Climbing "Player" profile: Jon Cardwell - VOLUME 3 - DECEMBER, 2006

Does it bother you to climb on boulder problems or routes that are manufactured?
It doesn’t really bother me. Sometimes it's upsetting. Someone pounds some jug, two-finger pockets in a wall that had potential for some 5.15 or 5.14 or something, just to create a painful and sequenceless 5.13a. I think they should have just left it for someone stronger to climb. Some of my local areas has some chipped holds, but I enjoy climbing on them very much. Its hard to say. I will not not climb a route, just because its chipped. 

Describe your climbing ethic.
I try to be respectful to people's FAs, especially with routes. I understand how much work is involved with establishing a route. When I tried to bolt a line near Albuquerque, I put four bolts in. It took me, like, four hours to figure it out. Then I cleaned it. And turns out I can't do any of the moves in the crux. It’s a beautiful face. Just another level of climbing. Point is, people put a ton of work into establishing the routes we climb, and I think it's a bit disrespectful to snake someone's climb. If it's an open project, that’s another story, though. 

It's 20 years from now: What does the top of the sport look like in sport climbing and bouldering?
It's hard to say that we will see 5.16 soon. Or V17, but I do think what will change is the rate at which people will be climbing hard. Such as 10-year-olds doing 5.14c, or 5.14c onsight. Or people doing 5.14c second try regularly. I would say V17 and 5.16 is still so far away. It's going to be amazing once someone reaches that level. Imagine Realization 10 degrees steeper — that’s probably 5.16a, or 5.15d.