Two comments.

1) If the glue was still wet, that means it wasn't mixed properly when it was installed. Definitely reach out to the SNCC who did the work and let them know.

2) The pic shows very wet dirt behind the person holding the bolt up- this means the rock is still too wet to climb. The last rain was Sat, Jan 14th in the afternoon- given the levels of saturation over the last month, I wouldn't expect the rock to be dry enough to climb until Jan 17th or so. Jan 15, 2017

100% too wet to be climbing at RR today. While it did not rain yesterday, it was cloudy all day yesterday and has been generally wet for awhile now. So today is the first day the rock even started to dry.

This may have been bad glue...but it may have just been a very wet rock situation (which is not rock when it is wet enough) that was just not "rock" enough to hold the glue/rock bond. Super wet rock could also allow an expansion bolt to "fail" when the "rock" just moves right out of the way.


If breaking holds is not enough to deter folks from the wet rock; maybe pulling out bolts will! Jan 15, 2017

This is all me. I'm not in town but getting on it asap. Feeling pretty sick to my stomach at the moment. That rock is very soft and it has been wet lately but still that image is being taken very seriously.

Any and all theories welcome. Jan 15, 2017

What brand of glue was it? A7, Powers Gold, RE 500?

Could have been a wet rock situation...either at the moment of pull (certainly would have been)...and perhaps wet since placed. When was it placed?

It's interesting as it looks like there is a big "lug" of hardened glue on the end. This suggest that it was pulled through the rock. So, perhaps a rock failure versus a glue failure.

To the OP, thanks for posting. No doubt there were a 100+ other people climbing at RR today too.

Also, this is not the first instance of a bolt "falling out" at Red Rock. It's happened a few times including shortly after a rebolt of Rebel Without A Pause several years ago. Jan 15, 2017

Sika Anchorfix 2

Id like to see the coverage on the bolt, and also the the hole it came out of. If someone comes into this please pass it along. Also the first bolt of Marshall Amp and the Gambler [bolt 2 I think] was done same day, probably same tube of glue. Jan 15, 2017

When the cement came out it still had a chemical smell to it, and cement was wet and gooey. it could have been a combination of the wet rock as well, but it definitely seemed that the cement was not mixed properly (or bad batch). Wet rock seemed plausible, we are not local to Vegas yet assumed the rock would be dry enough to climb. Last rain we heard of was 2 days prior and surrounding sand was dry. Definitely waiting a couple more sunny days from now on after the rain in case that was the reason it came out.


We Appredicate all the new rebolting efforts going into these routes and do not want to put the "blame" on anyone just inform of what happened and hopefully prevent it from happening again:) we left the bolt at the base of the climb.

There is still one expansion bolt and glue in left up at the top and a near by sling to bail off if need be Jan 16, 2017