RRC Archives

I am all for trying to manage data on bolts, but there are a lot of them out there and many are over ten years old. I guess my point was that trying to keep track of individual bolts is a worthy effort, but the underlying fudge factor is the bolts in the rock are basically maintenance free. That is, stainless glue ins.
It has been said on here several times by several people- unless we want to be kept awake at night in twenty years wondering "I wonder if anyone is still whipping on those bolts I placed?" and then cringing... at some point the definitive bolt will have to be used.

Hopefully young guys like Bentley will still be interested in the maintenance and upkeep of these routes. Thanks.

I agree 200%, the anchors you put in on Convicted will still hold a truck 75 years from now. I just don't have the cash for glue-ins right now. I wanted to replace what I did because 2 inparticular bolts were so bad, I HATED the idea of another person falling on them!

other variables:

exposure
rock quality
popularity of route
amount of catches the bolt will get (is it a crux bolt or not)
angle of incident

to me, those all seem pertinent..

if someone has the time, i'd say have at it. honestly, though, i'm not sure it'd be worth the time invested. i think it'd be more useful to have some type of reporting system if anything. i don't think that'd be very difficult to set up. people can submit in some online form:

date
region
route
bolt number(s) (from ground up)
bolt type
problem/observation
contact info

it'd be pretty handy and could be kept confidential if the need be. seems like it'd solve several problems.. could even publish a weekly list of problem bolts/anchors and have people give more feedback so they could say, "oh yeah, i remember that bolt.. it was spinning/pulled out/funky" and it'd help to verify reports.. but i don't have the time or know how to set that up. might try to look into it if i can talk to the right people.. the more i write the more it sounds like something that should really happen.

Ideal world. Pay off the southern region and start raising the money for glue ins. I do play the powerball.

If there is a bad bolt reported then the person who repairs it could go to the online guide and note it. Then they could write which bolt they replaced and list the date. What's so hard about that?

True, there are other variables involved with bolting, but all I'm talking about is keeping track of what has been done for future reference. Why do people like to make simple things so complicated?

The crux is going to be the time and money required to do the work, not the reporting of it.

bentley, as I was told...buy half as many bolts, and do the right thing. put in stainless when replacing.

that being said, I am a hypocrite.

working on it. ($$$$)

I think the glue-ins idea is great. Probably the best idea would be to start re-equipping the most popular routes first, and not rely until someone reports a bad bolt right?

I mean, C Sharp, Manic Impression...these have been mentioned as having bad anchors, and probably are some of the most often climbed (maybe looking at this site's spray list would help determine that).

In any case, I'd spring for rebolting a few of these popular routes (adopt a route?) if someone else can help repair the bolts. I don't have the tools nor the know-how to do a good job of it. (Only placed a few bolts before).

-Sam

Has there ever been a "Crag Survey"? - (Volunteer climbers all swarm a particular crag and take inventory of the bolts/gear on as many routes as possible?)

Photo buffs could bring digital cameras for documentation......just a thought?