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For the last few months of climbing in Australia i have come across some bolting that confuses my logic. I suppose for some people it wouldn’t seem a big deal.
The two points i’d like to bring up are the first bolt heights and belay anchors.
The first refers very much towards what i noticed at Churchmans. I noticed bolts being at most 5m off the ground. Now, a 2m fall to the ground has the chance to be serious, but a 5m can be very critical. I have heard this is done to deter climbers from attempting climbs they feel they might not be capable of. This seems self defeating. Im sure i could solo a 16, but im not going to as mistakes happen. Its really not worth having a high first bolt, its sports climbing and not everyone has bouldering mats or wants to bring them.
The second point is to place a few Belay anchors where a fall could leed to a belayer and climber being draged down an edge. I heard 2 guys had a fall the other month at Statham, the climber knocking the belayer and himself over the edge when he fell. Just one carrot would prevent this. Another example of a precarious position for the belayer is at mountain quarry and the climb ‘Running with the Bulls’ and others near it.
Well i hope this isnt taken as an attack on the bolters but I felt I should at least say something. Even if its just for ‘piece on mind’.
Churchman’s is mainly a natural crag. Relying only on bolts would gaurentee an exciting time.
This goes for any kind of protection but lets use bolts in the example.
The height of the first bolt is dependant on the distance from the first to the second bolt. (At least it SHOULD be)
If say, the distance from bolt 1 to 2 was 1m then you could put the first bolt at a minimum of 3m. If the distance is 2m then the height of the first bolt would need to be raised appropriately…. say to at least 4m.
Why? Because as you know the distance of a lead fall is 2 x the length of rope above the last protection plus stretch. So, for example, if your first piece was at 4m, which you clipped in then climbed up to the second bolt but didn’t quite make it (you had 2+ metres of rope out) and took a fall, then your fall distance would be over 4m and thus your final distance from the first bolt would be about 3m, or 1m or less from the ground….
So with that in mind the position of the first pro could be calculated as follows….
B1 = bolt 1
B2 = proposed distance from B1 to B2
RT = Total estimated rope used (from the belayer) if a climber was to fall from B2 without clipping.
B1 = 2 x (B2) + (0.08 x RT)
To use the numbers above
B1 = 2 x 2 + (0.08 x 9)
B1 = 4m + 0.72m
B1 = 4.72m
N.B. – 0.08 = 8% rope stretch which I believe is the maximum allowable by a amanufacture of a single rope. I could be wrong.
And please, this isn’t a hard and fast rule. Many factors go into placing protection on a climb whether it be bolts or natural gear. Most times it’s ok, sometimes bolters get it wrong and place them in dangerous spots. But…
Ultimately the choice to climb is yours. Not mine, not the bolters, yours. If you feel that the risk of a certain climb is beyond what you will accept then don’t climb it.
I don’t climb R’s or X’s outdoors because the risk of falling and the consequences of such a situation is outside my risk tolerance. Simple. People don’t put up climbs for your convenience, have a look at some of the older stuff. There are numerous extreme runouts in and around Perth that would leave even the hardest of climbers with a bad smell in their pants.
But as you can see from the above workings, 5m is acceptable for a first bolt. When you think about it your full stretch is probably 2.5m that means you only need to go up 2.5m to get within clipping range of the first pro… Lower than a lot of boulder problems. Put a bouldering mat below you if you’re unsure of making it.
I have never bolted anything, but as a climber i know a bit about bolting seeing as its my life at risk. So say the first bolt is 4 m up, a good fair distance, there is no harm for the bolter to put another bolt in at 2.5 m up from the ground.
Current:
Bolt
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[
[
[
[
Ground………
Optimal:
bolt
[
[
bolt
[
[
[
Ground………..
See, you dont have to fall as far.
I have climbed extensively in South East Asia and never seen the abundance of high first bolts there. And reasoning the magority of bolting done there is by western climbers i’d concluded that its the same in the US and Europe. So why is it so different here.
And yes a bouldering mat would be perfect, but im not a avid boulderer and dont have a mat. The idea of having to buy a bouldering mat to go sport climbing is going a bit far.
The result of the 2.5/1.5m scenario is about 0.5m from the deck. So it probably would be fine. But that’s just from yours and my discussion, which means nothing to the guy that actually bolted the climb. It’s his decision.
But like the other guy said, it’s probably not best to compare somewhere like Churchies which is an older crag and mostly produced before the climbing explosion. You know, “back in the day”? Western Australian climbers seemed to have a ‘hardman’ mentality of outdoing each other with their daring. And it still continues today to a lesser extent. WA climbs haven’t been done the way the rest of the world did it, ie. make the outdoors conform to how indoors works. WA climbs began with whoever had the biggest brassies! Maybe there should be a bit on the website about some of the stuff they used to do… like practising body belaying by tying into drums and chucking them off the top of quarry walls!
On the other hand, how does Mountain Quarry compare? i haven’t been there in donkeys and there’s been quite a bit of work done since. As such it contains the greatest concentration of sport climbs. Which is what you’re talking about, right? Whereas Churchies is mostly a trad crag.
Otherwise my other comment still stands. If it exceeds your risk tolerance, don’t do it. There are plenty of other climbs.
Hi CC,
are you referring to Superslab and Superslab Direct at Churchies?
If so, then yes, the first bolt is high. But… at about 4 m above the ground, that means that the climber’s feet are 2 m above the ground, which is quite flat, and as the slab is at about an 80 degree slope, the faller tends to slither down, not plummet. While there certainly is the potential for an injury, I’ve also injured myself (bad enough to stop climbing for a month) by tripping over a 1 cm high pebble. Where do you draw the line?
However I think that the main reason why the bolt is so high is that the climb was first done in 1980, that is back in the daze when the ethos was ‘The Leader Doesn’t Fall’ and ‘Bolts are a necessary evil’. Similarly with Bootiful next to it, where the first rusty piton is at about 6 m. I don’t do that climb. Similarly with a few others such as Inner Tension.
Now times have changed since the 1980s. If Superslab was done now, would it be bolted differently? Almost certainly ‘yes’.
So if you find it too scary, then don’t do it or get someone else to lead it. I’ve done it plenty of times and am happy doing it. But as I mentioned above, some of the other climbs I don’t do, either because they are crap or too scary.
As for belay bolts too close to the edge, yes, there are some in stupid places. But then the person setting up the belay should have something as a back-up. A good example is Striding Edge area at Statham’s, where the two bolts are about 20 cm from the edge. (There is also a bolt on a rock about 2 m from the edge, but that would probably go over the edge if you gave it a good shove.) I simply use these as back-ups and belay off other things – trees, other rocks 10 m behind etc.
If the belayer is knocked or falls over the edge, then they have not set up a safe belay, irrespective of the location of the bolts.
This is an old topic but thought I might add to the discussion.
Always remember it is the climber that needs the bolt and NOT the route.
If you are standing at the base of a route and your palms start to sweat when you look at the height of the first bolt (or trad placement for that matter) you have two choices.
1. You are good enough, you rope up and go ahead with a clear picture of what the consequence of a fall will be.
2. You decide that you are not willing to accept the consequence of a fall and walk away to climb something else.
The CHOICE is simple.
Leading any climb is all about being RESPONSIBLE FOR YOURSELF.
It makes ZERO sense to demand changes be made to an existing route (eg more bolts etc etc) YOU have chosen to climb.
Climbing is NOT about a guaranteed result each and every time. As clear thinking people of course we set out at the start of a route with this as our intention (ie – no falls/injury) But we do so accepting the consequence of OUR decision to climb the route.
