In reply to C Witter:
> By the by, IIRC, both Central Buttress and Tophet Wall were subject to abseil inspection. Some people's ethics were based mostly on mythology....
Totally agree. I think Central Buttress was subject to more than abseil inspection! There's an argument for regarding it as the first (or an early) worked project/headpoint. I guess that Austin & co viewed it simply as an historial anomaly rather than a different way of doing things.
It's probably hard (or impossible?) for people now to appreciate just how powerful an influence the mountainering ethos once had on rock climbing. (By 1970 it had been around for about a century.) With this ethos, of course you start at the bottom and end up at the top. However once you abandon the ethos, you can pretty much do what you like as long as a) you don't damage the rock and b) you don't lie about stuff.
At the time I had considerable sympathy with those on both sides of the divide. But the conflict was handled poorly - as it would be, a decade later, with the bolt wars. In particular, I feel that the treatment meted out to Rob Matheson was downright unfair. It's probably rare for such stories to have happy endings and I'm glad that this one does. That he's climbing so well, 50 years later, is testament to a lot of talent, a lot of motivation and a lot of hard work. Long may it continue!
Mick