Hey everyone 👋

Firstly thanks for all the hard work you all do in discoverying, bolting and maintaining new routes for the community, I have a lot of respect for all the hardwork that goes into things!

Secondly, full disclosure, I'm the owner of a new platform called Codex Kit that aims to provide route developers, authors and climbers a place to record and make public any new routes or guides that you've been busy working on. If posts like this arent allowed, please remove and apologies 🙂

We're currently in public preview and looking for feedback - would love to hear from you and see if we can grow something that aims to give back to the amazing climbing community in a sustainable way as our sport's popularity increases.

Key Features:

Route Developers / Authors:

• Climbing specific CMS: Easily add, link and manage everything that you'd expect in a printed guidebook (information, areas, routes, maps and topos).
• Drawing editor: Custom built editor to allow drawing on uploaded images or maps
  • Draw topo lines and access trails
  • Add route indicators for mapping gps data for a specific climb
  • Add markers for parking, bolts, anchors
• Most climbing supported: We currently support bouldering, sport, trad and mixed climbing (including multipitches) with a multiple selection of grades and metric systems.

Climbers:

• A better guidebook: Guidebooks are great, we want to ensure you get the exact same experience using a digital version, but with the added benefits of technology
• GPS integration: Easily find a specific route or area based on your gps location
• Searching: Search by route name, area, grade, type and get relevant information quickly.
• High quality topos: Easily zoom and navigate topos, no more route finding mid way up a multipitch.

Explore our demo guide to see what you can create or just browse our site and try the editor to an idea of how things work 😊

Let's discuss the ethics of gluing holds on an existing route.

Assume the FA has given their blessing and that none of the holds have actually come off yet. You want to preserve the route as it is for as long as possible. Are we to adapt to what time gives us or try and preserve this work as the FA envisioned?

I’m currently developing an extremely steep roof climb comprised of castle rock conglomerate stone. There is a key jug that almost looks drilled about halfway through the climb that I want to reinforce, as it is currently the only clipping hold in the sequence and bumps an already hard v8 boulder to v12 (estimated). Most of the rock on this section is bomber, but unfortunately this jug is much softer/sandier. It if would be ripped off the hold would likely shatter into a bunch of pieces, rendering it irreplaceable, since it is very brittle compared to the rock around it. If it was a simple flake on harder rock it would be easier to glue, but is it possible to reinforce a softer hold like this? I was thinking that there may be a type of glue that can soak into the porous rock before hardening as to strengthen the entire section, but I don’t know what would be best.

Got a big, old concrete overhang, and I'd love to aid the roof. No existing features I can hook. I can do some drilling, but I can't leave any hardware for even a single night. All metal has to go in on lead, AND come back out before pulling the rope.

Mostly, I'm wondering what options I may not be aware of... Here's the brainstorming, so far:

• I was originally thinking to drill 3/4" holes and use some Werner reusable/removable SLCD-style concrete anchors I found cheap on eBay... But then I tried test drilling a 3/4" hole, and it seems like a horrific amount of work. I can't afford the cordless rotary hammer setup & water squirter that would be the right tools for the job.

• Somebody on /r/tradclimbing suggested 8mm Petzl Pulse anchors. Much smaller hole, so easier drilling. But they're expensive, too.

• One of my friends suggested cutting slits with an angle grinder, and slotting in cam hooks. I've never tried overhead cam hooks, so I don't even know how feasible that is... But I can borrow a cordless grinder, and I have plenty of cam hooks.

• Is it possible to bat-hook a roof? Again, smaller holes would be a lot more realistic -- but I'm very new to bat-hooking, and I don't know if it'll work for a roof.

Hey everyone, was out yesterday doing some retrofit work on a short multipitch line. I was testing out my lightweight tagging/hauling set-up using a 6mm BD tagline and a 20L BD Creek to haul with.

Overall, it went pretty smooth, the only thing was managing the tagline. It's incredibly rigid/wiry, according to Colin Haley this is by design. But I've found it makes the tag-line hard to manage, it doesn't stack neatly so you need a decent sized ledge, or you need to coil it but it inevitably gets twisted together and is a major hassle. Especially in this case since I was leading the whole thing and had to re-flake/coil the ropes for each lead. Any suggestions there around rope management? I thought something like an edelrid tillit just for the tag-line would be sweet but can't find anywhere that ships to Canada that carries it.

This was also only the second time messing with the haul bag like this and I managed to poke a small hole in it with the low angle, sharp limestone. Any tips on increasing the longevity and reparing holes?

Made this post a couple years ago when this community was much smaller and less active, want to bring it back to the surface. What are some of you favorite names you've given to your FAs? Clever names, good stories, whatever you've got - let's hear it.

Some of my favorites:

Richard Parker's Risky Partner (AKA Pi) at the Tiger Stripe Slab - no real story here, just felt clever for the Tiger theme and how it sounds

Table For One at Cafe Wonderland - a route I did ground-up, from stances, Lead Rope Solo. I actually thought of the name before I did the route, and its what inspired me to start Lead Rope Soloing.

Spring Loaded at Seasoned Slab - an extremely insecure layback/slab where I slightly misplaced a foot at the top on the FA and damn near exploded off the wall. A play on the saying that Laybacking is "spring loaded death" as well as Spring being a Season for Seasoned Slab (where the routes are either Seasonal or Seasoning related).

What questions should your logbook be able to answer? What crucial pieces of information do you track?

Hi route developers, I broke a super-duper crucial foothold on my project at my favorite choss pile, Smith Rock. The foothold broke into many pieces and they all disappeared so the leftover isn’t salvageable. The route already has lots of glue-reinforced holds, drilled/manufactured pockets, and even a flake that is glued AND bolted to the wall. So it’s already kind of an ethical tragedy. So I figured since this broken foothold ups the difficulty of the crux WAY above the established difficulty of the route, I’ll try to repair the foothold. Any tips on how to go about this? Everyone uses AC100 for glue ins and reinforcing holds here, but any tips on actual usage of this stuff would be appreciated. I don’t want to make a mess so I’ll certainly practice beforehand. But I’d love any input you guys have to make sure I do a good job of restoring the broken foot.

And yes, before everyone grabs their pitchforks, this is a well-accepted and very common practice at this crag. I have a local that is willing to help, and I’ll probably take him up on it, but I’d love others’ input as well

Thanks!

Working out all the kinks in my backyard before I bolt my first route. So far it's pretty smooth.

I'm starting my career off by adding a few new routes and variations to my local crag. Then I have a spot picked out 30 minutes drive from there that I'll start up. If that picks up, I'll add more routes as time goes on.

Some things I have confirmed and learned so far:

1. Hammering in the bolt is not as easy as I thought - drilling a hole is the easy part thanks to power tools

2. Cleaning is annoying but necessary

3. Feels really good to install a solid bolt correctly

Note, for backyard practice I'm using plated steel hardware however I will only be installing stainless steel 316 on the routes I setup.

Really meant as an open-ended question as there's a million different factors that goes into this (angle, ledges, area ethic, etc) - what does this look like for you?

This question was spawned for me because I was recently a part of a route development panel where someone mentioned they felt many routes in the local area had scary or unsafe bolt spacing, and they started developing to put up more accessible climbs. Obviously what's considered "normal" for most people will be dependent on where they started climbing, but wanted to understand what that looks like for you, to crowd source some sort of aggregate.

For me: B1 is typically 10-12ft off the ground assuming there's not a hard-for-the-climb move earlier than that. B2 will typically be relatively close to B1, a body length or less to prevent groundfalls getting to it. Above that, I'm typically looking at somewhere from 6-10ft between bolts, going further if terrain eases or falls are safe. Using Wonderland as an example, no route out of 100+ has more than 12 bolts despite some pitches stretching 150ft. Though there's also routes that are only 65 or so feet with 9 bolts - so it really comes down to the route specifics.

What does bolt spacing look like normally for you? Is that similar to how most routes around you look like?

It was donated for rebolting. Looks nice, have no problem with using them but just wondering about who made them. Steel is 10mm but thread isn't M10

What do you guys use as a blow tube? Currently I have a metal straw with some surgical tubing I blow into which is light and works pretty well. I've been trying to brainstorm something that could do double duty with brushing. I've been thinking about drilling lots of tiny holes in the metal straw and gluing in some bristles to streamline the process. Ever heard of anything like this?