This is a question to Andy and the other ARF volunteers (or anyone in the know):

The rotten bolts, like the ones you pulled on Red Guitar on Fire and also the one that failed at Kleinmond : would a normal climber have been able to see that theyre really rotten? What I'm trying to get at is, did these bolts appear to be in good condition, and then only after removing the nut and hanger you can see that theyre actaully badly corroded?

Because if they appeared to be in good condition (specially the one at Kleinmond) this might prompt for investigation of the bolts on more of the routes there, specially the ones bolted before or at the same time as Zucchini. I mean you dont want to have to trust bolts that appear to be fine but that are actually on the verge of failing!

If the bad corrosion is really obvious and easy to identify than maybe more climbers can alert the ARF of popular routes that are in bad shape.

Jimmy I'm afraid all the bolts that have failed have had very healthy looking external threads so its impossible to inspect in-situ bolts. Checkout the pic of the failed bolt at the bottom of the ARF page on this website and you can see what I mean.

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AndyDavies