Issue 47: Nuts and bolts

Bolts don’t come from the blue: it’s time we all coughed up before we clip up.

Have you ever climbed a sport route with old bolts and wondered just how strong they really are? Last year, my climbing partner and I came across some rusty bolts at the rather neglected Mill Side Scar in the South Lakes. Placing one’s trust in the security of a single bolt lower off felt a bit sketchy at the time, so imagine the feeling when I heard this shortly afterwards from Paul Clarke of the Yorkshire Bolt Fund:

“After 15 years the hanger was as good as new but the bolt quite rusted. The bolts don’t get much stick at Yew Cogar so you can imagine my surprise when all it took was a pull with the spanner and the whole head of the bolt just snapped off! After talking to others that have re-geared routes, it seems this problem is quite common.”

This quote should provide food for thought for the vast majority of you - it certainly did for me. I can’t think of a single one of my climbing partners who doesn’t clip bolts every now and then. Most of them, like me, mainly boulder and climb traditional routes. Most of them, like me, go sport climbing in the UK maybe a dozen or so times a year. Most of them, like me, have never given any money to a bolt fund.

We’re all used to clipping shiny new bolts overseas. In many places these are funded by the local government, tourism bureau or guiding community; in France crags are seen in very much the same vein as other sports facilities. In some places revenue from guidebook sales is channeled into new routing and re-equipment funds. But back in the UK, we are reliant on the work of dedicated groups of volunteers and individuals for any re-equipment work that needs doing. Often, donations from the climbing public aren’t enough, and either the work doesn’t happen, or it ends up being self-funded.

We’ve all put a few quid into Mountain Rescue boxes, and surely prevention is better than cure? Maybe it’s just a lack of awareness of the time, cost and sheer effort it takes to replace the bolts at somewhere like Malham or Pen Trwyn. On paper a route at Malham may cost about £45 to re-equip, and take half a day to do. But there’s also the cost of drills, abseil ropes and traveling to consider.

One thing that might help is a higher profile for the various regional bolt funds. In the past the BMC has come in for some criticism, some of it justified, for not doing much to support bolt funds. But that’s all set to change now, with the recent launch of the BMC Better Bolts Campaign.

There are several different aspects to the campaign, the most obvious one being a donation of BMC bolts and lower offs to the bolt funds. We’re also working on education, producing downloadable advice guides about bolts for users and installers. And there’s also a new information page about bolt funds on the BMC website, showing you where to donate. On the research side, we’re planning to test some bolting systems at our new test site in Horseshoe Quarry. The aim will be not only to look at safety, but also at ease of removal and replacement. For the future, we need to think in terms of sustainable bolting.

The BMC is finally getting involved in helping to conserve and maintain our existing bolted climbs, but the real key is getting people involved at a local level. Having talked to the various people involved in bolt funds over the last few months, what’s really struck me is that they are all totally passionate about the area they climb in. At the last North Wales bolting workshop for example, over 20 people turned up even though it was the first dry day for ages.

Without the work of these volunteers there’s no doubt that once-classic climbs will be consigned to history. As bolts become dangerous and routes fall into disrepair, crags will be reclaimed by nature and some of the unique range of climbing available to us in this country will be diminished.

So if you enjoy our wide variety of climbing, then get involved with your local bolt fund. Offer to help if you can. Go to a fundraising event. At the very least, do what I’m doing this week - stay on the wagon and put the money saved into the bolt fund collection tin.

- Dan Middleton, BMC Technical Officer.