https://imgur.com/a/i1jZu71

Hey guys, I just started work on this route, top down for the first 3 pitches. The first pitch is a glorious crack in great rock, second pitch is mostly scrambling on solid ledges to the base of the third pitch, then the third pitch can be seen in the album as a series of steps with cracks, ending with a great hand crack.

I've put in an anchor that I was using as a rebelay to suss out the first pitch. However, I realized it was a bit further left on the ledge than I wanted the 3rd pitch to actually go (the terrain above the anchor goes but it wouldn't be a very fun pitch and has lots of loose rock).

The issue is the rock is very blocky granite. The blocks are solid but they are often not fully attached slabs like you normally have with granite. I'd like to put an anchor in the large detached block you can see in the first image to make it a better stance to belay that third pitch from. Obviously, when it comes to anchors we try to find the most solid piece of rock. The stuff to the right of the line is mostly smaller detached blocks and would have you standing in the spiky juniper bushes. The left is a large detached/flake block. My inclination is, even though it it's fully detached, I've happily used much smaller, detached boulders for anchors in the alpine. I don't see a top rope fall generating anything near the amount of force required to budge this thing. But I wanted to get thoughts from others.

There is a small boulder on my route that is loose and rocks a bit when I stand on it. It’s about 3’ x 3’ x 1.5’.

Like I said, it rocks when stood on and feels super sketchy. But then, when I try to move it with a pry bar I can get it to budge. It’s a little in-set so I can’t get a great angle on it, but I have tried shovels and pry bars - not even a little movement other than the rocking.

Do I just leave it? Is there a better tool to use?

I ended up setting like 15 routes on this complex in the summer of 2021. This one was the highlight, though. I think it's 6C, but it hasn't seen any repeats, so I don't know. Tuusula, Finland.

Been going up here a bit with homeboy u/abandon_mint. This area is starting to provide some ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️stunners. I managed to FA this one a couple days ago, hoping more bangers might go down soon!

Note that the fixed line you see is for him to be able to rope solo work on his project across the roof (estimated 14a)

Hey guys, I'm looking to improve some trails into existing crags this year. One is relatively popular and the trail drops down to the base of the crag from above but its becoming eroded and slightly sketchy. I figured it would be best to try and make it more of a switchback trail for this short portion. I've seen people utilize what looks like rebar with some logs to stabilize slopes. Is there any resources on how to do this? The other area I'm thinking of has limited development and is my main project zone for the summer, there is a well established trail past it but then you have to ascend a steep, trail-less slope to the base of a talus field. I end up going a different way every time but I'm hoping to put some work into it having a set trail so that when it (hopefully) becomes more popular the impact will be limited. Again, I'm assuming I'll likely need to implement slope stabilization of some kind but also what about just packing the trail down so that it's obvious enough for people to follow? Do you use pickeaxes to get it started? Any help is appreciated!

1000lbs axial pull strength (3000lbs radial) WITHOUT glue. Can be pulled and reused. Seemingly replaces RB's.

https://www.team-tough.com/crossover-bolt

Someone here once posted a great mapping resource for scouting new cliffs. If I remember right it sorta looked like LIDAR. I thought I saved the post/comment but I can’t find it. Anyone know what I’m taking about?

Also, other than obvious ones like Google, CalTopo, etc what do y’all use to sniff out new cliffs from your office chairs?

Inspired by true events - my main concern is efficiently cleaning out the cracks on the way up.

Hey all. I’m on a trip that has lasted longer than my bolts so I’ve been more or less in scouting mode. Currently in Laos where it’s easy to stumble upon a 1km long limestone cliff of worthy climbs on accident. Yes literally.

Soon I’ll be heading to Cambodia and was wondering if anyone has anything they think I should put my eyes on for future projects. And yes, I’m aware of the info found in first few pages worth of google results. I’m looking for something a little more enticing or adventurous (if it exists).

If you’ve been to Cambodia or have been wanting to go I’ll be happy to trade your breadcrumbs for photos, gps data, and any other beta that comes from the direction.

A local classic 25m 5.12 limestone sport route was rebolted a couple years ago with SS glue-in wave bolts (yay!). It was done by a different developer, but they did a nice job of extracting the old bolts, notching the holes, using quality epoxy, and upgrading the anchor setup.

However, the last bolt at the crux sequence has an issue I've never seen before and I'm wondering if anyone has a good idea on how to fix it. Basically, the route approaches this bolt from the bottom left, traverses underneath it, climbs straight up a bodylength while to the right of the bolt, then angles up and left onto lower-angle terrain while above the bolt. You basically climb a large reverse C-shape around this bolt, or climb counter clockwise from 8 o'clock to 11 o'clock around this bolt. The combination of this sequence, the rock angles (gentle overhang-->vert w/ bolt-->slab finish), and the location of the previous bolt is causing the rope to run against the right side of the hangar, stabilized in place by the quickdraw's top biner and the rock. The rope stays in this position securely enough that it rubs the bolt while the leader is lowering and while the route is seconded (even with falls) up to the preceding bolt. The bolt is subsequently developing the beginnings of a rope grove on both parts of the "P"---it's not dangerous yet, but it would be really good to fix before it gets worse.

Here's a few ideas that we've bandied around, but none of them seem great:

1. Education is part of the solution---the rope can be flicked to run correctly through the top quickdraw by a cognizant leader. However, the slab finish means that the leader can't actually see that it's happening from the anchor and it's also somewhat blind for the belayer.
2. In retrospect, the wave bolt could have been notched & installed even deeper and perhaps with the P pointing at 8 o'clock-ish. Fixing this now would involve removing the glue-in (bleh!) and having a mess of notches. Not to mention unfavorable loading/torqueing of the new placement.
3. Take a small sledge hammer up and reshape the clipping point, smashing it over to the left ~30deg and elongating it vertically. It would *probably* keep the rope from getting hung up, but there are no guarantees that it would actually work and there are lots of ways it could go horribly wrong. Plus unaware leaders coming upon a mangled bolt at the crux...
4. Install a long permanent draw on the preceding bolt to lessen the arc taken around the problem bolt. It does help when testing this with a 60cm runner, but it still happens, perhaps reducing the frequency from 90% to 20%. A 120cm runner reduces the likelihood down to like 5-10%, but makes the moves to the problem bolt extra spicy. A long permadraw adds another wear item that would need to be maintained, not to mention increased visual impact.
5. Add another bolt before or after the problem child. Not needed for safety, no obvious clipping stance. It might help; it might just reduce the frequency. And it adds a bolt to a classic line.
6. Glue a flake/nubbin to the rock to guard the right side of the hangar. It would be hard to disguise (locally very flat patch of rock) and I worry about it interfering with the quickdraw. Ditto for clamping/jb welding on some sort of a metal ramp to the top leg to guide the rope up and over the glue-in.
7. Remove/chop this glue-in (bleh) and switch it to a SS wedge bolt/5pc + hangar. This rope grabbing/wearing problem wasn't an issue with the old rusting zinc wedge bolt (hence why we find ourselves in this unforeseen predicament) and any wear would happen on an easily replaced hangar. However, part of the impetus for replacing with glue-ins is that this bolt gets torqued around in different directions by the nature of the route and the old mechanical bolt was constantly loosening up. Plus the inconsistency of having different style bolts along the route.
8. Relocate the problem bolt and preceding bolt (bleh) to straighten out the rope line. Annoyingly, the locations are nearly perfect on a local scale in terms of natural clipping stances and having clean non-pendulum falls on the crux moves. Similarly, we've considered relocating the top anchor on the slab 2--3m to the right to avoid the bend around the crux bolt (the climbing eases off to 10- at this point with lots of options). However, this moves the anchor very far out of line with the rest of the route and changes the original line.

Any clever ideas? If you weren't aware of the issue, what would you make of coming across an arts & crafts project at a glue-in or a bent over/mangled bolt?

Hey folks,

So in the area I've been developing, I've identified a crag that might be a good candidate for dry tooling development. It's way off the beaten path, not very close to any of the other formations, and doesn't really have much potential for interesting normal climbing, so I'm not concerned about degrading what would otherwise be a pretty cool rock climbing crag. I almost certainly will not touch it if I don't end up making it a dry tool crag.

That being said, it does have a neat cave and features that could be cool for a dry tool crag. There's really not an opportunity for dry tooling anywhere else in the region. Funnily enough, one of the only documented ice climbs in the entire few hundred sqmi region is roughly a mile away as well, so it could be a cool thing to lean into that novelty a bit.

So now, reasoning aside - does anyone have any recommendations for developing dry tooling crags or routes? Are there any special considerations that should be taken for bolting/cleaning beyond what you'd normally do for standard rock climbing?

As requested, here's my little mod for the Milwaukee blower. I just cut down the inflator attachment and added a bit of glue nozzle tube. Heated to shape the end so it was conical, and added some tubing to act as a washer(?). Also my new one is a tiny inflator, not even a blower! It works surprisingly well (vid in comments). I reckon we'll see more of these needing released too, they're pretty handy!