John, sorry we missed all of you. Of the parties you saw, that was Dawsons on Elephant Rock.
Adam, that was a good day, thanks. I think we got off to a good start, working on a fine route.
Adam and I got two of the four belay anchors on the route rebolted (all the bolts we placed were long, stainless steel, 3/8"). We also got two of the seven bolts on the first pitch replaced (about three more need replacement). Although this is not a large number, the effort required in getting to the bolts to replace them took some serious time.
For those of you who wonder what some of the old bolts you use for protection look like (as may be obvious, the two replaced bolts are juxtaposed with a new, long, stainless steel piece):
About the two old bolts shown: First, the quarter inch bolt with the aluminum hanger was longer than I expected. Obviously I'd be very worried about it's shear strength (at least) because of it's diameter. But it's pullout strength was also remarkably low; I pulled it straight out with three strong tugs with a 14" crowbar.
The bolt-less hanger shown was from an even scarier bolt, one that looked better than the first one because it was 3/8" in diameter and placed in good rock. I tried to pull this bolt out, but couldn't get purchase under the hanger with the crowbar (Adam had the tuning forks). So I tried an alternative: I hit the bolt hard with my hammer. Three downward blows and the bolt broke off, clean. I know Jim McCon had a similar experience with a similar bolt (3/8" split shaft) last month while replacing bolts on The Balconies. How do hard hammer blows compare with leader falls in force generated? I don't know. I know that lead falls are at least dynamic. But three hammer blows? Wow!
While I was replacing these, Adam revamped the first pitch anchor. He was able to re-use one of the existing holes by removing a Star Dryvin bolt from a large, deeply embedded lodestone. He then drilled the hole deeper, drilling, in part, through the lead (the metal lead) that was left in the hole. I think it took him nearly an hour to drill that hole 1 to 1 1/2 inches deeper. But, the result was as good a bolt as could ever be found, even in better rock like granite. Nice job, Adam.
