“Finally, how to use the highline that is already set up” 2nd Logistics video Logistics Episode 6 & 7 This is a free course shows you how to use a highline that is already set up. Our courses are A-Z content in blog format, glued together with an overarching blog we call a textbook. A blog format is easy to read, easy to update, and easy to translate. Be sure to begin at the TEXTBOOK and at the end of each episode we'll point you to the next. Last but not least, the meat of the course. How on earth do you get back on top after you fall or stand up in the middle of a highline? Learn how to slide back on long vs short highlines and how to manage your leash while walking. We will even show you how to catch and try to convince you that it is a bad idea! Some Logistic Tips: Clip your PAS to a solid point on the anchor if near a cliff edge to work or to tie in. When you are tied in, you can take off your PAS and wrap it once around your waist and clip it to a gear loop so you always have it available when you are ready to untie. Don’t make it too tight but you don’t want it loose either. It is nice to have it the same tension as your harness waist belt. Tie a figure 8 by doing half the knot in the bottom 2/3rds of the leash, then go up through your harness and retrace it until you have parallel lines on all parts of the knot. Finish your tail by doing a stopper knot on the top or putting the tail through the bottom hole of the figure 8. Just make sure you don’t create a loop for your finger to get amputated. Climb a leash by flipping upside down, putting a foot, thigh or shin on the leash, then reaching over to pull yourself up high enough to grab the highline. Mount (going from under to on top) a line by creating a counter weight with your legs and swinging to the top of the line. There are many ways of doing this. Starting (going from sitting to standing) can be done many ways. They all require your leg(s) to be under your butt, then transfer your weight to your leg(s), then stand up. Your arms can grab the line or be out far to help you balance depending on the method You can put the leash in front or behind you when you start. Just make sure your legs don’t get caught in it when you start so plan according to your style “Chongo” sit start begins where you are sitting on your foot and your knee is bent aggressively, which can cause damage to your knee tendons. So be careful not to over do this sit start until your knee is used to it. If your leash gets stuck when you are walking, just reach down between your legs with one hand and jiggle it. To move the leash to the other side of your body while sitting, just hold the leash in place and push your body up and scoot over it. When walking with a leash, you want it between your legs. If it is off to one side it can make falling on that side awful or get hung up on your leg on that side while trying to walk. When you fall, don’t go feet first and don’t grab the leash! Catching a highline can cause injuries to your hands, fingers or elbow joints, but it is a good skill to have as it saves from having to climb a leash and protects you in no-fall zones that you shouldn’t be walking in anyways. If you rely on catching, you may be tempted to not stand up all the way, which makes walking more difficult. To go from standing to sitting, squat while staying as straight as possible without bending over, reach down with one hand and reach for line, then sit. If you screw up the line can snap up and sprain your wrist so be careful. Turn around by pushing your body up with both hands on the line, flip one leg to the same side as the other leg, then flip the other leg over line; keeping your waist above line the whole time. It can be exhausting to go under the line, turn around and remount the line. Having a keep sling is convenient for your line slide but it is more efficient if sliding long distances to have the line slide directly connected to your belay loop. Whether sliding out or in on steep lines, you always want your head facing the closest anchor. Buddy check every time before highlining. Be checked or check your friends on the following: Is harnessed correctly. Is it double backed if the harness requires it? Does the leash go through the same 2 points of the harness that the belay loop is going through? Is the figure 8 tied right. You can count the parallel lines 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 plus tail tied off? Do they have loose things on them or things in their unzipped pockets Don’t slide out of control on steep lines Line slide past obstacles by using your heel to take the weight off your hips so you can use your free hand to slide it past the twisted backup or split connector. To rest on a steep highline, you can flip the line slide over (specifically the Hangover) so the wheels are on your belay loop, so you don’t slide around. To scoot on a highline put one hand behind you and one hand in front and push your butt off the line. Practice this in the park so you don’t wear yourself out on a highline. Don’t leave the lineslide on the highline if you are trying to get back onto the cliff or it will hose you. Sometimes, it can be easiest to get back onto the cliff (if you slid to the end) to mount the line and scoot to the cliff edge rather than trying to do a pull up right next to the cliff edge. Keep positive thoughts, have goals, but don’t get frustrated if it is too hard. Aim to reach flow state and not adrenaline. Highlines can have the following unique characteristics compared to slacklines in the park. Humping: back and forth motion as the energy travels through the line (200+ meter longs) Side sag: you are blown off center and the highline is not straight (100+ meters) Backup loops: loose backups can wrap around the main line or be blown around by wind and you need to be careful not to get your feet caught in it while walking. HowNOT2 Contribute If you have something to share, we'd love to add it. Please be kind by delivering something ready to add, whether that is a video or an image or a written piece, and tell us where you think it best fits. It doesn't have to agree with what we included, but it does have to be respectful and professional. There are a lot of great ideas out there and this is a place they can be shared. ryan@slackline.com This is the End Check out our other free COURSES or head back to the TEXTBOOK for the quiz. This course is free but not free to make. If it really helped you, please consider SUPPORTING US.

“Replacing Climbing Wedge Bolts with Powers Bolts at Sugar Loaf in Tahoe The Bolting Bible The Book of Pulling Out Pulling out isn’t as much fun than leaving it in there, but sometimes it is safer” Welcome to our free course as our way of contributing to the bolting community. It's nice to understand what you are clipping and trusting with your life, even if you never plan on installing or removing bolts. Also, if someone is going to spend their time and money to bolt something, I assume, they probably want to do it as good as possible. Hopefully the Bolting Bible gives you the tools you need to do a great job. Get it? Our courses are A-Z content in blog format, glued together with an over arching blog we call a text book. A blog format is easy to read, easy to update, and easy to translate. Be sure to begin at the TEXTBOOK and at the end of each episode we'll point you to the next. You’re about to hit the crux and you get to a bolt that looks more sketch than a 000 cam in wet sandstone on Friday the 13th. Unfortunately, some bolts installed do not pass the test of time and need to be replaced BEFORE they kill someone. It’s not ideal to have a bolt pull out while you are in the midst of using it, but when our bolting angels go to replace bolts, they can be tricky to remove in such a way that the hole can be reused. This chapter talks about all the different ways to remove old bolts. Ethics are important when re-bolting. Retro-bolting is when you add bolts to an existing climb. This is frowned upon by most of the climbing community but in some situations this can be done to improve the quality of the climb or make it safer, if the F.A. (first ascensionist) is consulted or if they are unavailable, community consensus is obtained. The goal of rebolting is to reuse every hole so our rocks don’t turn into swiss cheese. If quality stainless or titanium bolts are used, then no one in our lifetime should have to change them, except for the high use lower offs where the rope grinds through the metal over time, but that is just a maintenance thing. If bolt holes are not reusable, there are several ways to fill them so they don’t show much. You can use glue you already have if you are installing glue ins and apply dust and pebbles you have collected from the new hole you drilled. If you aren’t using super red hilti glue and properly apply the dust, this can camouflage it well. Another option is any epoxy putty like Pool Epoxy or Damn Good Putty at about $9. May brands have many colors to match the rock type you are using. You knead the two parts together, shove it in the hole, camouflage it with tiny rock chips or sand on top or even mix some into it as you kneed it, and it is as hard as the rock in 20 minutes. Any two part epoxy putty can work. LamLock Rocket Gel comes with the two parts and then 8 color bottles to get fancy if your rock isn’t boring and grey, but this is expensive and bulky. InstaCrete is another great option and is only about $14. Clear silicone, in a squeeze bottle, can also be used if you smash a small pebble into hole after filling it with the silicone. Keep in mind the silicone and even clear epoxies, can yellow over time, so consider your rock color when doing this. If you are using a mechanical bolt that relies on the hole being the correct size, you may have to drill the hole to the next size up. Oftentimes you are replacing a ⅜” (10mm) bolt and so you just go to ½” (12mm) for a fresh hole. Sometimes the bit can get jammed in there and so you have to baby it. If you are installing a glue in, then as long as it is the right size hole, not being perfectly cylindrical doesn’t matter. However, additional drilling might be required if you need a notch. Chop Chop Some bolts can’t be saved. They are so corroded the heads will snap off way before you could get the shaft out of the rock, or they get stuck as you try to extract them. Chopping usually is the term used for removing bolts in general and doesn’t mean an ax is used, but this can mean use brute force to wack it back and forth so much it breaks. On really rusty bolts, once the hanger is removed, hammering the stud back and forth just two or three times, stress bends it where it contacts the rock and it breaks right off. Just know you aren’t reusing that hole. See an example HERE. Bigger bolts with more substance can be cut off if you can’t use the techniques we explain below. The lightest and simplest way to do this is using a metal cutting hacksaw blade. Attach key rings to each side as handles. You can also use a battery powered angle grinder or Sawzall or get a wheel adapter that works on your drill called a Mandrel. This can be tricky to get under the hanger and/or not grind a half circle out of the rock. You can cut the bolt head off above the hanger, then remove the hanger and try to smash the bolt into the hole flush with the rock. Don’t make cut marks on the rock! Sometimes you can just “over tighten” the bolt with a 18” breaker bar and ping! The head will snap off and will be ready to patch. SS studs break pretty easily, carbon steel has more elasticity and tends to be harder to snap. 5 piece bolts tend to spin in the hole before breaking. Either way this gives you insight on why we shouldn’t over tighten them when installing! FANCY TIP: To leave less of an impact and to prevent our rocks from turning to swiss cheese, you can bury the old bolt under the notch of the new one if you are using a glue in as you can see in this photo above. You need to pound the bolt slightly below the surface to do this and some might be concerned about a compromised strength but after breaking hundreds of bolts, I can’t see how that is possible. We will be sure to test this in BoltBusters. Forking up - Button Heads This is like chopping but with more finesse. A tuning fork, commonly made from pitons, literally wedges the bolt out. You start with quite thin blades then progressively work up to thicker ones and even stack them until the bolt is free. Of course a big enough crow bar would probably also work. Forking up is more common on bolts that can’t have drills attached to them or adapters + extractors such as button heads. I have used this method in Yosemite where drills are not allowed. Be mindful not to damage the rock. Granite can sometimes take a beating but softer rock can get scared if you are too aggressive on it. A paint lid or sheet metal works or if a piece of wood if you are using a lever like a crow bar. It can be assumed that if you are trying to replace a bolt, you care about the end result looking nice, so be mindful about keeping the rock nice. In this episode we use piton forks to remove some old bolts. Roll up your sleeves - Powers 5 piece bolts Powers 5 piece bolts can be unscrewed and the core bolt removed, however the sleeve and nut is still stuck in there. Even though the nut fits snug in the hole, if the sleeve wasn’t in the way, the bolt can be reinstalled and used to pull out the nut. The trick is removing that sleeve! With enough tears and patience, you can try using needle nose pliers to pull it out, hook it from the bottom, or smash and drill it into pieces with a concrete bit and your rotary hammer. If you are trying to grab the nut at the bottom after removing the pesky sleeve, then don’t bust your nut up. You can pull the reinstalled bolt with a bolt removal tool that we discuss below, or just attach a shit hanger to it and use a funkness device (hammer with sling attached to head), or grind it to a pulp and blow it out and use a magnet tool. HowNOT2 SWAG Believe it or not, bolting companies are not lining up to sponsor us; mostly because there is no money in such a niche industry. $1 per episode helps a ton and so does grabbing MERCH if something grabs your eye. Lots of designs and options. Spinning (Step 1 of 2) - Wedge bolts This is step1 of a 2 step process. Wedge bolts can be spun to create a grove next to the clip at the base, stopping the clip from expanding and being able to “just” be pulled out. Adding water helps mix with the dust to create an abrasive paste at that point of contact. If you want to really get gritty, you can use 240 grit aluminum oxide sand blasting powder in a squirt bottle so you can get groovy faster. It can be tricky to get the right adapter to fit your drill AND the threads on the bolts. Once the bolt hits the set screw, inside the adapter, the bolt stops threading deeper inside the adapter and starts to spin the bolt itself. If the coupler touches the rock then the bolt won’t spin. As you drill you push and pull like you are truly screwing the rock. Powered spinning: If you use the rotary hammer drill you probably already have with you, then you need an SDS adapter to generally a male threaded end. Then you put a coupler on that which is female on both sides that goes on the male… ok i’ll hold back the jokes. If you want more torque, you can use a 3/8" impact driver and that just requires a different adapter. Manually spinning: Why on earth would you spin a bolt manually??? National Parks in the US don’t allow power drills even if you are a do gooder who wants to re-bolt (some permits are available in some areas). This video shows the spinner tool that Dan Merrick modified for bolt spinning. It is a speed wrench + universal joint socket that goes over the coupler nut + coupler nut (with course threads!). These components need to be secured together because you will be pulling out while spinning it. There needs to be a set screw inside the coupler (or an extra nut on the bolt) because if the bolt doesn’t bottom out in the back of the coupler it just pulls the bolt tighter against the clip instead of spinning it. Extracting (part 2 of 2) - Wedge Bolts Even with the base of the bolt compromised, it can still be surprisingly difficult to pull the bolt out. However, mechanical advantage can come in a small package. A giant screw inside a hollow tube is light and affordable, or a small hydraulic pump, that works very much like a car jack, gives so much advantage you have to pump carefully in order not to snap the bolt. If done correctly, there will be a clicking sound as the bolt comes out a little bit at a time. And if the tool doesn’t have enough lifting distance (throw), then you just reset it and put in a spacer and do it again. No one needs the BoltBusters crazy hollow ram puller unless you are trying to be dramatic! Something I learned with BoltBuster is more power isn’t always what you want. Technique is important or you just end up snapping the bolt and then the hole cannot be reused. Giant Screws Doodad 4.0 Greg German (Gregger Man) has developed a Doodad bolt extractor that is a like a giant screw inside of a pipe or square tubing with an adapter on the end that gets attached to the threads on the bolt you are trying to remove. The giant screw pulls up on the bolt while and the outer pipe or square tubing pushes against the rock, sucking the bolt into the square tubing. You can see plans and material list HERE. Watch Greg show you how to make one on his video or him using an older version in this video and him explaining about it in this video. YABR - Yet Another Bolt Remover Greg German made his Doodad commercially available if you just want to just BUY IT and it's called the YABR. You can watch us use this tool in this EPISODE. We also pulled tested it in this EPISODE to see how much force you can get from this device and we got over 23kN! That just shows how important it is to score the nut at the bottom by spinning the bolt first so it doesn't break the bolt itself which can easily happen at those forces. Hurley Junior The Hurley Junior can also be either homemade or ordered from Access Fund and is a more compact screw type bolt extractor. This is another good video showing the tool. . Larry Shaver’s $10 Bolt Remover If you want a cheap solution similar to the Hurley Junior, you can grab a coupler nut (the tall looking nut) that matches your bolt (example below is ⅜”) and use a cut off hex bolt with partial threads to screw into coupler. The extra nut locks it all up and allows you to spin the bolt with a normal drill with a chuck if you have that with you. Downside might be that you don’t have a normal drill with a normal chuck with you. Then you can remove the cut up hex bolt and insert a long threaded rod in it using a black pipe as a spacer to then extract the bolt using a long wrench as your leverage. It takes some spacers, washers, and extra coupler nuts as you can see in these images. Ideally you can get all these parts attached to some cord so you don’t risk dropping it or the spare pieces or use a bolt bag. Hydraulic Pumps The outer part stays against the rock and the inside gets sucked up with hydraulic action. Hydraulics are amazing and that is how we do all our break tests in BoltBusters but we oversized everything for dramatic affect. The Greenly Hydraulic Punch Driver is designed to pull dyes together to cut holes in sheet metal and can pull up to 7tons. It is super handy and comes at the low low price of a condo in Thailand, but luckily at $923 it comes with free shipping! If weight isn’t an issue, it is an amazing tool at 14lbs with the adapters. Unless you have BoltBuster’s hollow cylinder, these tools just don’t have much stroke, so you pump a little, reset, place a spacer under it and repeat. Hollow cores can also have adapters attached but require a hose and small hand pump but that isn’t practical on a cliff face. You can watch the Access Fund use the Greenly in this video. Getting Hot - Glue In Bolts Glue, in theory, can be heated up with a blowtorch and then pulled out. We say theory because it’s really hard to get the glue 4” down or even further hot enough to become weak enough to remove easily. If you can get the bolt out, then you can drill out the remaining glue and reuse hole. Try not to have too many flames next to your climbing ropes if you are hanging around while doing this! We have yet to be successful with this method. Micro Core Drill - Glue In Bolts Drill a very tiny hole around the sides of the glue in to loosen the glue until it becomes free. Drilling an equal size hole next to it doesn’t really solve a lot since the rock is now compromised and you still have two holes at the end. Getting Twisty - Glue in bolts Crowbar in the glue in + twist = done. This can be hard to get some bars in the glue in’s small space or the glue in head can wrap around the bar so you can’t get it off without other tools. Also, this method is more likely going to break the bolt instead of disengaging it from the glue. The Access Fund has a great bolt removal page that dives into detail on even additional bolts not covered here and has lists and kits you can reference in these photos here. DON’T SUCK! Bolts that you tried to remove, but couldn’t, are now compromised. Make sure you can finish what you started AND replace them. Half finished work can be super inconvenient at best or kill people at worse. If you do suck, make the bolt and hanger unusable or put a note on it. Ideally practice at home before! The Access Fund not only helps keep access to climbing crags, but also helps re-bolting efforts. Check out the "bolt basics" page to see the types of old bolts they are replacing. They are a non profit based in Colorado and focus on replacing bolts in the USA. ASCA - American Safe Climbing Association’s mission is to replace deteriorating anchors on classic climbs in the US and educate climbers about the public about climbing safety. This link goes straight to their education section about bolts. 10% Supports HowNOT2 Climbing, Caving and Canyon Gear & Over 30 Bolting Products HowNOT2 Contribute If you see a typo, or see a resource online we haven't linked to, or have something to share, we'd love to add it. If you are contributing a video, image, or words, please be kind by delivering something ready to add and tell us where you think it best fits. ryan@slackline.com What's Next? This course is free but not free to make. If it really helped you, please consider SUPPORTING US.

Most climbers know the general ratings of their gear, but how many know what kind of forces they generate in a fall? We did some human testing to find out. Pipeworks Gym in Sacramento let us use their facility and brave volunteers Ryan Kowalski, TJ Gillick, Michael Melner, and Ryan Jenks took whips for science. We put Dynamometers on our climbers, belayers, and the bolts that held the falls. Our testers took small falls and big falls. We tested a "static" fall where the belayer was anchored to the ground so they would not move in a fall and could not absorb any force. Michael Melner donned a weighted vest to see how much difference more weight would make. To simulate the effect of rope drag on fall forces we clipped a rope on an irregular path through a bunch of protection. Our Results The first takeaway is that our gear is super good enough. Our climbers saw a maximum of 2.65kN / 596 lbf while UIAA rated harnesses can handle minimum of 10kN. Our belayers saw even less force, maxing out at 1.85kN. Our bolts took the most force in every fall, averaging 3.54kN. Modern bolts and hangers break well above 30kN. The highest force we generated was 4.78kN, or 1,075 lbf. Ironically, our lightest tester achieved this result with a medium length fall. He fell on our setup to simulate rope drag, so the rope was clipped in a non-linear path through a ridiculous amount of protection. The drag meant that barely any force transferred to the belayer and it limited the rope's ability to absorb energy, essentially raising the fall factor. 4.78kN is a little surprising because many micro-cams and small nuts are rated at 5kN (anything less is intended for body weight only) and a light climber nearly generated this with a modest fall. The rest of our tests are pretty consistent with only moderate forces being generated. It's useful to have an idea of what these forces are, especially for trad climbing. There are a lot of other factors that can make falling dangerous, like inattentive belayers, ledges, and sharp edges to name a few. Bolts aren't always solid either, although that's a concern in the wild and not in the gym. However, in most normal conditions go ahead and whip, your gear can take it. What's Next What happens if a big climber takes a whipper?

The Bolting Bible The Book of Numbers “Know how hard thou needest to tug it before you get release” Welcome to our free course as our way of contributing to the bolting community. It's nice to understand what you are clipping and trusting with your life, even if you never plan on installing or removing bolts. Also, if someone is going to spend their time and money to bolt something, I assume, they probably want to do it as good as possible. Hopefully the Bolting Bible gives you the tools you need to do a great job. Get it? Our courses are A-Z content in blog format, glued together with an over arching blog we call a text book. A blog format is easy to read, easy to update, and easy to translate. Be sure to begin at the TEXTBOOK and at the end of each episode we'll point you to the next. BoltBuster is a project that Bobby Hutton and I built to test climbing bolts in every scenario imaginable. We learned how hydraulic systems worked and how we could use them to generate well above 100kn to be able to test to destruction any bolt we wanted to. We have one machine that looks like a bar stool for testing in tension. It has a hollow ram hydraulic cylinder on top to lift our long threaded rod to pull the bolt out of rock. To test in shear, we have a 4” hydraulic cylinder (like you would see on a tractor) that we anchor to the ground on one side and attach to our bolt victim with the other. The Bolt Buster project is unique because: 1) We try to be as sciency as we can afford with 3 samples of anything we test and typically we test both shear and in tension. 2) All results are published for free in The Bolting Bible - a culmination of everything I could find about bolts online + our research 3) We share the results organized in this "Book of Numbers blog and in easy to digest videos. 4) We don’t make any products so have no incentive to bias the results. We are funded by YOU, our viewers, not by companies trying to sell you a product. We DON’T test in a lab with small blocks of cement simulating real world situations - we just go outside and pull bolts in an as realistic scenario as possible. See behind the scenes in this EPISODE. Why test gear that is already tested, rated and certified???? We are not trying to test to the standards. We are trying to see what happens in real world use. We feel standards organizations issue test parameters that are very narrow and designed to eliminate as many variables as possible. Which is awesome for comparing multiple manufacturers to a standard. What we have an issue with is that the end user doesn’t know that standard or the test parameters because 1) it was written in Engineer and 2) it is behind a paywall. When an end user steps out of those sometimes unrealistic guidelines, the strength can vary widely. We strive to test realistic scenarios that we as climbers and highliners find ourselves in. We also feel that independent testing is very important to keep some manufacturers honest. All that to say we are just super curious and like breaking things and finding the answers to questions like: ● What happens if you over torque the bolt? Or don’t tighten it enough? ● Is it bad to oversize the hole when using glue ins? Is too much glue bad? ● What happens if you install a P shape glue in bolt backwards? ● What happens if you pull a glue in sideways? ● Is a ½” hanger bad on a ⅜” bolt ● Do you install the hanger below or above the flange on the Fixe Triplex bolts? ● Are concrete screws reliable? ● Are the shitty ⅜” PB+ bolts rated to what they claim? ● Are the welds weak on xyz bolts? ● Are off brand hangers on amazon safe? ● How strong are wave bolts WITHOUT glue? ● What happens if you don’t clean a hole before gluing? ● Break tests in granite vs sandstone with the same bolts? ● What is the actual strength of AC100 vs epoxy? ● Is expired glue safe? ● Many bolts have 1 MBS number, what about pulling in tension? ● Do chains drastically reduce a bolt’s strength (since it pulls higher up on the bolt)? You would be surprised what we DON’T know about bolting as a community. We hope the community as a whole is better informed after all our BoltBuster tests. We think you can learn more in 5 minutes watching our compilation EPISODE (the main video at the top of this blog) about how much you hate psytrance music... or HOW bolts break than most experienced bolters. This is 50 break tests in sandstone in super slow motion at 960FPS and you will see the bolt doesn't always come out. Sometimes the hanger breaks, the rock fails or the bolt snaps. We have done a lot of tests in concrete because it was convenient. As you can imagine, setting up our break test machines, installing the bolts, pulling them in a way that doesn’t break our gear or our bodies and filming 3 angles on every test and recording it all on the spread sheet, takes a long long time. And most of the time the bolt or hanger fails not the rock, So we tested in concrete and if we had a failure influenced by the concrete we add it to the list of things to break when we test in real rock. When we do test in real rock, we make sure it is in the middle of nowhere and of no use to anyone, and when finished, we remove everything we can and camouflage the remaining metal. While we try not to damage any areas, we balance that against the value these tests have to those who are going to put in bolts. We hope that because of these test there will be less bolts that will last much longer. Highliners for example were using 4 to 6 bolts for each anchor, but our research has clearly shown that we can use 2 or 3 now. Our goal is to break 1000 bolts and not any more of our break test equipment! All of our tests we have done so far are organized below and associated with the video if available. We have been able to answer some common questions and address some persistent myths as well as make the Bolting Bible way more complete than version 1, before Bolt Busters. A huge thank you to all who have donated so far towards this form of edutainment. Not only has it helped pay the bills but it makes us so STOKED to know that other people care about our project to donate money. 100% of your donations go back into the channel and break tests. HowNOT2 SWAG Believe it or not, bolting companies are not lining up to sponsor us; mostly because there is no money in such a niche industry. $1 per episode helps a ton and so does grabbing MERCH if something grabs your eye. Lots of designs and options. Bolt Busters These are (almost) all of our results of our tests with the associated episode. Doubling this section spring of 2023. TABLE OF CONTENTS BOLTS AND HANGERS 1. Crux Monster 12mm Solid leg bolts from Bolt Products 2. Simpson Strong Tie Titan HD concrete screws 3. Dewalt Power studs 4. Wave Bolts 5. Fixe Triplex Removable bolts 6. Uncommon Bolts Tested 7. Fixe Hely Glue Ins 8. Powers 5 Piece Bolts 9. Confast Sleeve Bolts 10. Petzl Coeur Pulse 11. 5/8" Wedge Bolts in Sandstone 12. 8mm and 10mm Solid Leg Bolts from bolt products 13. 6mm and 8mm Twisted Bolts from Bolt Products 14. All our climbing hanger tests! 15. CMI arborist hangers THEORIES TESTED 16. Is Too Much Glue Bad? 17. Is wet sandstone sketchy? 18. Is Expired Glue safe? 19. Are dirty holes dangerous for glue in bolts? 20. Does torquing glue ins crack the glue and compromise them? 1. Crux Monster 12mm Solid leg bolts from Bolt Products 2. Simpson Strong-Tie Titen HD Concrete Screws Episode coming soon. Can't believe I haven't made one about these yet! We love them. 3. Dewalt Power studs This is about 1/2" Dewalt Powerstuds. Will make a video about 3/8" soon. 4. Wave Bolts 5. Fixe Triplex Removable bolts 6. Uncommon Bolts Tested 7. Fixe Hely Glue Ins 8. Powers 5 Piece Bolts Episode coming soon! 9. Confast Sleeve Bolts Episode coming soon! 10. Petzl Coeur Pulse 11. 5/8" Wedge Bolts in Sandstone 12. 8mm and 10mm Solid Leg Bolts from bolt products 13. 6mm and 8mm Twisted Bolts from Bolt Products Episode coming soon! 14. All our climbing hanger tests! 15. CMI arborist hangers 16. Is Too Much Glue Bad? 17. Is wet sandstone sketchy? Episode coming soon! 18. Is Expired Glue safe? 19. Are dirty holes dangerous for glue in bolts? 20. Does torquing glue ins crack the glue and compromise them? 10% Supports HowNOT2 Climbing, Caving and Canyon Gear & Over 30 Bolting Products HowNOT2 Contribute If you see a typo, or see a resource online we haven't linked to, or have something to share, we'd love to add it. If you are contributing a video, image, or words, please be kind by delivering something ready to add and tell us where you think it best fits. ryan@slackline.com The End! Please share this with someone who trusts their life to bolts. This course is free but not free to make. If it really helped you, please consider SUPPORTING US.

Drilling holes to install climbing bolts The Bolting Bible The Book of Holes “After getting thy hole hammered, make sure thou cleanest it really well.” Welcome to our free course as our way of contributing to the bolting community. It's nice to understand what you are clipping and trusting with your life, even if you never plan on installing or removing bolts. Also, if someone is going to spend their time and money to bolt something, I assume, they probably want to do it as good as possible. Hopefully the Bolting Bible gives you the tools you need to do a great job. Get it? Our courses are A-Z content in blog format, glued together with an over arching blog we call a text book. A blog format is easy to read, easy to update, and easy to translate. Be sure to begin at the TEXTBOOK and at the end of each episode we'll point you to the next. Holes matter a “whole” lot! You have to know where to put them, what pattern to put them in, how to drill them and what diameter they need to be, even sometimes accurate to within 0.1mm. And did you know that if holes for glue ins aren’t super clean, they could fail at a dangerously low forces? Keep in mind drilling a hole is a permanent deformation to the rock, so be intentional before you swiss cheese our public land. See here all the things you need to know to get your holes drilled out. HIGHLINE Bolt Placement Things to consider before installing highline anchors: 1. Where do you want your master point to be? It will be the center of your bolting pattern so choose carefully. And remember you don’t want more than a 45 degree angle on your anchor legs so it doesn’t put exponential force on the bolts, instead sharing the load evenly. 2. Is the anchor going to serve more than 1 highline? How can the bolts be placed to best be pulled in multiple angles? 3. Will the hangers sit flat against the rock? 4. Will there be a weird hump between the bolts and the master point causing unwanted friction? 5. How far back from the edge will the bolts be? A. In hard rock it can be a foot or two away from edge but if it is too close then it can put the master point too far beyond the edge making rigging difficult. B. In soft rock it is important to stay away from the edge even 6 to 10 feet back in some cases but then the master point will need extending possibly requiring a stabilizer bolt, one near the edge that doesn’t hold much force other than to keep things from moving around causing abrasion. 6. What Pattern will you use? A. Straight line - Careful, this is how they harvest quarry stone. This can score rock and make it susceptible to fracturing. Know your rock. STRAIGHT LINE PATTERNS DON’T EQUALIZE on top of cliffs but being pulled straight out of a cliff wall may equalize better. B. Equilateral Triangles equalize best if on top of a cliff. The bolt most direct in line (the center bolt) and the closest bolt sees the most force. Those two principles cancel each other out for the most part if you do an equilateral triangle, with the center bolt being furthest back. Learn more about directional relativity here. 7. How close, or far, should the bolts be apart from each other? The force is spread at a 45 degree angle through the rock.. You can see an example in this photo of a piece of sandstone that broke while pulling a short mechanical bolt straight out in a bolt buster test. If your bolts are too close together, the same sections of rock will be seeing forces from two different bolts. It’s also important to not be too close to areas of the rock that sound hollow or weak when tapped with a hammer. The longer your bolt, the bigger your cone will be, so the further your spacing will need to be. The expansion anchor industry has established a minimum of 10 anchor diameters apart from each other (½” x 10 = 5” or 12mm x 10 =120mm apart minimum) and is talked about in this video and in engineering the standard is 12x diameter. Either way, I’m not sure why diameter has much to do with it when it looks like length affects cone shape more. For most climbing situations, since we use either ⅜” (10mm ish) or ½” (12mm ish), a hand width apart is fine but in softer or fractured rock it is better to spread them out twice as far. Also, this includes edges as you can see in this video how a bolt too close to an edge is unsafe. Whether length or girth is more important, stay 5” or 125mm away from any other bolt or edge or hollow sounding rock and you’ll be bomber. 8. How many bolts will you use? In highlining, we made a sport taking factor 2 falls on death triangles with ropes that don’t have sheaths, so it was common for people to put in 4 or 5 bolts on either side. After BoltBuster research, we found out that bolts are pretty awesome if your rock is awesome. Therefore, 2 bolts are redundant, 3 is now common for highline anchors, and 4 bolts are just overkill as it is difficult to equalize them. Only 2 or three bolts ever see the force anyways. Just make sure you have quality bolts in quality rock. 9. What are the regional trends and is it correct? Don’t do anything drastically different than others have done in the area without fully understanding why they did it. CLIMBING Bolt Placements Check out two of our most popular bolting videos showing two ways to do this. Top down or bottom up. 1. To avoid rock failure, place bolts an appropriate distance from rock edges, further in softer rocks. 2. Avoid placements that weaken your carabiner by loading it over edges or rock imperfections. 3. Plan placements to avoid rope drag. Keep bolts on a sport route in line to avoid the friction of the rope redirecting back and forth across the route. 4. Avoid placing anchor bolts too far from the cliff edge, forcing the rope to rub. 5. When bolting sport routes, find good clipping stances, then make sure to place the bolt so most climbers will be able to reach it. If you are really tall don’t place it as high as you can. Place the bolt so a shorter climber will be able to comfortably use the same stance to clip the bolt. As a tall climber try placing bolts that you can reach with your elbow or nose from a secure position. 6. Consider when a quickdraw is hung on the bolt that is won’t be in the way of a key hand or foot hold as you climb past. 7. Place top anchors so they protect as much of the route as possible. If the route wanders, place the anchor in the middle of the zone that the route traverses to prevent big swings on top rope. 8. Hitting the ground, wall and/or a ledge is bad. Bolts should be placed to avoid this. A. Spacing: Remember that your ground fall potential resets at every ledge. Space your bolts accordingly. The closer you are to a ground fall the closer your bolt spacing should be. It sucks to get injured when nothing fails. B. Position: Consider what happens if you were to fall clipping the next bolt. In addition to ground/ledge falls look out for swinging falls or falls that will slam you into a wall. 9. When putting in anchors for a climb that will only/mostly be top roped, consider the safety of those walking to the cliff edge to set up the climb. HowNOT2 SWAG Believe it or not, bolting companies are not lining up to sponsor us; mostly because there is no money in such a niche industry. $1 per episode helps a ton and so does grabbing MERCH if something grabs your eye. Lots of designs and options. Drilling Basics Here are some pointers for drilling holes regardless if you are hand drilling or power drilling. 1. Drill the hole deep enough. In almost every situation, there is no such thing as too deep, other than you are wasting battery life/arm power, drill bit life or glue. IT IS VERY BAD IF THE HOLE IS TOO SHALLOW. Just like relationships, if it is too shallow it isn’t going to last. A bolt sticking up out of the rock could be unsafe and difficult to remove. Even at 95% depth it will look like it is in the rock but the hanger will be spinning and that always raises a red flag on the integrity of the bolt to someone who wants to use it. TIP: Put duct tape on your drill bit or your wire brush as an indicator that you are deep enough. Lightly scoring your drill bit with a hacksaw blade works as well and doesn’t fall off or move. 2. Drill it straight. A. Mechanical bolts will have a hanger and it is important that the hanger sits flat against the rock. B. Glue in bolts have conflicting information online. FixeHardware says in this video to tilt them backwards for leverage. Bolt-Products website (scroll halfway down) did a test showing stakes in the ground do better if installed straight in. I believe glue in bolts act much like ice screws where the threads are supposed to do the work, not the leverage. Ice screws are recommended to be tilted 10 to 15 degrees towards the direction of pull so it doesn’t leverage the top of the ice but allows all the threads to be pulled on. So just drill glue ins straight in for soft rock and let the entire shaft and glue do the holding rather than the angle. 3. Test the spot A. Set the hanger (if using hangers) where you think you will drill the hole to make sure it sits flat and nice. If you really like the spot and only a few crystals are stopping you, you can chip them away with a hammer, but just be sure that the end product… the hanger… will sit nicely. B. After drilling the hole an ⅛”, stop and check everything again. Do you like the spot? Does your hanger sit nicely? Did the rock feel/sound solid? If you goof, ⅛” isn’t a deal breaker, but if you drill all the way and then realize there was a mistake, then it is just slop. 4. Bring Backups A. It really sucks if you don’t have a backup drill/batteries or backup bit or backup glue tip or even backup hardware in case you miss counted or dropped one and you can’t finish bolting. The impact that bolts have on an area has been debated, but everyone agrees a half drilled or half installed bolt is bullshit. 5. Drill Bits A. A 4-point bit drills faster and saves energy or batteries rather than 2-point bit. They also make a rounder hole which is required for some bolts such as the pricey but sexy Petzl Coeur Pulse removable bolts. B. Fresh bits are important because the tip/shoulders get worn down on old bits and you get an undersized hole. If the hole is too small, then you have to smash your mechanical bolt in harder which can damage it or the glue in will not have as much glue surrounding the rod. c. Battery powered hammer drills and Petzl Rocpec hand drills require SDS-Plus drill bits, “special direct system”. This type has the groves at the top so the drill can hammer and rotate the bit. Not all SDS bits are created equal. SDS-Plus is 10mm shank and SDS-Max is 18mm. So make sure you know what you are buying. d. Size matters - the usable length and overall length are generally different by 2” because of the shank, or the part that goes into the drill. Remember that a 6” drill bit only has 4” that is usable. It helps to understand all 5 parts: i. Shank: has two sets of grooves so the bit doesn’t fall out and helps during hammering. ii. Land - raised portion of the spiral (similar to the crest or peak of a wave). iii. Flute - the spiral groove which facilitates the removal of the concrete dust as the hole is being drilled. iv. Head and Tip - these work together to break up the concrete. The carbide is brazed onto the head to harden the tip of the SDS bit to assist in the breaking of the concrete. Hand drilling There are some places that do not allow power tools, such as National Parks in the USA. However, if it is legal and ethical to install bolts, you can do it the ol’ fashion way… by hand! Functions the same as rotary hammer drills. Except you provide the hit with a hammer and the turn with your wrist instead of a battery doing all the work. 1. You need a handle. The poor man’s method is wrap duct tape around the shank until comfortable but the efficient way is to use a Petzl Rocpec, designed for SDS drill bits or the high quality D/5 Hurricane Drill which is designed for both SDS and HSS bits. If you want to learn how bad this sucks for only $27 you can buy a SDS max to SDS plus adapter because the max shank is huge and easy to hang onto. 2. You need a hammer… obviously. You can use any 12oz construction hammer but the Yosemite Hammer has an attachment cord and an eye to attach a carabiner for clipping and the occasional yanking. 3. Use gloves! The thicker the better for when you occasionally miss the head of the drill. 4. Use eye protection! You can literally feel things hitting you in the face when hammering a rock. You don’t want rock shards in your eyes. You can use sun glasses, you will look cooler when explaining you are trying to create a hole in granite the same way they did 200 years ago. 5. How long does it take? A ½” x 4.75” bolt hole takes approximately 1000 hits in hard Yosemite granite or an hour. A shorter ⅜” x 2.75” can be only 20 minutes. Counting is a great way to keep the stoke high. Try to hit it at least 50x before resting your arm. Find and keep a rhythm to the hitting rather than pretending you are the road-runner on crack and getting tired 20 seconds later. 6. Keep it straight - As you get tired, you may have a tendency to not keep the drill straight. If the drill isn’t perfectly straight, it will be dragging against the sides of the hole and the friction that creates can really slow down momentum. It’s also very important to keep a drill straight so the hole stays true to size. 7. Don’t give it a courtesy tap, hit the drill with some umpf! You're not trying to make noise, you are trying to burrow a hole in rock! 8. Keep the hole clean periodically. Maybe after 100 to 200 hits. If you don’t, you are just pounding dust… literally! 9. Use the most important resource on the planet… friends! If the anchor is safe to “hang out” at and easy access for everyone, take turns. Hitting 100x and switching can speed things up and not feel like such a burden. 10. Keep it attached to you. Wouldn’t it suck if your hammer or drill rolled off the cliff or fell out of your hands? 11. Use fresh bits. This is especially important for hand drilling. That extra $10 won’t seem like much if you are only half done after 1000 hits because you are using a worn out bit. 12. Don’t slack off! Install a ½” or 12mm bolt if you plan to highline on it, but ⅜” bolts are fine for most climbing applications if the rock is solid. Power drilling 1. Hammer drill vs rotary hammer drill - rock isn’t threatened by a normal drill spinning, you need a hammer drill. However, a normal “hammer drill” only has 2 cam/discs/gears spinning and tapping each other and is designed for “light masonry”. Unless you are drilling into some really poor quality rock, you will want a rotary hammer drill. Those have pistons which chisel the rock while spinning. Hammer drills have a normal chuck in which a smooth shank fits in and Rotary Hammer drills require SDS bits. You can buy the best at Bosch or save some money and buy the one from Makita that works just as well, or Bobby Hutton’s favorite drills: Milwaukee’s LARGER DRILL has a great one too used in this video or Milwaukee’s LIGHTER DRILL used in this video. 2. SDS Plus vs SDS Max - If you are buying something in a store, it’s real obvious that SDS Max is way overkill but if you order online and you have never heard of SDS before, then it’s good to know that you need SDS Plus. I ordered a scraper blade online once and when it came it was huge! All the drill bits that are 16mm / ⅝” or smaller, only require a SDS Plus size. 3. Keep it straight - it’s common for people to think a drill is straight and it be completely at an angle. With all the vibration and noise, you really have to be intentional to keep that drill perpendicular to the rock. There’s no fixing a hole drilled at an angle after you see the hanger doesn’t sit flush with the rock! 4. Check your work after the first 2 seconds of drilling.
Make sure that it is where you want it. Don’t check once and drill twice. Let's avoid swiss cheese rocks by being mindful about checking our work. 5. Don’t push hard. Let the drill do the work. 6. Don’t be afraid to pull out. To help clear the debris, just pull the bit out periodically while it’s spinning. Not the entire time like you are trying to have sex with the rock, but you don’t want to just leave it in the hole for 3 straight minutes either. 7. Know your batteries and bring enough. Don’t run out of juice and not be able to finish. 8. Know your target length. Too deep for glue ins wastes glue. Too shallow for mechanical bolts and it takes rock surgery to fix it.
Overdrilling a hole for a mechanical bolt can be helpful if in the future that bolt needs to be hammered in below the surface and covered with a dab of glue. Either way, be intentional about the depth and you can keep an eye on that with the measuring stick built into many drills called a “depth stop”. Or you could go fancy and put duct tape on the drill bit to identify the right depth. Just don’t drill too shallow, it can create major problems. Remember notched glue ins need to have a deeper hole than glue ins with no notch. Get an "inside" look at what the bolt looks like inside the hole in this episode. This german ARTICLE by frankenjura.com talks about an accident where the climbers sat on their top rope and under body weight broke a bolt that wasn’t in the rock deep enough, and landed on their belayer causing many injuries. You can see by their diagram the strain that was put on the bolt sticking out so far. The glue didn’t fail, it just snapped off. Holes must be deep enough so the bolts insert in all the way! Also, here was a MP thread about an area that had all the wave bolts sticking out, and hammered down and looked terrible. This can be prevented with practice before doing an actual area. The assumption is they didn’t have the proper length drill bit and forgot a hammer and used a rock to smash them in and down. Please prep and practice before doing this to an area. 10% Supports HowNOT2 Climbing, Caving and Canyon Gear & Over 30 Bolting Products HowNOT2 Contribute If you see a typo, or see a resource online we haven't linked to, or have something to share, we'd love to add it. If you are contributing a video, image, or words, please be kind by delivering something ready to add and tell us where you think it best fits. ryan@slackline.com What's Next? This course is free but not free to make. If it really helped you, please consider SUPPORTING US.