RRC Archives

I believe Art is placing way too much faith in most climber's ability to gauge the safety of a bolt. There is no way to visually gauge how strong a bolt will be (unless it is in terrbile shape), let alone new climbers judging a bolt's age and current state while pumped and clipping. I bet there are a lot of people who would clip a rusty hanger that has eaten 80% throught a rusty bolt and not even notice. The only time I really inspect a bolt that looks good after a first quick glance is when I am hanging at a bolt or at the anchors, then I really notice things like the anchors on a route Art and I were on yesterday where both anchor bolts were in the same seam and one of the bolts was about 1cm away from a 1mm crack. Would I have noticed that on a single bolt while on lead, nope. Are those anchors safe for over a decade? More than likely, but who knows. Think of how many more bolts we have to keep an eye on now due to the recent explosion in route development.

as always - don't forget to give $$$ and report bad bolts: www.teamsuckclimbing.com

people are stupid, and more importantly for this conversation, Ignorant. People were continually taking "whips" from the crux bolt on Way Up Wonder and Strevels when they were replaced last year. the Crux bolt on up yonder was torqued off with my estimated 250 foot/grams of torque. Of course this is an esitmate, As I didnt have Busters torque wrench with me, but it was fucking scary.

foot/grams?? was that for em-PHA-sis??

Buster wrote: Every single mechanical anchor should be trusted like you would trust 512OW with your virgin cousin.

Since you put it like that, we should all stop sport climbing immediately.

I'm more worried about a catastrophic crash pad failure at clack mountain this season. people don't realize that foam breaks down when you repeatedly step down off your favorite problem, and if you sleep on it at night that nearly doubles the ware, esp. if you meet a lady on night and take her back to you tent.

Unless you're Charlie who stepped it up with a Westy to save his pads.

PPFF - Premature Pad Failure due to Fucking???

512OW wrote:

Buster wrote: Every single mechanical anchor should be trusted like you would trust 512OW with your virgin cousin.

Since you put it like that, we should all stop sport climbing immediately.

Yeah no shit, we'll have to move to an area with decent gear routes though.

I just figured we'd all boulder.