In reply to johncoxmysteriously:
Whoa!
"Dangerous idiot"
We need "a witch hunt"
Wind your neck in man!
Your tone suggests you think that this was some kind of malicious act. Unlikely. Its almost certain that this happened as a result of a genuine error. Have you never made a mistake yourself?
The guys responsible are probably feeling pretty mortified at the moment. And yet they are the sort of climbers who put their own time and money into equipping routes that we all enjoy. They are, essentailly, some of the good guys.
Fortunately no one has been injured and lessons will undoubtedly be learned.
FYI even the most experienced bolters in the UK have (very infrequently) made mistakes in the past. Given the tens of thousands of bolts placed in the UK over the last 25 years some of them will undoubtedly be less than 100% safe. This is inevitable and climbing, even on bolts, remains a dangerous activity.
Obviously with sports routes we want the protection to be as good as we can make it and we do need the BMC to continue to provide guidance and training in relation to placing fixed gear. Perhaps we also need to accept that the climbing community as a whole should pay for the gear that is used on sports routes, rather than leaving it up to individuals to fork out their own money (and perhaps be tempted to use cheaper kit that they have not realised is inadequate).
In the case of these N Wales routes, would there have been a problem if the BMC support for the N Wales bolt fund had allowed the money to be used for new routes rather than just for the replacement of worn gear on existing routes (as the cutrrent rules state)?
These are all things we need to be thinking about. But one thing we probably don't need to consider is a lousy little witch hunt orchestrated by small minded people like you.