Rock climbers' attitudes toward management of climbing and the use of bolts

The purpose of this research was to verify that various segments of the roc k climbing community have different attitudes toward resource management an d to aid in the understanding of attitudinal differences that can affect ro ck-climbing management. Respondents were given an on-site questionnaire; 40 0 usable surveys were collected from 13 different locations in the United S tates. Respondents identified themselves according to the type of climbing they participated in (e.g., traditional climbing, sport climbing, and hybri d climbing). Factor analysis identified five usable factors: bolt placement /use, need for management, reservations about management, appropriateness o f bolts, and climbers' self-perception. A repeated-measures analysis of var iance identified significant differences among responses from traditional a nd sport climbers on four of the five scales used to measures attitudes. Th e variance-among the climbing subgroups indicated that various climbing gro ups had significantly different attitudes toward management. All climbers s urveyed-had reservations about the management process. Results from the ana lysis indicated that climbers from all three groups (traditional, sport, an d hybrid) felt that managers did not adequately understand the activity of climbing, climbers did not adequately understand the management process, cl imbing was not treated fairly in the management process in comparison to ot her activities, and climbing was micromanaged.