I can assure you Andy that I have contributed plenty of money to bolt funds. For various reasons, we don't publicise donations to bolting projects in the guidebooks. I doubt whether the people buying Peak Gritstone East are buying it for the new routes. Incidentally 40p from each copy of Peak Gritstone East goes to the BMC Access fund, this is exactly the same as each BMC guidebook contributes to the Access fund. Had any decent discussions on ROCKTALK? Found any useful information on our crag databases lately? Downloaded any of our free updates? Had any decent holidays in Spain? Been bouldering in the Peak or Yorkshire recently? How about a sport climbing trip to North Wales Limestone or Dorset? Discovered any crags in Pembroke that you couldn't find before? What the hell have I been doing with myself for the last 10 years! Better pull my socks up! Alan

Putting something back into climbing is not just supporting a small part of the climbing scene such as bolting. Nor is it a case of simply money. Yes some form of funding is required to keep fixed pro routes in a safe condition. The BMC funded the initial eco-bolting of Pen Trwyn and, I believe, perform annual checks on the condition of those bolts. Much of this work was agreed with the local council to preserve access to the crags there. Which raises the point that funding is also needed to preserve access: there is not much point in having a crag re-bolted every X years if you are not permitted to climb on it. By providing guidebooks and this website RockFax ARE putting something back into climbing. It just isn't as obvious to the blind man. Bob