(15) belay point right hand bolt is loose and could not be tightened by hand

Thanks for the heads up Peter.
To anyone heading out to the Quarry; take a size 17 spanner along with you to tighten the bolt - do not over tighten the bolt. You want it just so that it can't be undone by hand.

_________________
Climb ZA - Administrator

Still loose, after a year!

Be ashamed to report these issues. Ashamed because you haven't bothered to carry in a 17 spanner & fix it yourself. Ashamed that you think it is somebody's responsibility other than yourself.

man up & do

It's an eye bolt, How do you tighten that?

I'm not expert with the anchors.
Can the nylock nut use? Or use Loctite (medium strength)? I use high strength (red bottle), I cannot open the nut. The medium strength (blue bottle) is similar to nylock nut.
Correct me if I'm wrong.

Do we have clarification on what sort of bolt we're dealing with yet??

We have reports of two different bolts (above)

_________________
Climb ZA - Administrator

CapeTiger: I think the nylock nuts should work, why haven't we done this before on all routes....?

I don't think the locktite stuff would be a good idea - you might need to undo the nut one day, and then its 'fused' to the bolt...

Be ashamed of criticizing before you know what you're talking about...? Be ashamed of having a go at a newbie who is trying to do the right thing and be a useful part of a supposedly welcoming community?

Justin - its an eye bolt. Not too familiar with all the various kinds/terms, but its not like the hanger bolts and turning the eye part makes no difference.

If the gluein bolt has become loose, then this is quite serious (they're really not meant to do that).

Anyone out there willing to go make an assessment of the offending bolt + take a photo of it to post here?

_________________
Climb ZA - Administrator

might go there sunday will have a look and get a pic!

"Still loose, after a year!" Supersam

Are you some kind of auditor, tracking the timing on a fault? Being new does not mean that you are exempt from fixing the issue or limited to reporting on timing of issues.

Welcome to the forum.

Oh my gosh....*palm against forehead* Let me rather rephrase:

"Hi everyone. I am a new climber. I recently went to the Higgovale Quarry and spotted a loose anchor bolt. I think this is wrong, so I thought I'd report it somewhere where an experienced person can advise me on what to do or fix it, and not just assume someone else will take care of it. Coming to this forum I saw that the same issue had indeed been reported a year earlier, but the same problem still persists."

That any better?

Luckily I'm not judging the rest of the climbing community based on you

Thanks that is much better. Big encouragment to make a plan to fix this issue for everyone.

Re: judging....as you wish.

Hi Supersam,

I think someone ought to show support for you on your first outing on the forum. I think you have had a completely undeserved hard time! I'm sure the majority of people on the forum would agree with me. However, we don't call it 'the silent majority' for nothing! I think you deserve be told (on behalf of the silent majority) that you normally won't get such a response when you post.

I'm glad you're not judging the rest of us by the attitude of nasty old Marshall1. He often spoils a good point with a patronising and belligerent attitude. Shame. He seems to know a lot of stuff, though.

If one doesn't know anything about bolts it's often difficult to find out. If you don't bolt yourself there seems to be a great mystery surrounding the whole thing, including folklore, misinformation and sometimes complete bollocks.

Last year there was a climb at one of my local crags where one of the anchors had a loose bolt, so we were careful and repeatedly hand-tightened it. Then a few weeks later the nut, washer and its chain had disappeared completely. Nobody did anything for a while, just being extra-careful when lowering off the remaining anchor! About this time I was taking my first steps into the arcane world of bolting and I realised that the fix was simple and I sorted it out. Easy-peasy, but not if you don't know what to do and don't have the necessary materials to hand.

Anyway, good luck and hey, get into bolting. It's a very satisfying way of adding another dimension to your climbing. There's a lot of info on the web if you look hard enough.This is a good primer:

http://tawkroc.org/category/route-building-101/



Cheers,

Dave

The opinion of a nasty monster is just as important as a ball licker like *apster.

I'm guessing "Sanderbrown" is a spam-bot. His post did serve a purpose, though, it brought this thread to the surface again and brought it to my attention.

I was at the quarry on Saturday morning and climbed this route and I can confirm that the bolt is still loose.

My belay-partner tried to tighten the bolt by hand and it just turns in the rock without getting tighter.

I don't know more than that. I know nothing of bolting but can recognize that the bolts on this route are older than the new bolts on other Higgovale routes.

All of which still gives zero clarification as to what type of bolt this is! A pic would help! Its impossible to give concise advice without knowing the exact nature of the problem.

If its an eye-nut that is screwed onto a mechanical bolt (these were being used at one stage): The bolts is a 'spinner' and the sleeve is not seated properly. First put some Q20 on the thread and ensure that the thread is not damaged. Then attach a static line or dyneema sling directly to the eye (no biner) and yank outward hard, you may need to attach a hammer or similar lever to the sling so that you can produce enough force. The idea is to seat the sleeve in the rock so that the bolt stops spinning. Once you have achieved this screw the eye back down onto the rock face and tighten a half turn (not too radically hard). Do not push the bolt shaft back into the rock, or bump it whilst tightening the eye as the bolt will simply start spinning again. Spinner bolts, whilst a bit scary, are usually stiil safe as the sleeve will most likely still engage if the bolts is loaded. Use your own judgement - be safe, back up the anchors with a length of rope off a tree or something if in doubt.

If the bolt is one of the new glue-in eyes (there will be no evidence of thread and you should see glue around the base of the bolt) we have a major problem as the bond of glue to rock is compromised, if this is the case the bolt needs to be replaced and I would suggest staying off the route until its fixed, notify the ARF if this is the case.

There are other eye bolts such as the RAWL five piece type which require a different approach so make sure you know what youre doing before doing it!

PS: Pls ppl, a pic really helps in cases like this!
PPS: Climb at real crags and not poxy quarrys!!!