Outrageous climbing techniques are rampant!
Not just with climbing anchors...I had to experience wrong techniques with a wrong understandings of climbing so many times since I came to Kyusyu.
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bad belay
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I was almost killed.
Before I came to Fukuoka, those were only rumors and I was climbing with safe climbers. Here in Fukuoka, bad climbers are the majority, and good climbers are so few.
The first outrageous experience, I saw was a ground fall on a route called "Indian Face 5.10b ", in a Azumaya crag. I saw a climber fall, and the route was bad. It runout in the second and third bolts. Belay was proper and he was standing so close to the wall, but the fallen climber still get hurt and carried away to a hospital, later I heard that his back born was broken.
It is not unusual for local crags to have "harder than usual grade". But runouts are not just "hard", it is very "dangerous". In free climbing's rule, it should be given X or at least R in the guide book. But older crags are developed by old climbers so this rule is usually ignored.
Unlike a slab runabout, which is a continuation of a UIAA grade of 3rd or 4th, that runout was on a face route...that is, at least grade 5th, a decimal grade, a route that starts at least 5.xx. In this case runout means that if you fall, you will hit to the ground, as you know.
So R or X should be attached to let a climber know the risk, in free climbing.
But it is not written in the guide book since is not the customary practice in alpine climbing.
Next outrageous was Hyugami crag. It was a 5.9 most popular route... but it asks a climber to do a 5.10b kind of move.... dishonest.
It is not unusual to have a harder grade at a crag in a rural area, because people does not know any better.
The problem is that they consider the situation is amusing. Which is disrespectful of climber's life. They intend to make him/her fall.
If the climb requires 5.10b kind of move, then it is 5.10b problem. The grade is cheating the climbers and the local developer seemed to favor the situation so they can privately use the crag. So the intention was to kick new people out.
Normally, 5.9 is considered the introductory grade for a new person who knows nothing about the crag. So if 5.9 requires a 10b move then, of course he/she would fall.
In other words, it is intended to make the climber fall.
Still, if it were an artificial wall, it would be okay, since it is natural to climb until you fall off. But on a outdoor rock? Of course, the part of the route that required 10b move was near the top, so it did not seem to be a big problem even if the climber fell, it won't reach to the ground, but....
This idea of tricking and dropping seemed to be the mainstream idea at this crag, which made me feel uneasy. Moreover, the bolts and anchor was the bizarre (see a page before).
The climbing industry is not exactly the safest industry but this is all taken wrong. In other words, it is the crag where it's basic ideas are so childish.
Well, I was able to climb the problem onsight, so 5.9 was appropriate. After all, it is the easiest one there. It might be 5.8 in Yamanashi.
Incidentally, I took a young American who was a navy soldier in Sasebo Nagasaki, Japan, who were a Yosemite-trained climber, but he could not climb it.
I climbed the next difficult one (5.10a) after this one, which I was also able to on-sight.
Later, there were a young male climbed who climbed this with such a pretentious manner as if he was the most brave man of the world, but that was the route even "I" was able to on-sight. You know, I was not a good climber, I never intended to be. So his "I'm so cool, aren't I?" kind of attitude seemed so vain.
In Kyushu, the standard is probably out-dated. It's already been about 20 years since 5.12 red point is considered intermediate skill, not advanced, you know?
I am the woman who has been climbing since she was 43 years old, and it was my 3rd year of free climbing training, and even I could on-sight it.
Is that a level for a young man to flutter? I don't think so!
Considering the level of climbing today, I should say, from 5.13 and above is the grade you can be a kind of proud of.
In Kyushu, young man get proud too soon... it is only beginners level.
My climbing mentor Aoki, who leads Insubone Korea with great ease (and with an injured leg), always says "I can't climb at all," and it was sometimes annoying to comfort him. But considering the level of climbing today, I think he is more normal.
A normal young man should be able to climb at least 5.12 if he takes it seriously. After all, I, with a 17kg grip and a height of 152cm, can see 5.11.
So 5.11 for a man is nothing to brag about. In fact, none of the male climbers I climbed with on Mt. Ogawayama, brags on 5.11.
The basic concept of "death wishing is cool" seems to be the basis of Kyushu climbing , and it seemed childish. Generally speaking, it is so teenager like, childish. In Yamanashi, I did not meet such a person.
After that, I was exposed to some old alpine traditions... like the fixed belay to a lead climber, for example...
Basically, I thought people didn't really understand the difference between free climbing and alpine climbing.
People who have been taught only alpine climbing techniques are developing the crag for free climbing, so the two different kind of climbing gets confused and the young climbers are so innocently taking it for granted. In fact, I think that even alpine climbing techniques are not taught properly either.
For example, in Kyushu, the climber does not learn to climb with cams and natural protection. They only know bolted routes.
In alpine climbing, which is done in the mountains, there is NO preset protection, ofcourse.
But in Kyushu, this is not the case at all. Most climbers don't have the skills to use cams, nor pitons. They don't seem to think that they need to acquire how to make protections.
They only have bolted route skills with the protection already preset, but they are willing to go to the mainland Japan's alpine routes(such as northern alps or such... called classical routes) . The route sometimes have anchors and slings that somebody before left there, but using them is considered nono. That would be suicidal. That's the kind of thing you are taught on your first day of climbing.
After all, there is no proper alpine routes, or practice routes in Kyushu, that is, a route to climb without preset protection.
So climber does not know that using left-over slings and anchor is dangiours.
For example, I have gone to a route called " Hakua Slab" in Mt.Hiei., a typical alpine route, but it was all bolted even though it can be climbed with cams without any preset protections.
In normal alpine climbing logic, it is normal to climb without relying on a left-over protection such as rotten pitons. So they usually bring their own.
If there is an old and unreliable bolts (a cut anchor that is 40 years old...), unskilled climbers will think that it is OK to fall down it since it looked exactly same as a petzl bolt which is used in free climbing route in mainland Japan.
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This is NOT Petze, this is 40 years old cut anchor made of steel and the hanger is alminium
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Mordern bolt should look like this bolt(hanger should be straiten)
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If the approach to the route is 5 minutes or so instead of 6 hours of trekking , climbers think it's a easy climb.
On the Hakua slab where I was a second, a lead climber ran out of rope because he missed the 4th belay station, and the two of us had to hang from just one bolt at the midpoint of the route.
This is so embarrassing for a responsible climber, but I dare to write this about because I now wonder if the lead climber might have been also tricked into going to this one. If any senior climber who knew exactly what he was capable of, I don't think he would have recommended the hakua slab. It is more likely that it was intended to hurt him.
Now, if that one bolt, the one bolt that we both thought was Petzl at the time, we were hanging together, had failed, we would both have been, gone to death. And that bolt as a running point was this unreliable cut anchor of 40 years old.
In modern climbing, the "normal" bolt means gougeon. Not the old cheap cut anchor...
Our experience...and ignorance...was disastrous, but the route should have been designed so as not to attract inexperienced climbers who might skip an climbing anchor or get stuck in a rope so the lead climber could not bring rope up. It is easy to make the kind of mistakes when the approach is too short, people take it too easy.
If you pull out the bolts, you won't get such inexperienced climbers. They will be cautious when it says you have to climb with natural protection. (Green point)
Natural protection means you have to show your true ability.
The term "all-natural protection" is used in Japan, in short, "all-natu-pro" may be confusing, but climbers who climb the same route with preset protections (runner points) are not good climbers, and climbers who climb with his/her own protections are the ones who climb properly.
After all, there is no way to find a preset protection in the mountain, so climbing without relying on it is a normal alpine ascent, and it is a task that deserves it.
Of course, as long as you have your own cams and pitons, you can aid climb or whatever, it is not banned in alpine climbing to use aid, because it is alpine climbing. In other words, it is not required to climb completely free climb in alpine climbing. (Ofcouse it is better to do so)
On the other hand, if you want to characterize a route as a free climbing route (for slab or for practice), you should reinstall bolts and maintain them properly so that climber can fall.
Free climbing routes are climbed without aids. Instead, climber will take the risk. Even if you fall, of course you won't die, unless the routes with "X" or "R". It is totally different from alpine climbing.
Note: I recently concluded that Hakua slabs are free climbing route.
Generally, climbers these days, no matter how lousy their climbing style is, when they reach the final anchor, they would say "I made it!!!"
In fact, the Hakua Slab was not properly climbed but he didn't seem to feel sorry for that... not just that he seemed to be proud of what he had done... apprently failed climb.
Then I realized why in Japan, climbing accidents never reduce in this digital age, since 300 near-misses were behind of 5 serious accidents. It is because the climber thinks failed climb a success. However, without the ability to recognize those near-misses, there will be no improvement.
Education on climbing style has been neglected and hang doging & red pointing became the norm, then the grade competition, so even if you can climb 5.12 in RP, you don't know basic rope management.
For example, if you don't use the long sling to make the rope to make a straight line as possible, the rope will not flow when you need to bring the rope up.
Climbers should be able to "steal"...ie, you just learn by yourself, without being taught, that kind of thing, but these days young climbers won't learn.
If you miss the anchor or get stuck with a rope, you can't say that you "climbed it. It was a lesson to be learned. (But I don't think he will...)
Well, I learned a lot from this incident.
The reason why I went on this one was simply because I felt sorry for him that he did not have a climbing partner.
Now I regret that I was too forgiving.
One reason why this happened to me was my dead brother... I was projecting my young brother who were dead young to any climber younger than myself.
It won't happen again.
