Category: Anchor Replacement Updates

Tea in the Sahara was put up on lead back in the early 90s. Originally only two bolts were drilled and the FA team added another bolt after in the hopes it would get climbed more. Over the years, the climb gained another 4 bolts! All the bolts used were the Petzl Cheville Autoforeuse aka “self-drill” bolts.

These bolts are really not intended to be used for climbing and given the options available for modern bolts these really shouldn’t be used for climbing ever. The components are not stainless steel and are often paired with a stainless steel hanger causing galvanic corrosion. Though perhaps the best reason is that the bolt assembly is only embedded 30mm in the rock! I’ve seen a pull test on one of these that failed at 3.4 kN in pull-out. The shear performance is the more transferable number to how a fall would impact the anchor, but 3.4 kN is less than a micro cam!

Confusingly, there are may versions of this type of bolt. Tea in the Sahara features two diameters for an 8mm bolt and one for a 10mm bolt. The way to tell is by the size of the cap on the bolt. About the size of a quarter and it’s a 10mm bolt (17mm head); the smaller 8mm bolt has a 13mm head.

Six out of the seven bolts on Tea in the Sahara are 10mm self-drills but I was only expecting the 8mm models. So I examined all the bolt placements to see if any would need to be moved due to hollow rock. I found that three bolts needed to be moved so I pulled the hanger but left the sleeve and cone of the original bolt in for removal at a later time. These bolts were all replaced with a modern 12mm stainless steel sleeve anchor that can be easily removed and reused in the future. My attempt to pull the sole 8mm bolt ended up breaking the sleeve in the hole. I’ll need to tap the remaining part of it and try again.

I’m going to discuss how to handle the final replacement on this route with one of the FA team members. Since the route has gained more than double the number of bolts, this is an opportunity to make adjustments to the amount of hardware on the route.

I will post updates once more work happens here.

Update: All bolts have been replaced on the route and ended up having to be moved due either to the original bolt breaking in a way that makes them unremovable in the hole or the original placement being in hollow rock. Only the crux bolt is currently a glue and it is a beefy 16mm x 100mm bolt. Happy whipping! Within the next couple weeks all the bolts will get replaced with glue-ins.

The original last bolt and its replacement because the original was in hollow rock

Original 4th bolt placement and replacement

Clockwise from top-left: 8mm Petzl Cheville, 12mm Bolt Products glue-in, 12mm Fixe Triplex replacement, 10mm Petzl Cheville

The moderate In the Pines at Lower West has three possibilities for the upper half of the climb. The left most variation has a couple bolts to protect some face climbing. These bolts were plated steel 2 3/4″ 5-piece bolts paired with stainless steel Metolius hangers and were suffering from galvanic corrosion. These have now been replaced with 12mm glue-in bolts donated by the American Safe Climbing Association.

New glue-ins with all stainless hardware

The second protection bolt and its replacement

The first protection bolt and it’s replacement

The right bolt in the Playing the Slots anchor has been loose for some time and the vertically offset configuration of the anchor has never been ideally configured to equalize the rappel. Originally the anchor only had a pair of quick links, creating a rope kinking rappel station. Last year I replaced the corroding plated steel links with stainless links and rings and tried to clean up the hangers.

Since the bolts were 5-pieces (which have a poor track record in schist) I decided it was probably just best to remove them and replace with glue-ins. In the process I found that the bolts were plated steel mixed with stainless steel hangers. While they looked okay on the outside they were corroding inside the hole; far from ideal. The most disturbing finding though was that the right-hand bolt (which was perpetually loose) was assembled incorrectly.

The 5-piece bolt is named for the 5 pieces that make up the bolt; the threaded bolt, spacer, plastic compression sleeve, perforated expansion sleeve, and the cone. The correct assembly slides the spacer on the bolt first, followed by the plastic compression sleeve, the expansion sleeve and lastly the cone. The expansion sleeve must but assembled such that the perforated triangles point towards the threaded end of the bolt (and the cone).

The right bolt was installed with the expansion sleeve facing the wrong way. So as the bolt was tightened down the sleeve expanded up past the compression sleeve and spacer and deformed around the edges of the bolt hole. This was the reason the bolt hanger was perpetually loose.

These bolts have been replaced with stainless 12mm glue-ins and all stainless hardware.

Original setup vs. last year’s refreshed setup

Incorrectly installed 5-piece expansion sleeve. It is facing the wrong way.

The questionable expansion sleeve after having been pulled.

The bolts on Trespassing Direct were plated steel bolts mixed with stainless steel hangers and all bolts were in various states of corrosion due to the mixed metals. These have been replaced with 12mm glue-ins donated by the ASCA.

The first bolt was moved left approximately 6 inches in order to adhere to UIAA edge distance recommendations. The original bolt placement was approximately 5 inches away from the edge of the arete which increases the chances of a critical failure due to structural weaknesses in the rock that may be exacerbated by the proximity to an edge.

One of the original anchor bolts snapped during extraction and was unable  to be removed. The anchor configuration was changed to a vertical offset as a consequence of this. I’m waiting on a shipment of stainless steel chain that once I’ve received I’ll use to equalize this anchor setup.

Replaced anchor minus hardware

While the bolt may look good, it was corroding in the hole

Crux bolt; textbook galvanic corrosion

Crux bolt replacement

replaced bolt

Final replaced anchor configuration

The past couple days I spent some time up at Lower West to shore a couple things up. The anchor above Sticks and Stones is not really useful as a rap station for any who wish to use it as such. The bolts are bare which makes a rappel not really desirable. The anchor now has links and rings to facilitate a rope.

Last Saturday I climbed Steel Feathers and noticed the last bolt was missing a hanger. So I came a few days after to put a hanger on it and discovered the bolt was a spinner. Many times we refer to a bolt that has a loose hanger as a spinner, but this is not necessarily correct. A true spinner happens when the bolt’s mechanical effect is compromised and attempts to tighten or loosen the bolt spin the entire anchor assembly in the hole. Effectively the bolt isn’t functioning properly. So I set out today to replace the bolt.

In this case the best method for extracting the bolt was to try and pull the bolt out enough to re-engage the sleeve/cone to then be able to loosen the nut. From there it would be possible to spin the bolt in the hole and grind down the sleeve(s). In this case the bolt never got to a point where it wouldn’t spin. In fact, I was able to extract the bolt solely with a hammer and a funkness device! This bolt has now been replaced with a Bolt Products 6mm twisted leg bolt donated by the ASCA.

Sad rap anchor

Happy rap anchor

Spinner; pulled with hammer and funkness device

Replacement 12mm Bolt Products glue-in

The replacement is lower-visibility given the proximity to Hush Mamma Thrush

A couple weeks ago I was on the In the Pines ledge belaying the SLF and was looking at this anchor. The single quick-link is always a frustration to me because I’ve had bad experiences with my rope getting kinked as it forces the rope to move unnaturally. These are stainless hangers and these are cheap hardware store plated links. My guess is this is galvanic corrosion at work as the plated steel is the preferred material to corrode in this setup.

So today I decided to re-work things a bit. Below are the photos, before and after. I replaced the hardware store links with UIAA/CE rated stainless steel 10mm links and stainless steel rap rings. This orientates the rope in the proper plane and will be more sustainable than a fixed link that can’t spin. That said, I don’t think this is really a concern on this route.

Even with this upgrade, this anchor is still not ideal. The bolt on the right is poorly placed for the direction of pull and becomes barely loaded during a rappel. All it gets is a constant load/unload cycle being pulled to the left which contributes to loosening the bolt; hence why that hanger is loose. What needs to happen is that bolt needs to be moved up to be properly orientated.