In reply to UKC News:
For myself, I don't see the point in dry tooling, it sounds like a substitute, as well as a euphanism for masturbation.
However, I'm open minded. But also a little scared. I know a quarry near me where I've never seen anybody climb in forty years. I have soloed around it, cleaned a few lines, and sometimes I see that others may have cleaned some lines, it's not in any guidebook, and I hope it never is. It's nice there, and unspoilt.
Now if some dry tools came along with the argument that they were justified in wrecking my climbs, and those of others because its not in any guidebook, not on UKC, not used by anyone, then in my opinion that is no justification at all.
There are other venues near me that I have frequented occaisionally over those 40 years, one of them is a green slimy set of climbs that very occasionally dries out and then has some superb lines. I've never seen anyone climb there, its rarely in condition, but they're in guidebooks. Who decides on the definition of unused?
(I have rewritten the last paragraph because at first I named the venue as an example, but then I got scared, - if I named the green slimy virtually unused venue, am I inviting the dry tools along?)