A few years ago, whilst on a training course on Stanage, the trainer drew the group's attention to a particularly dangerous anchor that had been the cause of a tragic fatality in the past. IIRC it was above the very popular Heaven Crack. The issue is that there is a large egg shaped boulder, which is oriented so that the pointy end faces away from the edge. If the boulder is slung as a spike over the pointy end (rather than around it's base), and loaded, there is/was enough leverage for the boulder to rock all the way forwards and release the sling. The rock looks big and heavy enough that some may (unwisely) decide that it could be suitable as a single point anchor.
There was someone belaying on the route at the time, with the anchor arranged in the exact dangerous way described above but thankfully the 2nd was just topping out. This left me thinking, if there is a hidden danger like this at the top of a classic lower grade route, why on earth don't we just reorientate the boulder, or jam it into a crack/depression where we know it won't budge so we can be sure that there won't be a repeat of this tragic event. I know it's not generally accepted to move boulders from the spot that nature plonked them but in cases like this, I can't see anyone minding, caring or even noticing if one of the 1000s of boulders on top of Stanage was slightly rearranged.
I'm not suggesting we sanitise all climbing, eliminate all risks along with the adventure, thin end of the wedge... but I think it might be worth exploring whether there are some specific situations like this where our ethics should yield to a bit of common sense. Thoughts..?
edit: typo
Post edited at 11:22