Reply To: Bolting Systems used in WA

G’Day Glenn

Of West Oz origins, I don’t climb “equipped” routes there because I find much of the bolted routes a bit sketchy (as a consequence I’m restricting myself to bouldering and trad on the occasional visit back home). I am based in Europe and have a tendence for sport routes where I know the equippers. We’re spoilt for choice but I lower off a fair few and walk away where I think they’re suspect: my life, my decision.

My interest in the subject increased somewhat following a couple of problems encountered here:

1. An October04 lead on a Callanques climb of relatively recent instal, clearly corrosion affected bolts on the 2nd pitch. Anyone relying on the bolts and falling on that pitch is likely to die.

2. A big block fell out of a highly frequented local crag recently and killed 2 walkers passing by underneath. Authorities have demolished the crag and are assessing others in the area. Good installation originally but repeated falls over the years might have weakened the rock.

I retobolt occasionally and I’ve tried to get more data rich as a consequence of these recent close encounters. Tried finding a techie database and couldn’t. At the risk of being repetitive, the nearest thing I found was embedded in literature on the site below. Some of which is dated but relevant bits on rock type, glue, shear types are interesting (hence my earlier post which countered ben’s in a slightly less confrontive way to Dead Bolt…though definitely less entertaining).

http://www.safeclimbing.org/education.htm

Apart from that site there’s the sandstone bolt testing piece on chockstone’s website. More experienced route equipper’s around here have been great info sources and tend to discuss requirements directly with the likes of Petzl/Hilti when in doubt(not the local hardware store).

None of the climbing gear I’ve come across in Oz, UK and Europe has matched safety standards required for human protection employed in mine, industrial or building installations. When retrobolting I try to move them from worthless to bomber from a climbers perspective…the more I read the more I become aware of a disconnect.