Broken Holds: Should They Be Glued Back On?

Recently at Pictured Rocks a memorable hold broke off near the top of Superfly. At the recent trail day event the question was raised on whether to glue the hold back in place, assuming the correct piece of rock had been found.

The vibe around the pavilion was to leave the route as it is. Holds break off, it happens. Deal with it.

What's your take?

I don't know the route you're talking about but in a general sense, holds that have broken off definitely should not be glued back on. I can't think of a single case where I find this appropriate.

--Marc

No glue, just change the grade. It would likely break again anyway.

Nope, that's silly and also dangerous. Erosion happens.

I can think of routes that have had holds glued back on and routes where the pieces were not glued back on, which were both awesome.

But essentially, why make an awesome, possibly classic climb into something much harder and possibly not any good?

then again, I don't think the hold Chris Sharma broke off the Mandala was glued back on.

I'll chime in before this becomes a crazy bitchfest. I wouldn't glue a hold back on if I broke it off, and if I was in the position to do so at my local area (or even if I was asked to) I still wouldn't do it. To my knowledge, none of the high end, cutting edge problems/routes that have had broken holds have had them glued back on. Think Jaws... the grade was changed (I think).

As usual with this kind of thing... it's up to the locals. I've climbed some excellent routes with glued holds, and more times that not I only notice it on the third or fourth burn or while cleaning the route. I can't say that I was angry that someone glued the holds back on... just that I probably wouldn't have done it.

Leave it be and adjust the grade if needed. You wouldn't grind a sharp edge back onto a hold after it got worn down. The only difference I see between the hold wearing and breaking off is the time it takes to become useless.

I was bouldering in Central Park and saw my first glued hold...I think they should have left it alone.

It is actually my understanding that among high-end sport routes, at least, gluing is not terribly uncommon. For example, I haven't climbed there (too weak), but I've heard there are a fair number of glued-back-on or glue-reinforced holds in the Madness Cave at the Red. That said, I don't feel like it's something I'd do, though I can sympathize with the motivations of someone whose long-term sport climbing project was rendered impossible by a key crimp busting off at the crux.

I guess in my view, chipping is never ok, and gluing is almost never ok, but I can see the justification as long as you are not adding something that wasn't there before, and the job is done in a way that the glue is near invisible (no huge globs of sika around a busted flake). Once again, though, I don't think I can ever see myself doing it, it'd just feel kind of wrong.

wankel7 wrote:I was bouldering in Central Park and saw my first glued hold...I think they should have left it alone.

Boulder routes that are so short, and dependant on certain specific holds,,, well I can see the temptation to reglue the hold back in place to continue to enjoy that specific move on the boulder problem. But agree it will probably just break off again, often in another spot around the glued area.

Just to provide a little context:

The broken hold on SuperFly does make clipping the last bolt harder (in my opinion it may now be the hardest move on the route), but the route is not a lot harder with the broken hold. There has been some discussion of bumping the grade from 5.11b to 5.11c, but the feedback on that has been mixed. The route is still an area classic and has seen a lot of ascents since the hold broke.

My vote is to leave it the way it is.

I'd leave it as it now is, for what my opinion is worth... which is close to nothing unless you were to be talking about my local crags...

wankel7 wrote:I was bouldering in Central Park and saw my first glued hold...I think they should have left it alone.

I also saw my first glued hold in Central Park. Then I looked down and saw all the broken bottles, beer cans, and condom wrappers and realized "Leave no trace" wasn't exactly the law of the land there...

Most anyone who's climbed at Smith (or just about any other crag around the country that has rock of a questionable quality) has tugged on a hold or two that has been reinforced, manufactured or repaired to some extent. If the person doing the work did a good job then most likely you didn't even know it. Glue and other dubious methods of route development have been used all over the country for decades. You only hear about it when someone does a shitty job.

As far as the question about this specific chunk of rock at your local crag...sounds like people are climbing it and not having any real difficulty. I'd say a decision on this one has all ready been made.

In general, it's probably best left alone. There's enough climbing already established at every grade to keep us all occupied for generations to come; the loss of one route is of little consequence. However, so many modern climbs have been modified by chipping, cleaning, gluing, chalking, and human traffic in general that another glued hold is also of little consequence. It's up to the local community and the FA first and foremost.

Answer the following questions in order to answer your own. Is the problem still possible? How much harder did it become? Was it the only one of the grade in the area? What kind of rock is it on? Is this area used as a training ground regularly by locals? Does the area you speak of have a pre-existing ethic? If so, what is it? Top the list is the wishes of the first ascensionist, what would he say?

And you answer is ..... Probably glue it back on but upside down.

There are more glued (back) on holds than anyone probably realizes...and even more that are reinforced. If the grade only changes from 11b to 11c...then leave it alone. There was a lot of talk about gluing the crux hold back onto Sprout in Maple...which is drilled and glued like crazy...the hold somehow "disappeared"...and now the crux is a touch longer and not a lot harder, and way better IMO.

Sometimes it makes sense and other times it doesn't. In this instance is seems to not seem like the right thing.

Find the hold and keep it as a memento. I still have a chalky crystal (and a little scar on my chin) from Meat Means Murder in Rushmore SD. This happened in the early 90's

I personaly think it should stay as it is. Erosion happens.

However, when it was brought up on Saturday not a single person spoke up in favor of glueing said hold back into place; not one viable argument to support it. In the least I figured it would make an interesting forum discussion.

Ugh. I really dislike glue. Most of the time it looks really bad. Probably best just to leave the hold off.