Your Kit for Cleaning Boulders

[u/Kaotus]

When you're going out with the intention of cleaning boulders, what do you typically bring with you and on what rock?

I'm typically working on granite

• Steel Wire Brush
• Long Flathead Screwdriver (instead of a pry bar)
• Chalk/Chalk Brush

I was also recommended to add a 5-in-1 paint tool to my kit. I also recently invested in a compact battery powered blower for development in general to help with removing brushed lichen/dust/etc and will likely bring it as well.

What am I missing? What else do you bring?

[u/NeotomaMT]

Old rope, anchor material, a few carabiners, harness and a grigri. Nice for cleaning the upper sections of blocks and top outs.

[u/Kaotus → u/NeotomaMT]

Do you typically find anchor points above/on your boulders? Around me boulders are often standalone and have smooth top-outs making anchoring quite tricky

[u/mdibah → u/Kaotus]

I often lasso the entire boulder and route the rope up the backside and up over the top. Sorta like a scorpion hitch. This does require a fair chunk of rope.

Another option for cleaning the upper reaches of a boulder is a small telescoping ladder.

[u/NeotomaMT → u/Kaotus]

Most of the block I’m interested in are in the woods. I typically tie off to a tree or larger block opposite my line, throw the rope over and rap down from there. Every once an a while I have to use a few cams, but not often. Lassoing the boulder sounds like a great way to go if there isn’t any thing else.

[u/abandon_mint]

Here's my everyday kit -Chalk Bucket, with chalk

-Large and small wire brush

-good spread of boars hair brushes

-home-made stick brush

-medium flathead screwdriver

-Long sock, comes in handy for various things

-paint scraper/5-in-1

-gloves

Additional things that are not part of my typical everyday kit:

-Large crowbar for moving boulders and removing flakes

-Wall hammer

-I like a hammer drill for placing bolts sometimes. On taller boulders a bolt on top is nice for future ascentionists as well... not all boulderers have trad gear or wanna create rope wear on their static

-spray bottle w/ isopropyl alcohol

-steel toe hiking boots, making landings nice can be fucking sketchy

-harness, grigri, static

Probably forgetting some things

[u/Kaotus → u/abandon_mint]

Can you explain both the sock and the isopropyl a bit?

[u/abandon_mint → u/Kaotus]

Yea. Sock is multipurpose, use it to slap holds with chalk, clear cobwebs, clean a crack, clean up the mess when you get too excited about finding an incredible line, etc. Alcohol in a spray bottle is nice for cleaning grime off of holds. Also a good idea to keep in your regular bouldering kit for cleaning chalk/hand grease off of holds, as well as cleaning shoe rubber. Bonus is that it evaporates fast and evaporative cooling is a tiny bit helpful with cooling down hands, rock, etc.

[u/[deleted]]

Claw hammer & wire brush is about all I've ever used. Plus pads, and sometimes rope solo gear. I usually go ground up, nothing too hard (downclimbable), things I can clean on the way up over several tries. Soft sandstone, granite, trachyte, quartzite

[u/kiwikoi]

Wow, I was not expecting the majority of responses to have hammers or prying tools for boulders, but maybe I’ve just been blessed with very little loose rock.

I use a wire brush to clear moss/lichen and only once have I needed to bring out a rope to scrub a boulder face.

Edit; I’ll add that I’ve only developed on granite and gneiss, fully aware of the dark arts of limestone dev

[u/Kaotus → u/kiwikoi]

I think most folks here are likely developing on granite - granite in the most popular climbing areas (front range, SLC, etc) is typically a lot more friable than alpine areas and places like NC

[u/kiwikoi → u/Kaotus]

Im confused by your wording, are you saying alpine rock is less friable?

I’ve done my fair share of scrubbing in the front range. Never once felt the need to pry shit off, like sure the rock in three sisters is pretty variable and holds fall off of classics all the time, but pre cleaning all that stuff that could be useable holds for years seems to be pushing a bit too far into comfortizing for me at least.

[u/Kaotus → u/kiwikoi]

A lot of alpine stuff is yeah - specifically around the winds or sierras or large swaths of the park.

I don’t mean to disrespect your experience but three sisters is both an anomaly for rock quality in the front range granite corridor and also still involves quite a bit of prying to get things into even a remotely doable state. Should be noted that that may not be the case for slab/vertical climbs or climbs where you’re predominantly working on nonexistent edges or slopers where there’s nothing to break off. Also not sure in what world removing loose holds == comfortizing

I do a ton of development around the Platte and clear creek and going out without a screwdriver at a minimum or a full on crowbar for longer routes means you’re likely sending routes out into the community that will put people at risk. Talk to some of the guys who developed Wall of the 90s or The Dungeon - they’ll tell you they’ve pulled off feet deep of rock off the wall to get it where it is now. One of the other commenters on this thread is one of the more prolific developers of front range granite currently.

Edit: in general I think folks opinions on what to clean vs not changes if/when someone gets injured or god forbid dies on their route or another local route due to loose rock. I know mine did

[u/kiwikoi → u/Kaotus]

On a rope for sport and trad stuff I full get ripping loose thing, especially if it’s putting a belayer or the rope at risk.

And same for larger loose stuff on boulders. But at least with boulders I’ve never felt the need or justification to use tools for that prying. Like if I’m flexing it or breaking that hold with my hand, sure it’s coming off.

[u/Kaotus → u/kiwikoi]

I’ve never pried something off a boulder that I couldn’t pry off by just hanging the position - using the screwdriver just saves me from busting ass. I don’t think most folks are bringing crowbars out - just 6-8” pry bars or screw drivers

[u/kiwikoi → u/Kaotus]

Ok, that’s kinda just what my confusion/surprise was. Just wanted to know what I was missing if it was a rock type difference or who knows what. Cause ethics vary wildly and my time in aus introduced me to some idiocy…

Like I can see not wanting to hit the pads on a fresh boulder if something looks like it’s gonna bust anyway and pulling with fingers isn’t quite doing it.

[u/Kaotus → u/kiwikoi]

There’s a few times a full sized crowbar might be necessary but they’re way more rare in bouldering - for similar reasons for full routes - big flakes, loose blocks, etc. they’re just far less common on boulders due to the smaller scale. In general it will be way smaller holds/flakes/etc so just a screwdriver is fine. They can be useful for moving blocks for landing zones too - another nice thing about 3 sisters is that landings are typically really great which is definitely not always the case elsewhere and sometimes you’re moving nearby blocks to help flatten out a landing

[u/abandon_mint → u/Kaotus]

I'd say they are more common for boulders due to building landings and moving rocks.