Achtung Haken

A simple way to collaborate and help to keep climbing safe

RIGHT NOW THIS PAGE IS ONLY AVAILABLE IN ENGLISH.
 
Removing potential dangers from a climbing route depends on many factors as the kind of danger or whether you have already experience with a drill on the walls.
 
If you are an experienced climber who already renovated some routes or open new ones, you may not need to keep reading. Yet, if you plan to take action you should observe all ethical implications of re-bolting. In other words, talk to the person(s) who open the route and discuss and agree on a plan for re-bolting. Respecting the local climbing community and the spirit of the route is a MUST.
 
If  you are a climber who has no experience with the drill but still want to contribute, this might interest you.
 
But let's be clear first, this is a complete personal opinion.

 

Add a few items in your backpack

In the same way we all need to learn how to shit on the forest to respect nature and others, we all should take a little more responsibility to keep climbing safe rather than just wait that some kind of god with a drill comes to solve all our issues.
 
It does not matter whether you climb 6a or 9a. For about 10% of what your climbing shoes cost, you can get, for example, some steel carabiners. So next time you go out, pack 1-2 pieces of gut material that you can use to exchange an overused carabiner as the one in the picture below.
 
AC_carabiner.jpg
 

Get informed and involved

In Switzerland there are several climbers associations that offer know-how, support or material for people who want to learn more. Getting in touch with them and/or becoming a member is a great way to start and get involved. Here some of them:

 

Don't be lazy and share information

Removing a potential danger is only possible if the information is shared. Sharing information has two main objectives:

  1. This increases the probability that someone with the time, the motivation, and the ability to do something about it will actually do something. That being said, sometimes is better to reduce the expectations. We all like to climb and it might be challenging to find time to exchange an old bolt you spotted because, yes, exchanging a bolt may be the work of an entire day! Also it might be that nobody is visiting the crag or the route where you noticed a rusty carabiner. So be patient and help to keep the list of alerts updated.
  2. Until the issue is really fixed, you help other climbers to learn about potential dangers in the routes they want to climb. You are just giving other climbers the chance to take an informed decision whether they want to take the risk or not. 

So do not be lazy and take 5 minutes of your precious time to share with others your observations or to communicate that an open alert has been solved.