Burnin Bolts

I live in the SF valley and climb in the Santa Monica mountains a bunch.  Recently we had the "Woolsey" fire.  It took over a ton of land and more specifically Malibu Creek, Echo Cliffs, Boney Bluffs, and a few others.  Stainless steel bolts vs fire?  Who wins?  Also what about the rock?  It's a volcanic and sandstone mix for the most part.  If you really wanna know what rock type it is then look on the pages.  Do all these areas need a new bolting if the routes got fried?  Obvi the rock cant catch fire but it would be heat from the burning brush and trees around the routes.  Lemme know your thoughts.  

​https://www.mountainproject.com/area/105733881/mount-st-helena

This thread has a lot of info. It was volcanic rock mixed with gniess. 

There was some testing done in Australia, after they had some huge fires: youtube.com/watch?v=07cgeE3…

Contact Johnny Woodward.  He saw "The Horn" in the Henrys' get toasted by a very hot fire.  I saw rock there that appeared to be a little more "brittle" near the ground than what I remembered pre-fire.  The bolts I saw post-fire still looked good on the outside, though they did have some discoloration.

I'm curious as to the condition of all the SM crags as well.  I know strong rock can get very brittle under intense heat

Intense heat can cause damage to the rock and exfoliation/flaking. If you see that then the bolts might be affected as well - or not. Otherwise you're probably fine.

As an aside...

The mountain shop in Yosemite Valley burned down in the early '70s.

Dirtbag climbers then raided the charred remains for stoppers, bolts, hangers, etc.

Some of those bolts were used on new routes in the '70s - and 30 years later when we replaced them the hangers looked blackened as well as rusty!

Kelley Gilleran wrote: https://www.mountainproject.com/area/105733881/mount-st-helena

This thread has a lot of info. It was volcanic rock mixed with gniess. 

IMO, this video is pretty worthless.    The Hayman fire here in CO burned several of the South Platte climbing area.  It was hot enough to cause serious exfoliation of the granite!  (That butane torch in the video is a joke.)  So you need to look at both the bolt and the rock.   There was a pretty good article in either Climbing or R&I, but I don't remember if much testing of the hardware was done.

Los Conchas NM fire 2011

https://www.mountainproject.com/forum/topic/107695146/cochiti-mesa-update#a_107793754

John Byrnes wrote:

IMO, this video is pretty worthless.    The Hayman fire here in CO burned several of the South Platte climbing area.  It was hot enough to cause serious exfoliation of the granite!  (That butane torch in the video is a joke.)  So you need to look at both the bolt and the rock.   There was a pretty good article in either Climbing or R&I, but I don't remember if much testing of the hardware was done.

You might look up Pete Gallagher, climber and ranger, for more first-hand info.  

Didn't link a vid. It's a link to an entire area that got burned recently and had issues with rock quality. Multiple threads and pics. May have to dig. There isn't any vids on the area front page that I could see.

Kelley Gilleran wrote:

Didn't link a vid. It's a link to an entire area that got burned recently and had issues with rock quality. Multiple threads and pics. May have to dig. There isn't any vids on the area front page that I could see.

Edit: may have been talking about the vid posted below my post..

Oops, my bad.  You're right, I meant to respond to the other vid.