The Peak district has been crying out for a bolt fund for a long time now. A lot of great routes have, and continue to become dangerous propositions due to the state of the often ancient in-situ gear. Hopefully the existence and promotion of an active bolt fund and re-bolting project should help to rectify this situation. In so doing not only will we maintain the popular routes we've all enjoyed, but help to re-vitalise routes and crags of undeniable quality which have slipped into disuse due to the state of the gear.

The success of this venture depends entirely on the generosity in time and money of the climbing community. As is so often the way, many of those with one to give are sorely short of the other. Hopefully the Peak Bolt Fund can join the dots by giving the time rich but money poor the tools, equipment and technical support needed to carry out some necessary work. If you have or do enjoy sport climbing in the peak please join the effort to keep the crags in good order.

Details of Re-equipping work and News can be found below:

Friday, 21 December 2018

2018 Round Up

The Peak Bolt Fund has been hard at work in 2018 raising funds, buying gear and doing the dirty work of re-equipping sport climbs around The Peak.

Donations have continued to be good this year. My hope is that climbers see new bolts replacing old on Peak routes and through our publicity (Facebook, blog, this article, UKC article, word of mouth, etc.) realise that this is the work of the PBF and are moved to donate. Donations exceeded £1000 this year. The bulk of donations come through Paypal. However, this year we placed new collection buckets in climbing walls around The Peak that brought in a significant amount of money over the summer. In the spirit of competition here are the scores… Works: £9.38, Foundry: £39.36, Redpoint Birmingham: £65.32, Awesome Walls Sheffield: £170.39! Take what you will from these figures. Cash as also been handed over directly to Seb Grieve who has a skill for emptying climbers, traditionally deep, pockets.

Collection buckets

Donations over the last two years have just about covered our costs. Last year we purchased close to £1000 worth of bolts most of which have been placed. A similar sized order is planned for next year. Glue, drill-bits and replacing worn out tools also contribute towards our costs. We plan to purchase a second drill for next year which should address logistical problems with sharing one drill between a group of keen bolters.

Climbers should see a yearly donation to the fund as a positive way to give back to the community and ensure we all have well bolted routes to climb. If you climb on Peak sport then you will certainly have benefited from the activities of the PBF.

Old bolts removed from Water-Cum-Jolly

If we can continue the current level of donations then we can continue to sustain the current level of rebolting.

A big thanks to anyone who has donated in 2018.

The Fund is always looking for new volunteers, we support volunteers as best we can but ultimately we're a small volunteer group and this is a fairly thankless task that you'll be doing on your own! A good example from this year; Vince Smedley contracted the PBF about some corroded single-bolt lower-offs in Intake Quarry. The PBF provided Vince with the kit he needed, Dan Middleton of the BMC provided some training and Vince was able to sort out four routes on the Take Away Wall area. Contact us via email or Facebook if you'd like to get involved.

Another way to help out is to report bolts that might need replacing, best done via email or Facebook, with as much detail, ideally a photo, as possible. We picked up on a UKC logbook comment about cracked rock around a bolt on the route Rubicon. The suspect bolt was chopped and has been replaced with two new bolts above and below the location of the old bolt.

Chopping old bolts at Rubicon

An article about bolting in The Peak wouldn’t be complete without mentioning Gary Gibson. As ever Gary makes the PBF work pale into insignificance. You can find out about about his extensive bolting and crag cleaning at his website www.sportsclimbs.co.uk where you can also donate to his fund.

Now onto the routes that have received the PBF treatment in 2018. An extra dry summer has meant the cleaning, rebolting and climbing of some of the usually wet routes on the far left on the Chee Dale Cornice. These include; Masculine Power Trip, Malcolm X, Last Eggs, Monday Club, Wright On, Trampled Underfoot. Work on The Embankment continues with a few more routes are sporting PBF bolts now. Done this year Stone The Loach, Secret Gudgeon Society, Arachonothera and Prawnography. The Nook has been popular again due to the dry weather, if you like short routes why not check out the rebolted Life in the Old Log Yet.

Reports of cracked rock around the top bolt on Rubicon led to two new bolts replacing that one. The neighbouring route Totally Awesome sports new bolts and The Sissy has a new lower-off. Meanwhile further down Water-cum-Jolly Coming Up For Air at Moat buttress has new bolts. Two routes at the Water-cum-Jolly Cornice have been rebolted The Disillusioned Glue Machine and Goldcrest.

And going slightly further afield the popular routes of The Big Take Out, Blue Moon Night, Chop Suicide, Les Chinoise on Take Out Wall at Intake Quarry all have double bolt lower-offs now.

If you'd like to donate to the Peak Bolt Fund you can do so here via PayPal.
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