sandbag

dear mr jason

I top roped this climb 5 years ago and claim it as a valid top rope ascent.

This is the same way S Aegerter claimed his acsent of Payout Error 26 at albany on jan 97.

I had fully intended to bolt the climb with bash in carots in true oz style but i guess its a bit late for that now.

This style of acsent is quite the norm back home in kazakhstan,whats with the issue hey?

let me spell it out for you…

generally speaking ..world wide… the accepted form of asscent for in which the assendant get naming and grading “rights” is a ffa.. or first “free” ascent. in order to do this you need to free climb to route..and this doesnt include top roping… even though top roping is a legitimate form of climbing…

another point is that you never claimed to route..at least not in the wider climbing community…to come out 5 years later after someone else has bolted the route and put some time money and effort into making the climb accessable as a free climb …is well…rude

but hey thats just my two cents

Hey Toppo – what really matters is the opinion of the next guidebook writer. And you have zero chance, mate. Long live Jay’z effort!

As I understand it, when aid routes are freed, the person who does the first free ascent gets to claim and rename the route. So even if someone topropes a route, and claims it, when someone else then frees it, they would also get the route and naming rights. So if the Albany route is ever freed, Seve will lose it. Generally I don’t think any of us would accept a toprope as a valid first ascent. Generally if you can toprope a route then you can put down a fixed line with loops in it. That has been done on Mt Singleton where due to Aboriginal wishes no bolts were allowed.

A few years ago, someone else thought he had bagged a first ascent at Willyabrup that I had lead around 9 years earlier. I consequently claimed it, but if someone else with a valid claim comes forward, that’s fine by me. Funnily enough, last time I was there I reclimbed it and my seconder was someone else who had climbed the route, just three weeks before, also not knowing if it had been previously been done or not and like me thinking it may well have been.

The first free ascent is exactly that, first and free. Onya Jay. I could point out also that Jay, with characteristic grace, was happy to say that Gary had been the first to see the line had possibilities and have a go at it.