UAE Bolting Fund

Introduction

Dear climbing community,

This page is not The Official UAE Bolt Fund Website and merely reflects my own thoughts on the matter (along with some pieces of advice). For more accurate and up to date information please visit The Official UAE Bolt Fund Website.

If you are on this page it means that you share a passion with us. Whether climbing for you is just an interest among others or the love of your life, we are all part of the same community. And as such, you might want to know more about the activity of the small group of brave volunteers who set up and maintain sport climbing routes in the region. If you practise outdoor sport climbing in UAE and Oman, you have probably asked yourself at least once who equipped all those routes, who put into the rock all those precious bolts, bolt hangers and anchors your life is depending on when you work your way up. It might come as a surprise to some of you that all the sport climbing routes in UAE and Oman are the outcome of the work of a few people who are committing their time and their money to this passion and to allow the climbing community to have loads of fun during the time spend outdoor.

Why a UAE bolting fund ?

Bolting a route is a very demanding activity, even for an experienced bolter. Depending on a great number of variables, it can take between 1 to 7 full days of work. This could mean as long as 6 months or more, considering that local bolters are doing this during their spare time, which typically means weekends (and not necessarily each and every one of them). From a cost standpoint, only counting bolts, bolt hangers and chains, it would cost ~250 AED. This cost number would easily double/triple adding the depreciation of the drill, fuel, other consumables (like static ropes), VISA costs for Oman, etc.
If you consider that in the region there are ~500 routes, you have an idea of the investment of time and money that local bolters made so far. To our knowledge, there is no funding effort at the moment to maintain or bolt new routes in UAE (RAK, Fujairah, Al Ain) or the Omani climbing spots “easily” reachable from the UAE (Hatta, Wonderwall, Dibba, Sharaf).
Every bolting or route maintenance activity in this region is led by a small group of volunteers that receives no monetary support for their efforts. If we want to maintain a vital and safe climbing activity in the region it is key that their effort is known by the whole climbing community and supported by each member of it.

UAE bolting fund current goals

The current objective of the fund is to provide part of the consumable materials to bolters (bolt hangers, chains) to support their efforts maintain and set new routes in UAE and “close” Oman. Going forward,
At the moment, the current goals of the fund are :

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• To replace rusty bolts and anchors in Tawiyan and Hatta – main crag
• To set up new routes in Hatta (The Wave and main crag), Wonderwall, Sharaf Al Alamein; whenever it is possible a wide range of difficulties will be considered, the goal being to provide climbing for everyone. Just to give an example : more than half of the routes bolted in recent years have a grade lower than or equal to 6a (French system)
• [Add more details on ongoing projects]
• [add links to relevant pages, e.g. new Sharaf areas pdf’s]

The above goals will be kept updated. Goals will be updated by a committee and based depending on :

• Discovery of new areas suitable for bolting routes, and their features which will allow for different grading (like the new ones in Sharaf)
• Availability of qualified bolters’ time
• Availability of funds
• Priorities of the climbing community : Kindly appreciate that, while we’ll try to understand the priority of the climbing community, the bolters have the final say on where, when, and which grade they will bolt, as they are still the ones that are investing the most time and money After a period of “hibernation”, the fund has retaken momentum (and re-started fund collection) in Nov 2015 (while, on the other hands, bolters never stopped working). We hope to be able to publish the first achievements of the fund very shortly.

Status of donation, how to donate

At the moment the fund has collected 3,450 AED. Full list of donors below.
Short term fund raising target to meet next 2/3 months needs is 5,000 AED, with a longer term target of 20,000 AED.
Fund is currently administered by Global Climbing UAE - Pete Aldwinckle. Should you want to donate:

• Rock Republic is directly connected to Global Climbing and can collect donations [add link to address]
• The Wall in World Trade Center has kindly accepted to set up a box for donations – you can put money in an envelope with your name inside and it will be periodically delivered to RR
• You can also make your donations to “entitled individuals” (Alberto or Mathieu [other]in Dubai, Jad in Abu Dhabi) during any climbing activities.

On personal responsibility

It has to be understood that every climber is responsible for their personal safety while climbing any sport route in the region. Neither the UAE bolting fund nor the bolters takes any responsibility for accidents of any type that can occur while climbing any of the sport routes funded by the UAE bolting fund. It is extremely important for each and every one of you to understand that this does not mean that routes are not equipped in a safe and professional way.
Yet, the odds while climbing are many, and nobody can expect that people that are investing time (and, to some extent, money, as the fund does only cover part of the expenses) also takes the responsibility for whatever happens on routes they bolted (sometimes years after they were bolted).
However, as per the experience of all the people contributing to this initiative (which includes seasoned climbers, climbing instructors and bolters, some with 10-20 years of experience) accidents very rarely happen due to equipment failure. On the other hand, many times we saw during the our climbing excursions inexperienced climbers making many mistakes that could seriously compromise their safety (e.g. : ropes too short, not belaying properly, top roping using a single quickdraw on a bolt, not securing themselves with slings when belaying from unstable positions, not mastering basic security manoeuvres, top roping in overhangs on the wrong side of the rope and many others). We strongly underline the importance of seeking proper professional instruction, and climb with someone who is able and technically prepared to :

• ensure that fundamental security measures and practices are followed while climbing, including proper use of the climbing equipment
• assess the conditions of the route prior to climbing, in particular the state of conservation of bolts, bolt hangers and chains

It is the personal responsibility of each and every climber to ensure respect the above guidelines; no bolter can be held accountable for any accident happening on the route due to the huge amount of imponderables associated to climbing activities. They should have proper knowledge of sport climbing techniques and report every potential issue on routes (rusty bolts, bolt hangers or anchors; uncleaned routes, etc.). For this purpose, you can send your messages to [link] . Please avoid the spam and limit your messages to climbing related ones. This site is administered by volunteers that can dedicate only a small part of their time to this activity.

List of donors :

• 1,000 AED: Alberto
• 500 AED: Ammar, Mathieu
• 250 AED: Mayssam
• 200 AED: Ioana, Oliver, Amr
• 150 AED: Fouad, Georgio
• 100 AED: Giuseppe, Matteo, Diana
• [to be completed]