The Onsight Chronicles

If you have not yet read my previous report on Nicks accident then you should read that first for the following to make sense.

Disclaimer: I have collected the following information from various sources. Whilst I believe that as far as I have ascertained the information I provide here is factually correct, I am not in a position to vouch for its accuracy and am passing it on for what it is worth. My personal reporting on this matter is not intended as a substitute for official reports or people making their own inquiries.

When I got involved in all this my intention was mainly just quickly hang a warning sign on the route at the point where Nick had climbed off-route from Bunny Bucket Buttress. When I abseiled down the route to where the accident occurred and learnt just how incredibly bad the bolts were, I then decided against abseiling a further 60-70m down the route to hang the sign, since I could not trust the bolts to “re-belay” my rope, and was not willing to jumar back up with my rope rubbing against sharp rock for that distance. Since it would be some days until I could return to the climb I decided the best way to get word out was to write the report.

Some days later a team of climbers removed six bolts from the route in question at the point where Nick strayed off route from BBB, thereby ensuring no-one else could stray onto this dangerous route at this point. These bolts came out incredibly easily. The climber held onto the rock with one hand, attached a hammer to the bolt with a quick-draw, and pulled each bolt out with a few tugs whilst down-climbing (on lead) past the six bolts.

This accident and the issues it has raised has become the subject of discussion on climbing forums worldwide. A lot of people have provided me with information about the route; many thanks to everyone who has provided information. My apologies to our climbing brethren in Czech Republic and Poland if I have caused any offence; we now know it was not climbers from those countries who established this route.

Since my earlier report I’ve corresponded with some witnesses including Nick’s belayer which has helped clarify some minor points. I’ve corresponded with one of the climbers who bolted this route. And last weekend was involved with the removal of ALL of the of the bolts from this 270m climb.

So enough preamble, here’s what we now know, starting with some more details about the accident:

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The rope was a two year old 10.5mm dry rope. It was reportedly in good shape. It has taken a few lead falls but not any large number of falls.

In my previous report the second photo show the scene of the accident. I had earlier assumed the position of the belay as the first ledge incorrectly. Nick’s partner, Andrew Pare, had lead up to the blank section above the second ledge. At Nick’s request Andrew set up a belay here – on the higher ledge (labelled “second ledge” in my photo) and brought Nick up to him. When Nick climbed past Andrew, Andrew had a position sitting in a good scoop on the side of the ledge and was belayed to the one bolt level with the ledge (labelled “first bolt”). When the bolt pulled Nick took a factor two fall past the belay ledge. The rope cut on the rock below the ledge before Andrew loaded the belay bolt. (I later pulled this bolt out by hand with two gentle tugs on a quick-draw). N.B. Technically this may have been slightly less than a factor two fall due to additional rope out for the stick clipping.

I am trying to keep to the facts here but want to interject with my opinion at this point: There is so much sharp rock around this area that I could just as easily see the rope cutting if the belay had been set in any number of other positions and/or configurations.

It should also be mentioned that prior to the accident Nick made some comments to Andrew which indicate he had his suspicions about the quality of the bolts. And as Nick followed the pitch to join Andrew a hanger became detached from one of the bolts.

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Now some information about the route itself:

The route was bolted by Boris Cujic and Ivica Matkovic from Croatia. It was bolted in December 2007 as their last route in their long term project to climb a new route on every continent by the end of 2007. The route is not just a variant to the upper pitches of BBB, as some have been saying, but is an entirely independent route starting from the ground. They named it Last Chance for Happy End, in the circumstances an unfortunate name to say the least.

Their report on the climb on a Croatian web site mentioned problems with the rock and bolts. I had part of this translated as saying:

“This kind of rock, sandstone, turns into a featureless mass of mud, sand, lichens and human sweat when the rain falls. It is impossible to climb on it as there is no friction (very different from limestone which is climbable when wet). Also the wet sandstone is prone to breaking. During our ascent some parts of route looked like we were climbing on a pile of ceramic tiles. You carefully grab a horizontal tile like hold (harder layers in sandwich between softer sand base) sticking out of a rock, you move up and when you step on it, it brakes, but you are already holding a next hold.”

“Grade of the route tells nothing about its complexity. We started climbing early in the morning after a few days of rain. Everything was slippery, breakable and full of mud. The worst thing is that the bolts are not holding in this soft rock. You place the bolt, apply the weight and it’s already turning. Some of them we could take out with a bare hand!”

Bewildered that they could have had such problems with the bolts and left it at that I have corresponded with Cujic and he has offered the following details:

He says they started climbing the route “ground up”, with mixed gear and bolting on lead, with the first bolt about 15 to 20m up (which explains why no-one had noticed it from the ground). After climbing the bottom pitches they were rained off, so they returned another day and bolted from abseil the upper pitches so that they could be sure to finish their project before returning home. They say they then rappelled to the ground and climbed the entire route, finishing in the rain. He says:

“On lower pitches on the belay one from three start to rotate. In last pitch we put one and take out because it start immediately to rotate and we put another one. Also we put bolts where we can not always where we need and try to find a better parts of rock because YES we feel that rock is soft . WE have no problems with bolts.”

Cujic says they brought the bolts out from Croatia with them and says this is the only route that they bolted in Australia.

Soon after their climb Cujic sent me a topo and description of the route. The description is extremely brief and contains absolutely no warning about the dangerously bad bolts.

I’ve been told there was a third member on the trip, Darko Berljak, who didn’t climb but was formally “team leader”. He is secretary general of the Croatian Mountaineering association which he owns. Earlier in the trip the climbers visited Tasmania where they had dinner with some Tasmanian climbers and one climber visiting from the Blue Mountains, Andy Richardson. Cujic showed Andy the bolts he had with him and the Blue Mountains guidebook indicating where they intended to climb. Andy says he told Cujic not to use those bolts. Cujic has denied to me that he was clearly told.

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On Saturday (1st February) Mike Law, Andy Richardson and myself, acting with the support of National Parks and Wildlife Service Rangers, fixed rope down the entire 270m route and removed ALL of the bolts from this climb.

We first tested every nut for tightness and found about 90% of the nuts could easily be loosened by fingers alone. Out of the approximately 45 bolts removed we only had difficulty removing three. One came out with one gentle tug, some required three tugs, some took more. See for yourself:

In my opinion, I’ve been climbing for 25 years and I think this is the most appallingly bad job of bolting that I’ve ever seen. If they had tightened the nuts then they would have known.

There are good reasons that the Blue Mountains guidebook says:

If you are intending to put up new routes, ask a local how. The rock is very soft here so normal bolting methods don’t work. Also there are access and environmental issues to consider; not every bit of cliff needs a route.

I hope we can all learn from this. Be careful out there. And if you bolt, then please, act responsibly.

PS. Comments are most welcome but it is not my intention to run my blog like a forum. I’ll provide a list of track-backs to where this is being discussed elsewhere on the internet below. If any more important information comes to light I’ll try to add here, it at the end of this report, or in the comments section below, rather than as a new blog entry.

Update #1: At the end of the video it shows a 8.5mm then 9mm drill bit being into a bolt hole. In my earlier report I discuss the bolts: they are 8mm. The manufacturer does not recommend them as suitable for climbing.

Update #2 (10/3/09): A climber active on the Supertopo forum has emailed the bolt manufacturer, who in turn has updated his product description. It is now a lot clearer that these bolts re not suitable for soft rock however as previously mentioned, the manufactured never had these bolts listed as being suitable for climbing.

Update #3 (11/3/09): Neil Monteith has shot a video of an interesting test he has done with one of the bolts that we extracted from the climb. At first he drills with an 8mm bit and the hole is so loose that the bolt won’t tighten. Then drilling with a 6.5mm bit the result is still appalling…

Neil said: “I found a piece of medium strength sandstone along the Cook River in Sydney. It has similar properties to the Blue Mountains – fairly large grained and soft enough to scrape easily. I first drilled with an 8mm bit using a 24v drill. As you can see on the video the hole created was more like 9mm+ and the bolt just slipped into the too large hole and was not possible to tighten. I then switched to a 6.5mm bit (1/4inch) and this created a hole that seemed the right fit (end of bolt fits in – but bolt requires several heavy blows of a hammer to get it all the way in). I then tightened it up with a spanner – but as the guys found on the route the bolt just kept pulling out and out and never gripped properly. It felt firm against the rock – like it “might” hold – but then when I put a small hammer through the eye and levered it out the bolt pulled easily. It would not hold anything more than body weight I would suspect.”