I know there's been some problems with one Ken Nichols at certain MA crags; a temporary restraining order was actually issued for him. But I don't know that it was at this cliff, and I'm not saying it was him. But it is absolutely his m.o.

Yes, it is widely believed that Ken struck again. He has also removed other bolts at some really obscure crags in the area.

Dizz

wow, that's quite a site! Good on Mr. Sullivan for his efforts.

Of course, we're used to this kind of hand-wringing in the sport of rock climbing, where two factions have been battling for decades over the issue of bolting, a common practice in which bolts are drilled into the rock to serve as permanent protection. Of course, we're not used to seeing the battle rage so fervently in the mind of one individual. Meet Ken Nichols, who's working toward a new, cleaner brand of climbing. The longtime king of bolting on the East Coast and author of the popular Traprock: Rock Climbing in Central Connecticut, Nichols put up many of the most popular routes in the 1970s and later mapped them. But recently Nichols was overcome by guilt. In a Dr. Frankenstein God-what-have-I-done moment, his self-loathing brought him to a kind of conversion. Again, technology is the evil genie that must be rebottled. The new method: Nichols no longer clips in to the bolts. Instead, he simply tosses a skyhook onto a ledge above him and starts climbing, hoping the hook will hold if he takes a fall. As he moves upward, he chops at the same bolts he once installed, a practice that can often leave a different kind of blight-golf-ball-size pock marks in the stone. Meanwhile, in what is becoming a serious problem, local climbers are still using his book. And they're finding out well above terra firma that his life-supporting bolts are no more.