All the grit in this nice cluster of retrospective photos looks very clean (and largely devoid of the impact of chalk, too). The 'good old days' of acid rain?

It's a curious observation I keep making comparing then and now. I think it's the same rain but different chalk! I've been off the climbing scene for 18 years and I'm now noticing a lot of chalk at the crags. People are practising routes on TR more and I notice chalk has changed. We used to just coat our fingertips, but now I see chalk covering the hands of climbers. So no change in rain, it;s a change in chalk and ethics I think.