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The Eyrie, Mt Boyce retrobolted! Badly... 31-Dec-2016 At 12:16:07 AM widewetandslippery

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On 30/12/2016 timfreddo wrote:
>It was me! Get a cuppa.
>
>Before I start on my thoughts, a couple of points for this post..
>1. Can we make this a non-Safer cliffs discussion mods? as it's a closed
>group, it'd be great to get more then the closed group peoples' thoughts...
>2. Andy P, You might get your chockstone anti-boredom solved with the
>discussion that is sure to follow...
>3. To reply to Macciza's hanger orientation issue. The brand of fixed
>hanger used are designed to be loaded vertically, and are strongest in
>this orientation.
>4. The comparison to the organ pipes is incorrect, It's one of the most
>visited sections of cliff at Araps. The Abseil gully probably see's 2 parties
>of climbers per week... if that... More akin to somewhere with easy climbs
>in the far northern group if we're comparing to Arapiles.
>
>So my thoughts for what I did..
>
>- The Abseil Gully wall could be one of the best introduction to multi-pitch
>mixed climbing walls in the Blue Mountains.
>Of the 7 routes on the wall, there are only 2 routes with no bolts to
>supplement gear, and they see waaaaay less repeats due to their serious
>nature. All the rest are mixed climbs with cams and bolts for pro. Even
>the "classic" 2 star climbs here see less repeats than they deserve.
>
>- At current there is a very limited range of places for climbers to go
>and climb well protected (and pleasant) grade 10-15 mixed multi-pitch routes.
>
>- Modernising this cliff will divert some traffic away from other overpopulated
>areas in the Mountains, and minimise the amount of people getting in above
>their head e.g. Sweet Dreams, Bell Bird wall etc..
>
>- The climb in question is poorly protected by modern standards.
>It's a ledgy slab with numerous 5-10m runnouts. With the amount of new
>climbers coming out of the Gyms, it's only a matter of time until people
>start falling off and breaking bones. Each time you get to a crack to place
>gear on this route, you've just done a run out, hard (at the grade) move.
>Then you place a cam, do numerous easy moves to become run out again and
>then do another hard, un protected move. I put some extra bolts in (3 from
>memory) to protect these run out moves and avoid ledge falls.
>
>- The climb in question appeared to have been already retro-bolted. The
>mild steel carrot before the cave, the anchor in the cave, and the two
>carrots on the top pitch are all glued in with Araldite... I'm not sure
>if these were from the first ascentionists, but they looked after market.
>
>- Why should easy climbs be more poorly protected?
>For me, I see the worst potential for injury when climbing at the limit
>of your grade, in under vertical terrain... Why should harder mixed routes
>have well protected (by bolts if necessary) moves than easier climbs? It
>seems that the harder the grade, the more well protected a route is (a
>popular route that is, not alive in the bitter sea and co.)
>
>Most of the people who object to the Eyrie being re-bolted climb this
>grade extremely comfortably. What if this climb was closer to your limit?
>Would you accept the risks, or not climb it as it's not well enough protected
>for where your climbing is at? Now imagine you had no other similar places
>to go to "work up" to this route...
>
>- Why should old climbs be stuck in the past? times change...
>As one climber put it, "Seatbelts were introduced to make crashes safer
>and you wear that on a daily basis. So maybe should all get in a car crash
>with no seatbelt because that's what grandpa did."
>For climbing, everything leads towards safety, Why wear a helmet? The
>climbers of the past didn't... until a rock hit someone in the head. Do
>we need to wait until someone has an accident before progression can take
>place?
>
>-This works into Fixed hangers instead of Stainless Glue in Machine bolts.
>Get with the times! Machine bolts are for bolting stuff together. Ringbolts
>are specifically for Climbing. There are numerous reports of climbers (who
>placed carrots) saying they used the best available at the time... the
>best available now is rings with EN standard. I wish I had placed rated
>rings on this route instead of the un-tested Glue in Machine bolts that
>hold the hangers. I made do with the best I had available at the time.
>
>
>- The first ascentionist should have say over 'their' routes..
>Why don't we all climb Janicepts with a rest at 21M0 like the first ascentionist
>did? I can't believe we dis-respect the first ascentionist by not following
>the method of their ascent and blatantly climbing past the rest spot used
>on the first ascent...
>Times change, move with it.
>
>- In summary, I'd welcome your thoughts, positive or negative.
>If the majority vote is to remove the extra bolts, we don't need someone
>hacking the rock away with an angle grinder..
>If you are going to remove these, you'll likely need to heat up the bolt/hanger
>with a blowtorch to melt the epoxy, then pull the bolt out of it's hole
>and patch the hole with similar covered gluedirt.
>

Timfreddo you are a wanker. There are so many unclimbed lines in the mountains, you dont need to do public service.