How about leaving a message in the sign in book if you found something that was lost at the crag? Would this be ok...?

We found a maillon type biner on Austin's Mojo. If someones looking for it let me know.

The reason people leave mailons on routes is that they are for whatever reason unable to complete the climb and have to bail. Leaving a normal biner behind is expensive, whereas a mailon costs anything from R11.

As far as I am concerned, retrieving and then keeping a 'found' mailon is fair play, as the person who left it there bought the mailon for the sole purpose of getting him/herself out of crappy situations, at the cost of the mailon and not a decent climbing carabiner.

It's not the only reason maillons are left on routes though. Some are left at spots where it will make cleaning a bit easier (i.e. if there is a roof above that section). So probably best to leave them on the routes.

Heinrich I agree, they are cheap and cool to keep, but my suggestion was more with regard to more expensive items.

Illona, they can be in the way(rub the bling of my new draws ) and if they just seem to be a bail-out piece(which is mostly the case) they should come down!

I say mallions and leaver biners are fair play. They are bought/kept to be abandoned.
They should also be removed by the next party to climb the route as they can make it difficult to clip the hanger (which will most likely be on or leading into the crux).

I agree that some are left to aid cleaning, but very few routes in SA need those.

Also, leave the sign in book for signing in, it's messy enough already. If you really do have the urge to give the mallion back, I would think a post on this forum would surfice.

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Open hand, open mind...

Mark posting on the forum does not suffice. My Evolv optimus primes' being a good point in case. I'm talking about expensive gear not maillons.

there's a locking biner 2/3s up on "puppets on a staal draad" at bosch crag, the reason being that a 60m rope ( from the top chains) still leaves you dangling 5m above terra firma. point is: just make sure that whatever you take is there for the taking.

and how on earth do you have to bail from austin's mojo?

if somebody finds gear that they do not intend to return you can post / write / go mad - no getting it back; unfortunately there are some s among us. if i found gear that i want to return i would post here 1st thing.