8a Practice and Ethics vs Trees

"In sport climbing, compared to most other sports, there are few written rules or use of referees. Instead, the climbing community creates and circulates its own Practice and Ethics. Beginners are sometimes struggling to understand what is "normal" behaviour and what's allowed and what's not. Over time, the general procedure has been modified and in different subcultures, different ethics apply."

In 2001, 8a started to discuss ethics and later the 8a Practice and Ethics article was presented. We did not include Trees but the practice of Le Cadafist 9a is a good example that could be shared.

In the picture, Mathieu Bouyoud is seen sitting on the "Le Cade". His thoughts are that the tree is right there and that it does not affect the grade whether you sit on it or not. Nobody has decided if it is ok or not to use it and climbing should not be about avoiding natural trees.

Alex Megos also just did the Le Cadafist and we asked him if he could share some thoughts in regards his ethics when the trees are in the line. "My personal opinion is definitely to leave the tree where it is. Cutting it down is not a very good option! Allowing people to use tree in general, though, is questionable in my eyes. It's still not healthy for the tree to have someone sitting on it 😂. Best would be to put the tree in the same category as a bolt. It's ok to touch it accidentally but it's not ok to pull on it. That's my opinion. But then again there will always be exceptions where the tree is part of the route (like Cadafist for example)."

It should be mentioned that some years ago, 8a reported an 8c onsight where it turned out that the climber had used a tree branch to the right of the route avoiding the crux. The climber, who had downgraded it to 8b+, said there were chalk all over the place so he thought that was the line. Later he said that his ascent was not valid. In other words, it is impossible to draw a strict line for when you can use a tree or not. Most of the times, it comes done to "yellow flag - ethical dilemma".

Possible, the guiding ethics could be that you should not use a tree when it is natural and easy to avoid it. On the other hand, a route that is a very cruxy 8a if you avoid it could possibly make a much better 7a if you use the tree? Furthermore, once you start using trees that could easily be avoided in hardcore climbs, it is better to make a comment about it.

In any case, cutting down trees should and must be avoided. Remember that in 2013, a climber cut down a juniper which created a big controversy. Later, the climber publically announced that he had made a big mistake.