July 7, 2011 – Climbers Bring Bolting War to Popular Southern Ontario Climbing Area

The recent addition of new bolts at a popular Southern Ontario climbing area has ignited an outbreak of bolt-chopping that some climbers fear could spill over to other Ontario crags.  Unidentified climbers added a bolt to the popular gear line Rainy Day Woman (RDW) 5.9 at Buffalo Crag.  A new moderate sport climb was also added at the same cliff.  All of these bolts were subsequently chopped.

This week, climbers have come forward and claimed responsibility for the chopping of the new bolts as well as the removal of other fixed gear the cliff. Ontario avoided the bolt chopping wars that followed the introduction of sport climbing elsewhere and it is hoped that this will not spread to other climbs.