Rap Wall, loose bolt warning!!!

[dan_e]

Climbed at Rap Wall today and brought the wrench along for a loose nut that I found on Chuck D last time I was up there. What I thought was only a loose nut turned out to be a bolt that wasn't expanded, as in it literally felt like the bolt was only tapped in!

 

I replaced the missing bolt on the climb with the large crack last year, it's the one in the overhang the the right of the crack. I fell on it hard last year so it's been tested. I heard Chad Kellogg fell on the original bolt a while back and it pulled sending him flat on his back to the slab below.

 

At this point I would consider all bolts at Rap Wall suspect. I will be tightening the remaining ones when I get a chance, but it may be a while. All the bolts where tightened on Chuck D, including the anchor bolts.

 

Have fun out there!

 

[Jens]

The anchors on a few of those routes should be moved lower. Once the snow falls they are unusable and s a result, the standard practice for all during the winter has been just to go off the last bolt. The FA's were done in October as pure dry tools.

[dan_e]

Out at Rap Wall again this Sat, took way too many falls and couldn't seem to stop dropping my right Nomic, no major damage except for a busted griprest. I did get a bit battered though.

 

That being said the bolts have been inspected and tightened on all routes except for the roof (far left) and Ghost Dog (far right).

[dan_e]

@Jens

 

Rap Wall is a dry-tooling crag, the anchors do get buried which can be a pain, however imo they are located correctly for the routes. I took a 20'+ inverted fall on RZA last year because I slipped trying to find and clip the chains which were buried in snow. It was a fun ride, however a bit scary to think of now considering almost all the bolts needed tightening on that route!

 

If you go after the snow falls I would suggest climbing around to the top, rap off one of the trees above the cliff and then clean the chains. Some of the bolts get covered as well, especially on the right side. I mainly go there in the fall since the routes are much more fun when they are snow/ice free.