So some of the biggest questions surrounding bolting are do you need to
bolt, can you rig all-natural and you wouldn't just put bolts in your friends
backyard would you? Just walk in there without asking drill into his patio? It'd
be an eyesore you could maybe trip over it so why would you ever do that in a
national park I don't know here we go oh yeah safety glasses now let's do this
Hi, I'm Ryan Jenks and welcome to my gear room after a year and a half we're
finally releasing the Bolting Bible videos. I've done a ton of homework and
consulted over twenty highliners who have bolting knowledge to bring you the
best bolting resource available to the highlining community. I want to give
special thanks to my wife Kim Weglin and Zac Timmons for helping me edit the
Bolting Bible and the major contributions that David Kingston and
Martin Roberts from Titan climbing (he makes the titanium bolts) i messaged those
guys at least over a hundred times each and Thank You Travis Warner for
rewriting my entire Rock section because he is a geologist and thank you to the
ten other people that made contributions, corrections or given me feedback on the
Bolting Bible. This is a community-based project and I'm keeping it as an e-book
slash blog so we can always update it if you guys see something that needs adding
because I know Bolton was a hot topic and the highlighting community so I
wanted to make sure it was correct and it's hard to edit a video you have to
delete them and remake them and it's not practical so I want to make sure it was
just right so I sent it off to like ten different highliners who I
knew knew about bolts and it turned into more and more and lots of information
not everybody agreed with everything I think everyone learned something from
other people there was never a central resource for bolting knowledge so after
all this information came in I had to organize it really well because I wanted
it to be as simple as possible for people who don't want to spend endless
hours learning about bolts it's an important topic it's not rocket science
but there are things you do need to know to make sure that you do it right
anyways after spending so many hours on the script I thought well people will
probably want to read the information I have instead of just listening to me the
entire time on a bunch of videos so it ended up slapping on a silly cover and
polishing it up a bit which is an oversimplification of what I did for the
an input you're never really gonna know where the information came from and it
was a cute little theme but we threw a lot of sexual innuendos to make it fun
we're trying to keep it entertaining and educational just like we do here on how
not to highline so there are some people who think you need years of
experience and need to be taught in person a lot before you can install your
first bolt now there is an element of truth to that
just like I say don't be an idiot and go rig your first Highline by yourself but
go with someone who knows what they're doing I also believe that about bolting
however there are people in every country now that watch this channel and
not everyone lives next door to a guy with a bolting gun
who knows what they're doing so I want to have the information at least
available to you in case you do have to be self-taught something funny is that
everyone that I sent the bolting script to was self taught
now something I did since I finished the bolting Bible and before I started these
videos was buy every bolt and glue that I recommend in the bolting Bible so I can
literally show you how each one is installed how they look and how they
function so I'm really excited about having all that gear now something that
this video specifically is about is about bolting ethics and one of those
things is to practice at home even if you were taught by someone practice at
home or practice on a rock that doesn't matter before you go out to a place that
everyone will see and install bolts that other people are going to trust their
lives to and also like I end every episode therefore you shouldn't highline
I'm going to say therefore you shouldn't bolt because it is my goal that you
don't bolt anything after watching these videos after I'm done with this bolting
series I will continue to write the New Testament of the bolting Bible which
will be how to rig all-natural most lines do not need bolts so I don't
encourage you to go out and bolt everything just because you know how so
just like we know how abstinence is not a good strategy it's better to teach you
how to safely bolt and hope you don't so now let's go over the ten bolting
commandments these are the ten main things that you should walk away with
after reading the vaulting Bible thou shalt not drill where thou art not
allowed there are some places that you're not allowed to drill so don't
pretty simple thou shalt never place zinc-plated bolts zinc-plated bolts are
not going to last as long as a stainless steel bolt or even a titanium bolt if
that's an option for you so please use something that's going to last longer
than you will thou shalt practice bolting at home
not in nature we've already talked about that number four is thou shalt really
really clean thy hole after drilling especially for a glue in the glue needs to
stick to the rock and not the dust on the side so make sure that your holes
are clean number five is thou shalt never spray
thy bolts try to keep bolting to a minimum while stayin safe
number six is thou shalt test thy glue ins after thy glue cures I have pulled
out to glue ins from other people that didn't cure properly we show you how to
make sure your glue cures since some glues take 24 hours to dry you want to
make sure that it was done right after you leave number 7 is thou shalt only
drill thy holes perpendicular to the rock face you want
to make sure that the holes going straight down and not off to the side
because you don't know how to hold a hammer drill correctly number 8 thou
shalt not bring thy power drill to thy national park or wilderness areas there
are some places you cannot have powered tools so we show you how to hand drill
bolts if necessary and legal number 9 thou shalt never use wedge bolts in soft
or fractured rock wedge bolts are okay in solid rock but not okay in soft rock
and we show you the differences in the bolting Bible end number 10 thou shalt
forever forsake polyester glue in favor of epoxy glue there are different
qualities in glue and we cover that in this video
if in doubt go with epoxy so that is basically the introduction to the Bolting
Bible now we're going to in this video cover the first section which is the
book of Ethics and it starts off with saying thou shalt not penetrate virgin
rock without feeling guilty so Highliners have a unique problem our
bolts are on top of most things and that's where people can see them non
highlining people so we have to consider the visual aspect of it and the
other thing we have to consider is that our bolts generally will have
more force on them than a climbing bolt so they have to be a wee bit more bomber
than just a normal climbing bolt so that brings us to ethics how our bolts affect
other people since highlighting so new there aren't
necessarily bolting laws everywhere but we do have to consider where things
might be legal ish but thrown upon for example United
States national parks aren't too keen on having more bolts added the top of
climbing areas are also not somewhere you might want to add bolts because that
kind of affects the climbing route that's already been established there if
a crag area is an all natural no bolting area then for us to add bolts
might be a problem single-use High Line's the ones that won't be rigged
often should probably be rigged all natural and it might not be a good idea
to install a bunch of bolts where a bunch of tourists can see them at a
lookout point now there aren't a lot of laws regarding our bolting but there are
some so please make sure that you know the rules of an area before you go to it
for example in Yosemite there are no power tools allowed it's good to know
that before you go start drilling there if you do choose to bolt a Highline
area and it's ethically ok to do so thank you for taking your time and money
for making it an option for other people to highline there just please pick the
spot carefully and consider does that spot need bolts or can you use removable
consider the quality of rock and what kind of bolts need to be placed there
can you strategically place those bolts so that minimizes the no fall zone or
minimizes how well they can be seen by non-highliners can you do a mix of
natural anchor and bolts maybe only one side needs bolts and the other side can
easily be rigged all natural if the bolts conflict with a climbing route can
the bolts be placed elsewhere to avoid conflict and confusion and please
consider if there are already a bunch of lines in this area putting bolts ten
feet away from another set of bolts doesn't necessarily constitute a new
line ok now that we talked about the rules and
area let's talk about the number one risk of any bolt failing... YOU. You are the
number one risk of any bolt failing please understand that it is a huge
responsibility to install a bolt that is almost impossible to inspect that other
people will depend their lives on now that I've learned a lot about bolting I
show up to a new area and I see the bolts and think hmm sure hope they knew
what they were doing when those were put in so realize what kind of role that
your playing and respect the responsibility educate yourself and
please please practice so when I first started I practiced a lot but I didn't
practice enough so it was just struggle city when I went out to bolt my first
Highline a great place to practice as at home in your concrete if you are
gonna use a rock please use a rock that not everyone's gonna see now if your
first thought is I don't want ugly bolt holes at my house then you're well on
your way to understand some people's issues with our bolts in nature so go
ahead and spend the money on a tube of glue and see how the stuff mixes how the
shit gets everywhere and to make sure that your caulk gun fits the tube of
glue now if you don't want a glue n bolt in your yard for the next 50 years you
can pull it out before it cures and use some goof-off to clean it out if you are
gonna have to hand drill a bolt I recommend you do one in your yard just
so you can see how much is involved and that you practice keeping it straight
and if you do use mechanical bolts practice using with a torque wrench and
then a normal wrench so if you don't take a torque wrench up the mountain
with you you know how tight to make them so please practice practice practice
so that basically covers bolting ethics but I do want to encourage you to try to
rig all natural if possible it's not rocket science there's no magic behind
it you can use gear like cams nuts tri cams just put in a lot like isolate