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  • #112176 Reply
    CAWA Committee
    Guest

    To all WA climbers,

    CAWA would like your input into a survey of suspect or dangerous bolts on WA climbing routes. If you have identified any dodgy bolts then please post the details on this forum thread. The details required are-

    The crag location and wall
    The route name
    The number and types of dodgy bolts
    A description of the problem (i.e rusted bolt and hanger, protruding bent carrot, deteriorating glue etc.)
    Any other info that you think is relevant
    Please post a photo of the dodgy bolts (if possible)

    Dodgy bolts could be classed as anything that is potentially dangerous such as Pitons, Carrots (bash-ins), rusted, corroded, worn, damaged and loose (bolts, hangers, glue, anchors), suspect rock quality, poor quality bolts (Bunnings jobs etc.), poorly placed (bolts that force the quick-draw over a rock edge), dodgy anchors etc. Below are a few photos of suspect and dodgy bolts.

    This survey is NOT intended to identify routes that might need retro-bolting (adding more bolts to a route or repositioning bolts). Please keep your forum posts constructive and only to suspect and dodgy bolts. Any personal chatter will be deleted from this thread.

    Thanks for your help.

    #112180 Reply
    Shane Greene
    Guest

    If you need some help rebolting let me know. I’ve got a drill and have bolted in New Zealand. All expansions but I’m familiar with the glue in technique if that’s the way you guys prefer.

    #112193 Reply
    Ron M
    Guest

    I certainly see no problem replacing old bolts with new ones, as long as the nature of the climb is not altered. Castle rock has a nice climb full of dodgy old steel bolts on it, done back in the 80s or 90s.

    #112345 Reply
    jim
    Guest

    Here are some bolts i’ve noticed recently.
    W.C.H. Black Wall
    “Missing Time” gr20
    5 expansion bolts
    The bolts weren’t stainless steel and are badly corroded.

    Porongorups Gibraltar Rock
    “Sucked In Ben”
    chain on top belay corroded and hangers and expansion bolts probably corroded also.

    Porongorups Gibraltar Rock

    “Possum”
    4 carrot bolts on the top 2 belays
    The bolts are corroded .Possibly not stainless steel.

    J. Nevin

    #112468 Reply
    Gareth Wood
    Guest

    -The bolts on Washed Up Punks and Heavy Metal on the Stainless Steel wall at Wilyabrup are looking old and dodgy.
    -The lower offs on Shaved Cat at Bob’s Hollows are scary looking.
    -It’s a Boy in the Promenade at Kalbarri is missing a bolt and the rest look deathly.
    -The chains for Crankshaft at Kalbarri look horrible.

    And can we please not use carrots EVER EVER EVER AGAIN!!!!!

    #112469 Reply
    Chris
    Guest

    Inside Out at Mountain Quarry doesn’t inspire much confidence in me. Particularly the last clip, which is a bolt on the horizontal face of the ledge. The anchor which is pretty corroded and dodgey looking.

    #112472 Reply
    Blake
    Guest

    The top of ride of the Valkyries at mountain quarry have two badly placed carrots at the top for the anchors which force my quick draws to draw over the rock edge.

    #112475 Reply
    Richard
    Guest

    Use slings over edges, not quickdraws.
    Ride of the Valkyries has recently been rebolted with rings, inluding loweroffs. Probably by J?

    #112476 Reply
    Eric F
    Guest

    I didn’t like the look of the lower offs at:
    MQ – sex, cigarettes & chardonnay (top of pitch 2) – carrots(?) and crusty chain
    SQ – no ordinary determination – carrots(?) and crusty chain

    #112477 Reply
    Eric F
    Guest

    also, at Kalbarri – last time i was there i thought the bolt at the crux of rattler looked bad, in that there was not enough thread past the hanger to thread the whole nut (is that bad?). I didn’t have knowledge or tools to fix it. Others don’t seem to have a problem with it.

    #112502 Reply
    Remi V
    Guest

    Mountain Quarry, The Wiz: some carrots are sticking out too far, others are bent, the chain and bolt anchor are rusty and horrible.
    Mountain Quarry, Fear in the Face of a Carrot: some carrots are sticking out too far from memory.
    Pangea Boulders, Pinjarra: Belt Fed and the line to the left has dodgy bolts. Look dodgā€™ but still holds!
    Barrington Quarry, The Ugly Duck That Never Grew Up: the start bolt needs to be assessed
    West Cape Howe: Dancing the Deep Blue – the 2 bolts are a bit rusty.
    Thompson’s Cove: None of the bolted line inspired confidence at all
    Pilgonamen Gorge: Few of the climbs on Wailing Wall have possibly dubious bolts. i.e: Tear Drop, Back in 2010, had its anchor bolts moving by hand.

    Kalbarri
    The rattler: I second Ericā€™s comment. The last bolt needs regular tightening.
    Obscene Gesture: The 2 and only bolts (fixed hangers) are badly bent.
    It’s a Boy: I recall Ross saying earlier this year that the glue at the anchor was cracked. Two of the final bolts are missing. I think the second bolt (placed vertically under a roof) is also facing the wrong way
    Love Muscle: only one final bolt to lower off from. Perhaps it was intended that way to avoid sharp edges??? Need to check. Climbers can lower off using Crankshaft chains with a bit of fiddling around.
    <unknown> : The line of bolts to the right of Fuck The Law. According to the Rock Issue #37 (Summer 1999, page 18), it’s a grade 24 bolted by Mike Law circa 1998. Don’t know the name of the climb but the bolts look rusty nowadays.
    Rippled Reflection: Only one final bold, a second one would be nice to lower off from.
    Tripped Up: Only one final bold, a second one would be nice to lower off from.

    #112570 Reply
    Jonas
    Guest

    There’s quite a few suspect looking bolts at Bob Hollow. They still seem solid however there is obvious rust which suggests internal corrosion (see photos below taken 5 days ago). The photos are from ‘Lovers nuts’ and ‘Magnus’ however there are numerous bolts like this on other routes throughout Bobs, I suspect maybe 30 or more bolts. The anchors on ‘Shaved cat’ are suspect, looks like a nail-drive bolt has been used.

    #112573 Reply
    kym
    Guest

    Certainly worth replacing some of the lower-offs on those routes Jonas mentioned, prob with titanium.. maybe worth chipping off some of that glue or pulling one to see how they look.. Rob C pulled some hexes from royal jelly at wallcliffe sometime ago which were still in pretty good condition and around 20 yrs old, they were 316 and glued with polyester..
    Steel Wall ā€“ Heavy metal, punks, pascals and steel yourself are all shite, a mix of expansions, fh’s and carrots… All excellent lines and their bolts do hold falls, but again are W.A classics and prob deserve attention.. I pulled one of those petzl nail bolts which took a fair bit of doing, as did a glued and bashed carrot with a cracked and squashed bolt plate on a 3 star classic nearby.
    Inner Space wall ā€“ Stormbringer is expansions but they are pretty new.. Rockfish is an old bash in carrot.
    Gracetown, all carrots or homemade Pā€™s and hangers, except lower-off on space face which still looks bomber. Have already pulled a few of these and keen to get the crag rebolted.
    Along with the new bolts on royal jelly at wallcliffe, the anchor got a bit of an upgrade too, as did the lower-off on hired gun/motion builder.. Think most of the rest were sorted back in the late 90’s during the blitz..
    There is prob more around margs others know of..

    This is one of the best sites for info I’ve come across..

    http://www.upskillclimbing.com/2009/02/how-to-bolt-rock-climbs-and-how-not-to.htm

    #112574 Reply
    kym
    Guest

    sorry, it was 2006 when lots of rebolting work was done around margs..

    https://www.climberswa.asn.au/topic/margaret-river-re-bolting/

    #113488 Reply
    Mikllaw
    Guest

    Jonas photos of the staining of the glue and shaft on Bob’s Hollows bolts are quite typical on seacliffs. There’s a good chance it’s internal seeping (of iron oxide) from the rock and not corrosion of the stainless. Before someone replaces them all (and they start seeping again), you could remove one and look at it. The best way to do this would be to use a small (5 or 6 mm) bit and drill a circle of holes around the bolt (best to pick a single shaft eyebolt) with a diameter of about 20mm. That way you get a nice sample of the rock, glue, and bolt and can start picking away at it. My guess is that you’ll see some staining on the ‘stainless’ steel, in which case replace the bolt (I have a mega 14 mm ring you can use). If there’s corrosion, please photograph it extensively and post, it’ll be the first issue of corrosion outside Cayman Brac and Thailand. And replace bolts.
    Also, I have a visit to WA in a few weeks where I’m giving a slideshow and will bring a mega ring over if someone asks me;- miklclaw at gmail dat com

    #113493 Reply
    Neil
    Guest

    Yes I agree with the Law character (nice book by the way !).

    When we have rebolted at Bob’s, plenty of the bolts look like that from the outside but there is no corrosion on the shaft inside the hole. Rebolting mostly done to replace terrible terrible glue, bent bolts or mushroom blobs that used to be expansions….

    New ones (FIXE 316SS, home made and chinese made) all look like that pretty soon after they are placed.

    As an aside – for those doing the new stuff down there, two points:
    1) if you want shackles on the lower offs put two mallions or use twisted mallions. Don’t put just one as it twists the F out of your rope when you lower off.
    2) and don’t put fixed perma draws above the one spot where we ae not supposed to climb and bolt ??!?!?! really !

    #113521 Reply
    Rod
    Guest

    Neil! Your number 1 problem has been fixed for a while.

    #113587 Reply
    Jamie
    Guest

    The lower off down the southern end of the eastern slabs at Darlington, at the top of the grade 12 by capt. Funk…. Has a badly rusted shackle and bolts not looking to good either.

    #123871 Reply
    Mark
    Guest

    First ring bolt on Levitation at Eaglestone rock is too deep in the rock and the carabiner can get stuck perpendicular to the wall and possibly causing the biner to fail. (Wild Country Oxygen was getting stuck, other biners may be fine)

    #125747 Reply
    Mark
    Guest

    Pic of bolt described above.

    Inside Out at Mountain Quarry.

    Id love to see rings, but ill gladly take up some new maillons to replace the sketchy looking D shackles next time i climb it. (It ok to do that right?)

    #148359 Reply
    Adam
    Guest

    Kalbarri

    Brother James

    Two rusty old carrot bolts on this route looked really dodgy.

    #148366 Reply
    Joe P
    Guest

    The CAWA committee has posted the request and collected all this info on bad bolts, what happens next. Now CAWA has knowledge of bad bolts and a duty of care, is there a fund to pay compensation to anyone hurt using these bolts. Or will money be extracted from the assets of individual committee members?

    #149444 Reply
    Dave
    Guest

    Inside Out (MQ) has qantas lot of rusted bolts too.

    Strider (SQ) all the bolts look extremely rusted, top one by far the worst.

    #149445 Reply
    Dave
    Guest

    *** Inside Out (MQ) has quite a lot of rusted bolts too.

    (Dam typing on phones)

    #151603 Reply
    Nat
    Guest

    A few bolts at Darlington are rusty.

    The DBB at the top of Anorexia Crimposa is rusted. Bolts and shackles are considerably rusted.

    The DBB at the top of Fryaway is rusted. One of the bolts plates also looks bent.

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