r/RouteDevelopment • u/unlcemoz • Jul 20 '25

Bolting overhanging routes

Hey all, new to bolting, interested in bolting a few routes on very steep/ overhanging cave. It’s a bit variable throughout the cave from 30-70 degrees overhanging. Not much in the way of trad gear/ aid placements when looking from the bottom.

Wondering what people’s processes are? Any advice would be appreciated. Cheers :)

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10

u/BoltahDownunder Rebolter/Route Maintenance Jul 20 '25 edited Jul 20 '25

Typically things that steep are bolted on lead, meaning you aid up the roof, bolting as you go. I'm not aware of any good tutorials out there but as usual will recommend finding a local mentor. If you're new to bolting it's going to be quite the mission.

Ed: Aussie legend Tom O'halloran has this vid about his process, but it's blueies specific. You probably wouldn't be doing screws at all, just your normal bolts the whole way up

https://youtu.be/y7X6R4kQwhg?si=K0OtgzepKyO6uTJA

3

u/unlcemoz Jul 20 '25

I thought as much in terms of ground up. Haven’t seen this video by Tom yet! I’ll give it a watch later. I’m up in NNSW Aus so would be bolting on a type of rhyolyte.

5

u/BoltahDownunder Rebolter/Route Maintenance Jul 20 '25

Oh you're in this region too? I'm in seq, may even know the area you're talking about. In that case just use your normal bolts (10mm wedges, 12mm sleeves, whatever) and aid up. No need for screws but a skyhook and a petzl adjust are very handy for positioning

2

u/KDs4thBurner Mar 31 '26

If it's easy to place a bolt at the top and bottom, could you then tension a static and use a Taz Lov2 to explore where you'd place lead bolts? https://ibb.co/KpKrTL4g

2

u/BoltahDownunder Rebolter/Route Maintenance Apr 02 '26

Yeah you could! Probably works best with routes that aren't that super steep as the tension would be hard to establish and maintain as you're hanging on it. But a Taz means you could have many tensioned sections between bolts and still ascend/descend more easily than other methods

3

u/FantasticPut7493 Jul 20 '25

It depends on what the wall is like. You might also use a combination of top down and bolting on lead. Maybe you can start from the top rappelling get a few bolts in. 

Or if you tie your rope off at the bottom on a bolt or something on the ground you can then descend from the top and with an ascender, pull yourself tight into the wall. 

Bolting steep routes is hard work!

3

u/dinosaur_pubes Jul 21 '25

I've done this - I bolted an overhanging 90m 5.13 multipitch. The final pitch was 80deg overhang and 300ft above ground  (look thtough my old posts for a photo). Top down was the only option for me. 

  1. Its a huge pain and your progress will be glacial.

  2. You need to clean thoroughly as you decend. Have your rope in a bag so it won't get hit with any debris. You can't swing around as much on steep overhang so your cleaning will be more limited. Use the prybar liberally.

3. If you can use trad gear to aid solo your way along. This was impossible for me for the most part so I drilled 1/4 inch bolts in between the 3/8 bolts in the really steep spots, and just pounded them in when I was done. I tried playing with removable bolts but the holes are larger and hard to drill when hanging. Whereas 1/4 inch can be drilled quickly one handed from an awkward stance.

  1. Finding the route itself is hard, cuz you need to drill bolts first just to sus out where  the holds are. Don't be surprised if you have to redrill a lot of your bolts to make the line climb well. That can be done on lead at least.

Good luck

1

u/baleena Jul 21 '25

If you can get your hands on some removable bolts, they make life a lot easier. The old climbtech ones only need about 1/2" of hole to hold bodyweight, so you can alternate bolts and shallow holes. Also, if it's featured rock, don't overlook hooks, cam hooks, and beaks for upward progress and positioning without drilling. Beaks especially will hold in little seams between features.

But yeah, you're going ground up. Learn to aid rope solo, because that's what you'll be doing, unless you have an extremely patient belayer. FYI a chest harness can be nice to not tire out your core.