South Mountain Gluing

It was recently brought to my attention that someone has been "gluing" holds at South Mountain. I want to let it be known that this is completely unacceptable. Local climbers have been forging good relationships with park managers for the past 8 years. If these holds were found it could jeopardize our access. Please refrain from modifying holds in the future. If you are the culprit feel free to contact me if you have any questions about why this is cannot be tolerated at South Mountain.

I personally have no problem with reinforcing holds. But this is a hack job!

Rock dust people!

It's very easy to sprinkle dust on the wet glue and work it in so it's really hard to see that the hold has been reinforced with glue.
Your average Park employee would never notice.

Have some pride in your work for Christ's sake! Lazy bums!

And at least use high-grade 2-part epoxy and hide it better! That's a total hack job.

Are you sure this was done recently? Crappy glue jobs like that were common around here 15-20 years ago but I haven't seen much of that this century.

Jimbo wrote:I personally have no problem with reinforcing holds. But this is a hack job! Rock dust people! It's very easy to sprinkle dust on the wet glue and work it in so it's really hard to see that the hold has been reinforced with glue. Your average Park employee would never notice. Have some pride in your work for Christ's sake! Lazy bums!

+1 What he said..

Andrew Haag wrote:can hardly notice all the chalk with that much glue.

Heh. Smartass. Also, you can't brush off glue so easily.

It probably depends on the ethic of the area. Either figure out the new beta, or do a much better job gluing the hold back on. I can see that it would be an area this would be common to because that granite is definitely exfoliating.

BenClimbing wrote:Are you sure this was done recently? Crappy glue jobs like that were common around here 15-20 years ago but I haven't seen much of that this century.

I'm not a material scientist, but it appears to be liquid nails that has been applied within the last year. I have also never seen chalk on these overhangs until recently. Now every single hold has a tick mark on it....

Zeke wrote: It probably depends on the ethic of the area. Either figure out the new beta, or do a much better job gluing the hold back on. I can see that it would be an area this would be common to because that granite is definitely exfoliating.

Ethic is no gluing or reinforcing. The rock is definitely "exfoliating", but that's just the nature of the beast. It keeps things interesting. :)

I've never seen glue reinforced holds at South Mountain since the 1980's. Cleaning exfoliating flakes is common there, the nature of the rock. Too bad some guy's proud line is such a hack job.

If you must glue, please try to make it more palatable by following Jimbo's advice (sprinkle some rock/fine sand dust on it after application.

Better yet, find a way without the glue.

This is the next step...

Another obvious indication that ClimbMax boulderers is far too close to South Mountain... Leave the glue at home. The rock is supposed to exfoliate - its the geology of the area!

Good stuff, Tyson, I've seen those bolted on holds at Crawdad Canyon myself. Quite a trip, although I guess there are no access issues since it's on private land.

Climbphx.com, quite an inflammatory statement to make when you don't know who reinforced the hold, and, far as I can recollect, Eddie goes to Climbmax and obviously he doesn't advocate that activity. Way to generalize.

Who's generalizing... Facts are facts, I know the gym, everytime i'm up there I hear them jawing on about their last heroic feat in the gym and now this proliferation of glued on holds by boulderer's.
I highly doubt it was a trad climber from the McDowell's that did this.

And I know Eddie btw... He would never be mixed up in anything such as this. I'm just ticked off that I've been climbing in South Mountain since 1992 and have never seen such shit as this. The white chalk ticks on EVERYTHING, the trash left strewn about and now glued holds.
Sucks people cant leave anything for the next guy -

ClimbPHX.com wrote:Who's generalizing... Facts are facts, I know the gym, everytime i'm up there I hear them jawing on about their last heroic feat in the gym and now this proliferation of glued on holds by boulderer's. I highly doubt it was a trad climber from the McDowell's that did this.

You are generalizing some "jawing" you heard at the gym to the fact of glued on holds at SM. I'll admit my bias and say I was a member of CMax when I lived in Phoenix, but I hardly ever bouldered, never glued a hold in my life, and mostly gear and sport climb. The gluing protest should be directed toward the individual(s) who perpetrated it, not towards a whole gym just because you have some vague, cantankerous beef about them spraying.

ClimbPHX.com wrote: Sucks people cant leave anything for the next guy -

It sounds like they were leaving some well-glued on holds for the next guy. Okay, I'm razzing you. I too don't like the trash people left there and I always packed out what I found at the base. Tick marks are also their own issue.

Nothing against you, I just think you should direct your comments at educating rather than being accusatory. If it is a gym rat, maybe they don't get these issues. Accusations will just lead to an online fist fight.

True that. And thats useless. Before Climbmax... which is a mile away from this part of the park... I didnt see quite the traffic that this area see's.. your right - I should lump all boulderer's in the same bucket.

Zeke wrote: You are generalizing some "jawing" you heard at the gym to the fact of glued on holds at SM. I'll admit my bias and say I was a member of CMax when I lived in Phoenix, but I hardly ever bouldered, never glued a hold in my life, and mostly gear and sport climb. The gluing protest should be directed toward the individual(s) who perpetrated it, not towards a whole gym just because you have some vague, cantankerous beef about them spraying.

No its the loud cantankerous spray that emanates at the crag that I find especially annoying while I'm there. 5.11A this and 5.10 1/2 that...
Guess that's why I prefer the McDowell's... at least I can climb up and out of earshot LOL

ClimbPHX.com wrote: No its the loud cantankerous spray that emanates at the crag that I find especially annoying while I'm there. 5.11A this and 5.10 1/2 that... Guess that's why I prefer the McDowell's... at least I can climb up and out of earshot LOL

I can understand wanting to get away from the crowds ;). Whenever I bouldered there it was usually in the midweek, so I didn't see too much of the crowds...

For all the traffic on this thread, have we made any headway on finding the Who Dunnit? My guess is that Facebook spamalot is the next step to raising the awareness issue. Eddie mentioned to me that the glue job is not very visible from the trail, but it still is not ok for the area.

My hope is that we get to educate rather than beat up a new guy to the show.

Eddie Brown wrote:...If these holds were found it could jeopardize our access.

Well, at least you're keeping it quiet and amongst yourselves while you deal with the issue as opposed to posting it on a national board where anyone can see. Ah, I see, it's posted with the stealth option checked.