know much if anything about climbing history nor ethics, nor have any clue about why what Lama and Putz did was so wrong. In fact they probably think their boys did a great job. Please explain otherwise
The company is based in Austria, so keep your English simple
Keep it short and to the point so they read it. Don't rant like Richard Jensen [heh heh, Hi Richard!]
That this reflects very very poorly on Red Bull as a company
That you want Red Bull to encourage those guys to go back and clean up their mess
If you are a regular at another climbing forum, please post this link on that forum
Let's get goin', guys. It's likely Red Bull doesn't "get it", so let's explain to them.
Cheers, beers and neatly pulled bolts carefully filled with concrete epoxy to render the hole virtually invisible,
Pete
Letter sent to Canada, USA and Austrian Red Bull:
Hi Red Bull guys,
My name is "Pass the Pitons" Pete Zabrok, and I am a climber from Ontario, Canada. I am writing to express my extreme anger and disgust at Red Bull for sponsoring David Lama and Heli Putz on their "ascent" of Cerro Torre.
Cerro Torre is one of the world's most beautiful and inaccessible mountains, and these two wankers basically bolted the hell out of it. Since you at Red Bull make energy drinks and not climbing gear, you may not understand what a terrible thing this is. Rather than climbing the mountain by "fair means", as has been done for the last thirty-plus years, they instead cheated by artificially drilling holes in the rock, and placing bolts, thus "bringing the difficulty of the mountain down to their own level".
It's cheating, plain and simple, and now the mountain is littered with bolts, although some have since been removed by ethically-minded climbers.
It's difficult to explain what a travesty this was, but it is something along the lines of claiming to win a sport fishing derby by angling, but instead having used dynamite to "catch" the fish. In climbing, as in fishing, the ends do not justify the means.
You need to be aware of the problem. You need to issue an apology to the climbing world to let them know that you didn't know what these guys were doing, and to wash your hands of the situation. And I'm sorry to say, you should also give them money to go back not to climb the mountain, but to clean up the huge mess they left behind. They lied to you when they told you they cleaned everything up - they didn't. They left ropes, haul bags full of garbage, and scores of bolts.
I'm prepared to cut Red Bull some slack, because you would have no idea of knowing what they were doing. However as the sponsors, you really need to become apprised, and to do whatever it takes to fix the problem.
In the meantime, it is my intention to launch a worldwide petition among climbers to lobby you as well, and of course to boycott your Red Bull product until such time as you do your best to remedy the problem.
Cheers and beers, but sure as hell no more Red Bull,
Peter Zabrok
Whitby, Ontario
P.S. My cell phone number and email address are listed above, so if you would like further clarification on precisely what happened on Cerro Torre, and why it is wrong, explained to you by a concerned climber in layman's terms, please feel free to phone or email.
You can find further information from climbers' viewpoints here:
http://www.supertopo.com/climbers-forum/1319502/Bolts-chopped-on-Cerro-Torre
Frig, I'm sounding like Richard...
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squeakyboater
climber
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Nov 17, 2010 - 05:25pm PT
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You might want to read 'How to make friends and influence people' by Dale Carnegie.
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bubble boy
Big Wall climber
topanga, CA
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Nov 17, 2010 - 05:42pm PT
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To whom it may concern:
In my opinion your sponsorship of Heli and Putz on Cerro Torre was irresponsible and embarrassing. I will no longer buy or support red bull products. Heli and Putz should return to Cerro Torre, not for another free attempt, but to remove all the bolts they placed.
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graniteclimber
Trad climber
The Illuminati -- S.P.E.C.T.R.E. Division
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Nov 17, 2010 - 05:43pm PT
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Have I won any friends or influenced anyone yet?
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hb81
climber
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Nov 17, 2010 - 05:45pm PT
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I don't think calling them "wankers" is gonna have a positive effect on your request.
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atchafalaya
climber
Babylon
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Nov 17, 2010 - 05:58pm PT
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A letter complaining about rock damage and ethics from "Pass the Pitons" Pete got me laughing. I am sure they will drop Lama et al and send a clean-up crew immediately. Hahahahaha... What, did you have a RedBull before ya wrote it?
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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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Nov 17, 2010 - 06:03pm PT
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A company producing a product like RedBull is unlikely to be swayed by ethical or environmental arguments. They will continue to produce a wonderful product that, combined with vodka, helps lower the inhibitions of frat boys nationwide- if that's possible.
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Matt
Trad climber
primordial soup
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Nov 17, 2010 - 06:26pm PT
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ohhh the agony-
this is so stupid it's actually almost painful.
first off, some "lead guide" did the bolting, adding bolts for a camera crew to jug up and anchor off of, so as i understood it at least, it wasn't the climbers per se, who did the drilling, but the production team, or the guy charged with the safety of the production team.why are you now yelling about the climbers as wankers? wtf they may have not even been on the rock at the time.
second off- i believe it was on the compressor route, so anyone who knows nothing about climbing that takes these complaints 1/2 way seriously for even a moment is likely to learn that the route is called the compressor route- and learn how it got the name. now it's true that there are still going to be large sections of naturally protectable terrain, but to the unfamiliar lay person, you just wanked off about the compressor route being littered with bolts!
i am just saying, more communicating and less wanking is in order.
what do you think they are going to say after they ask a few questions?
i think they ae gonna blow you off like the blowhard you are...
if someone's gonna converse with this conglomerate in a productive way, that's great, but in all seriousness, they'd better find a way to be smarter than PtHP (pass the herpes pedro), or else you are all just pissing in the wind together. best of luck with that kids!
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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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Nov 17, 2010 - 06:36pm PT
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One wonders Matt how intimate your knowledge of Cerro Torre is. Have you been on The Compressor Route.? There are bolts all over El Cap, does that mean it would be okay for a production company to come in and put bolts in the Captain willy nilly for a photo shoot. Oh my, wouldn't there be a howl on ST then!
To those who have questioned the special nature of Cerro Torre, I say buy a plane ticket and go see for yourself.
The Taco Stand is the number one place for armchair climbers and monday morning quarterbacks.
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Toker Villain
Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
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Nov 17, 2010 - 06:41pm PT
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Well if we are comparing El Cap to the Torre then who is going to pull the bolts and crap all over their ropes?
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'Pass the Pitons' Pete
Big Wall climber
like Ontario, Canada, eh?
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Topic Author's Reply - Nov 17, 2010 - 08:29pm PT
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Hey, you politically-correct pathetic pussies,
If you think MY language is bad, have a read at what Kelley Cordes had to say!
"Cerro Torre, David Lama and Red Bullsh#t
Are the days gone where anybody mans-the-f*ck-up and apologises? I'm talking a real apology, not one of these politician apologies (I'm sorry if anyone misconstrued my construed intent...). Does anyone anymore just say, “I'm sorry. I'm truly sorry. I messed up, I won't do it again, and here, please, let me try to fix it.”
Another Cerro Torre controversy. What is it about that spire? If fantasies build any peak, they make Cerro Torre. It is beautiful, hostile, otherworldly. Were it not for its bolt-ladder Compressor Route, with its sordid history, it would surely be the most difficult spire in the world. It attracts not only the obsessed, but also the crazies. And now, the commerce-hungry corporate-funded junkshow. Sure, in many ways it already has been commercialized, as photos, film and stories from Cerro Torre have inspired so many of us. But where to draw the line? How badly does its incomprehensible beauty and inhospitable nature clash with our hubris? Especially when someone's willing to trash it to make a commercial."
Continued here:
http://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/page.php?id=2840
Thanks to Graniteclimber for the link.
My choice of words was carefully thought out, and I chose those words so my my email would be noticed. If you guys think that this huge corporation won't pay attention to a consensus of opinion, you are hugely mistaken. They are motivated by the Bottom Line, and if their profit decreases as the result of sponsoring people who rape mountains, they'll bloody pay attention.
Quit ranting in internet forums, and DO something. Are you men, or sheep?
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Nov 17, 2010 - 08:37pm PT
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I'd be happy to harsh on 'em but I want a special dispensation from Father Guido
for my conscience on account of the fact I would never let that crap past my lips.
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mongrel
Trad climber
Truckee, CA
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Nov 17, 2010 - 09:34pm PT
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Good job PTPP. Another easy way is to go to redbull.com and use the Contact or whatever it is page. In a twinkling you can rip 'em a new one, as I did, in clear, generally polite terms and fire it right off. I don't agree they should pay those jokers to go back and tidy up; they should just flat out drop their sponsorship and pay SOMEONE ELSE to go do it. Big time athletes get dropped like turds into the bowl if they just step a little out of line in a way that doesn't materially affect anyone outside their immediate families; so there's every good reason to bail on somebody they are sponsoring who KNEW or should have known how egregiously wrong this was to do, but didn't speak up at all. Shame on all involved, but things don't get better from words. They get better if the offenders lose some serious cash.
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rottingjohnny
Sport climber
mammoth lakes ca
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Nov 17, 2010 - 09:38pm PT
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39 --42 ---red bull --blitz....hike...back to my armchair...
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NeeDlzdos
Big Wall climber
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Nov 17, 2010 - 09:50pm PT
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message sent. Can't believe Dean got dropped for climbing the arch and Red Bull isn't dropping Lama. But then again, Patagonia is much different company than Red Bull.
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Thorgon
Big Wall climber
Sedro Woolley, WA
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Nov 17, 2010 - 11:10pm PT
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PTPP, message sent. Believe me I can keep the english simple, I am a wallrat ya know, eh!!! ;-)
Thor
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bmacd
Trad climber
100% Canadian
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Nov 17, 2010 - 11:14pm PT
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Blasted them yesterday via Weld_it's link.
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thesiger
Trad climber
A desert kingdom
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Nov 17, 2010 - 11:29pm PT
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Red Bull sponsor a number of climbers, not just David Lama. It's possible to extract the list from here (note this is Red Bull's "team" for all all adventure sports, so climbers are a sub-set). Keen observers of the climbing media will know that some of these people don't do anything near a camera without their RB cap or helmet. My feeling is that a campaign to get RB out of climbing for good would best be targeted more broadly: name and shame other's who are receiving RB's cash, boycott or comment scathingly on their videoed exploits, etc
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