That’s a wicked line, and a great achievement for Sonnie to have placed all the gear on lead. I’ve seen it up close and thought along with pretty much everyone else that it must be unpossible.
Some questions: Who else had tried the line over the years?
Who bolted it(I remember Ken Chambers told me once, but I forget)? And, most critically, what was the consensus on chopping the bolts? I mean, just because Sonnie, and maybe a half-dozen climbers in the world, are capable of climbing this level of trad, does this justify chopping the bolts? Removing these few bolts doesn’t change the fact that the Back of the Lake is primarily a de facto sport-climbing crag - although many if not most of the routes could take similarly sparse thin-crack protection; does that mean everything should be chopped?
I mean obviously now, rather than having a high quality 5.14 sport climb that is within reach of probably a dozen climbers in the Bow Valley and Calgary alone, not to mention multitdes of touring climbers, you have a *higher-quality* test piece that is the preserve of that handful. Is this a good thing?
Maybe it is, I don’t know. Maybe it will inspire others to rise to the challenge. Just read a longer description of the climb on Alpinist and wanted to throw this thought out there.

anybody that can climb a number grade on bolts can climb it on gear
what exactly is the problem.

chickens?

Is this really a controversy? Just thought it was a bunch of people throwing some ideas around… not everything discussed here needs to be controversial.

I don’t think anyone here has denied it was an impressive effort on Sonnie’s part to climb the route.

Just a thought, but can someone bemoan the fact that controversy is being stirred up over nothing and still start a post with, Lets add some more to this..? Hmmm…

I’m not ‘creating controversy’ - I think I’ve laid out my questions and arguments pretty clearly and I think they are reasonable. I am not a 5.14 climber and barring some sort of genetic or radioactive accident will never be one. I’m just sort of surprised, I guess, at the lack of controversy. I was living in Lake Louise when this guy Brian showed up out of nowhere and, for reasons known only to him, borrowed Ken Chamber’s *father’s* hammer and with a crowbar obtained elsewhere proceeded to chop the bolts from 3 routes that Mark Whalen had put up on Blob Rock. Shit hit fan. Punches were thrown in front of Laggan’s Bakery. But this doesn’t seem to have caused a ripple - that’s what I was curious about. Indeed, maybe there actually just aren’t enough 5.14 climbers around to care - but maybe more of them care now.
I have a hunch now that it was Peter Arbic who bolted it, but I think local lore had written it off as impossible. Perhaps this is why folks were happy to hand it over to Sonnie Trotter to do as he pleased.

All the ethisists on the board should keep in mind that climbers at that level (5.14 or whatever) are quite limited in the number of interesting climbs they can find. All the average climbers have much more choice. We can find trad routes bolted or virgin. We can climb sport routes and usually have a pick of a number of challenging climbs at the grade and in the style we wish at any decent sized crag.  Thank the stars we don’t have the problems of gifted climbers.  So, if an elite climber wants to bolt a line or remove bolts from a line, maybe we should cut him some slack. Not because he’s elite, but because his or her ability is a curse in some ways and as such, he or she is usually bored out his mind with 80%+ of the routes at a cliff.

We should also remember that the primary purpose of this forum and others like it) is to waste time between climbing days. Not to solve the world’s probems (of which drilling holes in rocks and leaving a small hunk of metal would rank rather low).