Chockstone Forum

      Sponsored By
      ROCK
   HARDWARE

Chockstone Photography

Australian Landscape Prints

Chockstone Forum - Crag & Route Beta

Crag & Route Beta

Area	Location	Sub Location	Crag	Links
International	(General)	(General)	(General)

Topic Date User

Thailand 15-Sep-2009 At 4:15:09 AM SteveC

Message

On 12/09/2009 Paulie wrote:
>On 12/09/2009 Eduardo Slabofvic wrote:
>>Have the Phi Phi island have a dose of re-equipping? If so they really
>>are excellent, but if not they would be death on a stick by now.
>
>Everything seemed fine to me, I whipped on a couple of routes and I'm
>still here... the hangers and bolts certainly looked new and bombproof
>with new slings on most things. That was 3 years ago now tho...

If indeed they were hangers and bolts, then new and bombproof are not the right words to use. Some
might say 'lucky' is a more fitting word. Or possibly 'new' and 'wrong'
I was in Tonsai last year and was appalled not by the bolts (there are bad bolts and old bolts in a lot of
places where we climb, its your job to recognise what is what) but more so the ignorance of the
general populace of sport bumblies there; the 'its a bolt, trust it' mentality was prolific. But to be fair the
problems are complex and hidden there.

Most things seem fine but you get to recognise the generations of bolts after a little while, from the
galvanised expansion bolts (by now old, rusty, obvious death on stick, if you clip one of these you
probably make bad choices regularly in your life), stainless expansions, stainless glue-ins with a
variety of glues through to the current standard of titanium glue ins.

For a basic appreciation of how stainless steel does actually corrode despite not staining and why
expansion bolts are bad, skim over this for key words such as 'corrosive environment', 'applied' and
'residual' stress and my personal favourite 'catastrophic failure' .
http://corrosion-doctors.org/Forms-SCC/scc.htm
Then read this if you still dont care.
http://www.safeclimbing.org/education/deepbluesea.htm

I found another common mode of failure- rattly bolts, where the glue to rock bond had failed, but the
bolt itself is fine. After the 3rd or 4th I noticed that the problem was unique to one type of bolt, the
petzl ss ring with a white glue. I lobbed onto one of these repeatedly before noticing. Am still here
also, but that doesnt mean I am any richer for the experience.

While I am at it, I reccomend to bring a bunch of tat or old rope to replace worn out fixed threads. They
get worn out at the back where you cant see it.

And have a blast, the place is amazing. Make sure you eat as many curries and coconuts as you
possibly can!