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General Climbing Discussion

Topic Date User

Carrot failure @ Muline 25-Nov-2013 At 10:42:58 AM nmonteith

Message

On 25/11/2013 Edward Oslabofvic wrote:
>Raping down and putting in a bolt every 3m might work in some instances,
>but spending time to identify clipping stances/holds, the direction/flow
>of climbing, things you might hit if you came off above the bolt, can lead
>to a better outcome also.
>
>I done quite a few routes in the Grampians, and overseas (mostly the newer
>Asian crags) where the placement of the bolts made a terrible job of protection
>because who ever it was that did it put a bolt in every 3m and didn't consider
>anything else.

Rap bolting should be massively discouraged! What works much better is ascender bolting. Start from the bottom and work upwards, that way you can judge where the previous bolt is, thus the fall distance and danger and test what jugs make good clipping stances. Even better, top-rope the rope (or self belay toprope with a grigri) and mark bolt placements well in advance of actually pulling out the drill. This is obviously much harder to do on overhung routes. I've seen it again and again with people bolting by just rapping down drilling. It always makes for crap bolt placements.