I think first ascentionists need to consider whether they are giving the climbing community a route or taking one away. That said, a pure trad route deserves to be bolt free, but once the drill is out, R and X routes have no place. Good work Sonnie! 

bunch of armchair critics on this forum. go big or go home.

congrats sonnie that is amazing!

Call me an armchair critic if you must, but who else is speaking up for the 5.14 sport climbers, who now have one less route to enjoy? I don’t know if folks are just intimidated by Sonnie -his obviously menacing presence- or are afraid that if they speak out -aka rock the boat- they might lose their sponsorship from Flashed or the Roasterie.
Sport climbing is not a crime, but it’s under attack these days from all sides.
Somebody shows up at the Back of the Lake, strips the bolts from the Wicked Gravity extension, rehearses it for like 5 months, and eventually sends it and on top of all this indignity has the audacity to *rename the route*? Well, call me a maverick, a loose cannon with nothing left to lose, but perhaps there are limits to these ‘First Ascensionist’s’ rights.

Everybody is talking about bolt chopping like it is a bad thing. I ask you, is a nose job a bad thing? Is a hysterectomy a bad thing? Not really. So what’s so bad about some cosmetic surgery to correct an unsightly bolt infestation?

every hard route climbed by Sonny in the first years of his career were sport.  Now he has the strength and expeirience to climb spooky trad.  All I can say is you shouldn’t forget were you came from.  I started on spooky trad, at a lower grade.  I’ve never had the urge to chop existing bolts on anything.  I’ve seen numerous unrecorded routes I climbed on clean gear retro bolted.  So what.  In climbing I learned the hard way…. Pride goith before the fall.

Peace, there’s enough room for everyone.