Foreign parties have once again annoyed climbing communities in the Crimea, and now also in Turkey, with a disrespect for local ethics by retro-bolting existing trad climbs.
The first incident took place over the summer on the west face of Yeniceri (3,073m) in the AlaDag mountains of southern Turkey.
In late August Engin Osmanagaoglu and Rauf Pinabasi set off to make the third ascent of Yeniceriler, a route put up in 2004 by Olcay Caf and Dogan Palut. It has eight pitches from UIAA IV - VII-, followed by 200-300m of easy slab climbing, and was completed using only trad gear.
Osmanagaoglu and Pinabasi were surprised to find double bolt belays at the top of pitch one (VI+) and two (VII-) and then another 20 or so bolts on the rest of the climb (IV to VI-), both for protection and belays.
Sadly, most of these bolts were placed near the perfect crack systems of the original route, or on the easy slabs where previous climbers had moved unroped.
Above the fifth pitch (V-) the bolted line took a variant to the left, merging again with the original route on the summit slabs.
The Turkish community was appalled by this act of vandalism: it cannot accept the bolting of an existing trad line, which it finds not only unethical but also totally against the free climbing principles it so strongly respects.
Discussion amongst local climbers led to a consensus that the protagonists must have been foreign, and Turkish activists subsequently re-climbed the route and removed all the bolts.
Recently, it has been discovered that the party in question most likely came from Italy, and Turkish climbers have quoted the names Giovanni Ghiglioni and Gianfranco Patrucco.
Italians have certainly climbed in this region before and in the middle of the last decade put up a route on the east face of Yeniceri (literally "new soldier"). Incidentally, Yeniceriler refers to the Janissaries, infantry troops and bodyguards used by the old Ottoman empire in all its major campaigns.
Turkey's only climbing magazine, Takoz, has also spoken against the retro-bolting
The second incident took place more recently in the Ukraine, where following the recent well publicised events on Morcheka, the Crimea has suffered another bolting controversy.
Ay-Petri is a popular mountain in the Crimea and in mid-November an old trad route on the peak was reportedly retro-bolted and publicized as a new, bolted, 18-pitch climb with the name 7 Summits.
In the lower part, some of the pitches of the "new route" coincide with established climbs, whereas pitches 13-18 follow a classic route put up in 1961. It is reported that a total of around 108 new bolts were placed.
It was inspired by the Moscow-based "7 Summits" club, which organizes commercial expeditions to the Greater Ranges and guided tours to the Crimea. It was some of its guides who equipped this route (although it is currently not clear whether the climb has been completed).
The "new route" is reported to be one of the longest in the Crimea, but as one local activist has already stated, although the bolts that were placed on already existing pitches will undoubtedly be removed, there will be more incidents like this unless something is done globally to preserve routes that have been climbed using natural protection.
Doug Scott, as chairman of the UIAA's Adventure Climbing Working Group, has produced a document - Preserving Natural Rock for Adventure Climbing. Several federations have already found it useful and it can be downloaded from the UIAA website. Also read the article Trad versus Sport Climbing.
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