RRC Archives

Bob and I bolted a new route yesterday at Torrent.

Location: Left of Family Values.
Length: All the way.
Grade: 10b/c. The crux may be height dependent.
Bolts: Yes. 6 plus the anchor.
Name: It is going to be referred to as the new really and I mean really dirty new route that someone put up at Torrent. It sucks! Who bolted this piece of shit route? Someone needs to clean it route..... The only clean holds on the route are the ones that we ticked (on TR) to bolt it and then send it. So, what I have decided is to allow the end users (the climbers) the pleasure of cleaning this route. If they choose. What I mean by cleaning is to literally brush (large nylon) the entire route from side to side, top to bottom again and again. That is what we did with the other routes on the wall. If it is not cleaned as I mentioned, don't expect it to clean up with climber traffic. It won't. Routes on shadey walls don't. Compare this route to the others on the wall and you will have an example of before and after proper cleaning.

Quality: It will be a really good route once it is clean. You know, like the other routes on the wall.

What the hell?? We have to CLEAN it? Gawd. What a bother.

Oh yeah...thanks for bolting a new line. You set some quality stuff.

I like that idea. Maybe I'll start doing it that way too. We could get a lot more done.

We can think of it as "giving something back".

Sunshine, you have your teacher's cap on. Are you trying to teach a climber a lesson? Jeesh!

I love the idea! Thanks for the living example.

Me too! From now on I'm not cleaning any more routes! Especially since that is the part of the process that takes the most time. A route can be easily climbed and bolted in less than an hour, but the cleaning usually takes several hours. My productivity will double, maybe even triple. Besides, they don't need to be spotless for me to enjoy them anyway...

Where can you purchase such nylon brushes?

Any hardware store. We usually use wire brushes and first scrub the clip holds on the entire route, then we clean it again and scrub the other handholds, then on the third pass we wirebrush the footholds. Finally we use a nylon brush to wipe off the rest of it after the wirebrushing. Some routes require 4 or 5 separate cleanings of the entire route and often the work last for 4 or 5 hours. Ironically these usually end up being our cleanest and most popular routes.

Duh, at the nylon brush outlet store. Google it.