UKH

The provocative sub heading for today's Open Country on Radio 4.

Oban Cliff Mystery

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001pfgs

Not listened to it, but Dave Mac involved, among others....

https://www.davemacleod.com/blog/obancrags

He gets mentioned but is not interviewed.

Interesting programme. But are the bolts titanium? I would have thought they would have used 316 marine grade stainless steel.

I drove past these earlier this year on the way to the Kerrera ferry and they look good. Even more impressive is Ganavan Bay just north of Oban which would give some pretty steep lines.

Not my dislike btw but this is from Dave's blog a while back - they're definitely titanium:

"For all my routes, I’ve used Titanium glue-in bolts (from Titan Climbing in Sheffield) and pure epoxy resin so that they should last many decades if not hundreds of years in this coastal environment."

https://www.davemacleod.com/blog/obancrags

Ahh, that explains it and makes sense. 

Having done a fair bit of rebolting on sea cliffs and near to the sea I have always used 316 rod as it works out not too expensive. Using titanium would have been a bit too expensive.

CB.

"Banging in titanium bolts" - the BBC demonstrating their ignorance of all things climbing again. 

Don't get too het up about it, it's just a generic phrase that adequately describes the situation.

But is probably inspired by Cliffhanger's bolt gun...

Surely that would be 'firing in'.