Erik Sloan’s Latest Victim – Ten Days After

Love the #marketing response, lol.

Mike Ousley, Mike. above, is, like Eric Kohl, a person who has different ethical beliefs than the majority of people who climb in Yosemite. I'm psyched that you and Eric participate in the discussion Mike. I don't feel the need to try to convince every other person to have the beliefs that I do.

Kev - Patience grasshopper, the swing will be back up soon. Alex Honnold donated a 100m static line to whatever cause I thought was best for it. I put that rope on the Heart Ledges, which could still use another 100m of rope if anyone has that lying around. The traffic on the Salathe/Freerider has been incredible, so no doubt many grateful climbers out there these days.

Yosemite has been held hostage by old codger attitudes that are gradually being replaced by modern climber ethics, like having well marked trails and bolted belays(sponsored climbers like Kevin Thaw and Mark Synott defied Eric Kohl in the early 2000s by bolting natural belays on his A5 routes on El Cap. Why should the easy routes be any different?), and bolts where only pitons or copperheads fit on clean bigwall routes. Climber impact in Yosemite is inevitable. Today's climbers are trying to do their best to preserve the cliff for future generations.

Mike - re: the idea to reuse the original bolt holes when replacing bolts. After 17 years of continuous bolt replacement here in Yosemite(over 2,000 bolts!), I feel that original holes are nearly always worn around the outer edge and should not be reused. This wearing of the bolt hole is the leading cause of bolt failure(with falls, or over time, the bottom edge of a bolt hole breaks or gets bigger, and this is how bolts commonly fail - they start to slip out of the hole, they bend over the widened hole-bottom, and break). How many years have you been replacing bolts Mike? How many have you replaced?

Yosemite is as awesome as ever. Living and working here has been an honor and I look forward to the climbing community coming together more, and dealing with sometimes sensitive issues in a way that makes us all appreciate each other more, and to grow stronger as a whole.

Woot Woot!

... having well marked trails ...

Safe trails is like saying safe sex when an opportunity presents it's self. The participants may have the best of intentions but Mother Nature has the final decision.

Kevin Thaw and Mark Synott defied Eric Kohl in the early 2000s by bolting natural belays on his A5 routes on El Cap.

Dodging the questions and maintaining this facade of stoke seems really bizarre in my opinion