We recently purchased a new drill to help with rebolting in the Calanques area near Marseilles in France. This great area has featured in the Rockfax book France : Côte d’Azur since 2010 with a new edition in 2017.
Nico Armstrong approached us and told us of the work he and his friends were doing.
“Around Marseille, the climbing crags are maintained by several teams, most of them volunteers. The FFCAM regional team is composed of 6 qualified volunteers and works in collaboration with the other teams, professionals, land owners and national/regional parks. The equipment and anchors used on the cliffs are collected using grants (federations, regions) or guidebooks profits. The routes that need maintenance (corroded or inappropriate anchors) are first identified by local climbers.
Each year, a list of routes is discussed by the different teams and presented to the land managers (Calanques national park for example). Then the work is conducted only after approval.
The type of anchors we use in the south of France are in most cases stainless steel. But the choice also depends on the localisation of the cliff. Far from the sea in the land, stainless steel or galvanised steel glued-in anchors are the best choices for durability. In the case of marine cliffs, and to avoid marine corrosion, the best anchors known to date are made of titane or HCR stainless steel (high corrosion resistance – AINSI 904), but they are very expensive.”
Thanks go out to Nico and the team for the great work they do and we are very happy at Rockfax to be able to help them in this way.
Follow-up (March 2023) – Nicholas Armstrong who is involved in crag maintenance in the Calanques area has sent this feedback on work done there using the drill purchased by Rockfax.
