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More slackline anchors 26-Mar-2013 At 11:32:34 AM Climboholic

Message

On 25/03/2013 One Day Hero wrote:
>On 25/03/2013 kieranl wrote:
>
>>2. Anchors placed for climbing and abseiling are never used for rigging
>>highlines due to the risk of compromising the strength of the anchors.
>
>Why? Highlining won't damage bolts unless they do something crazy. Bolts
>which have been damaged to the point where they are liable to fail under
>bodyweight will look damaged. I didn't notice anything at all on the Missing
>Link rap bolts which were used for a slackline.
>>
>>.* Note that natural anchors suitable for climbing anchors may not be
>>suitable for highline anchors.
>
>Slacklines don't generate end of the world forces. Should stop pandering
>to the slackliner notion that they need 16mm bolts for their nonsense.
>There's no good reason why they shouldn't build natural anchors when available.
>
>5. Total 'tards who haven't ever seen a nut or cam, have never drilled
>a hole in rock, don't know their earhole from a bolthole, should not be
>bringing a drill to Araps to "work out how to do it".

I usually agree with you on bolting, but in this case I don't mind a few slackline specific bolts for the following reasons:

- The forces generated are higher than you think and trad gear is not rated for them. I haven't checked Dr Nicks calcs but they sound about right. Now, I'm a trad climber from years back, but I wouldn't trust trad gear for my only safety line when the potential forces generated are equal to the failure rating of my gear (~12kN).

- If the bolts interfere with existing routes it is purely incidental.

- The number bolts is limited by the number of places suitable for high lines.

For these reasons I support the installatioin of a small number of bolts for highlines

It would be safe to use rap anchors where convenient, as rap bolt damaged enough to fail under the body weight of an abseiler, will fail due to the slackline first. It would just be annoying for climbers to wait until the anchor is free.