Bolt Length

I have recently purchased a hand drill after doing a lot of research. I am not intending on bolting any purely sport routes with it but am hoping to use it for anchors on trad routes or the occasional piece of pro on a blank section.

I am going to be drilling into hard granite and was wondering what length of bolt is considered safe. I saw a lot of different answers all over the internet. I will be using Fixe Wedge Bolts (I ordered a drill package), and they give you 4 3/8" x 3 1/2" bolts and 6 3/8" x 2 1/4" bolts. I feel completely fine with the 3 1/2", especially in granite, but the 2 1/4" bug me out a bit. Should they be safe in this type of rock or should I just use them for practice (which I was planning to do)?

Thanks

i have successfully used 3/8 x 2-1/4 inch wedge bolts in hard granite, hand or power drilled, but only for protection bolts. anchor bolts, first bolts, and crux bolts should be long, IMO.

however, if you hand drill a crappy hole, then i would stay away from the shorties... budget about 30+ min hand drilling time for 3/8 x 3 inch hole in hard granite.

EDIT: read your post again, that you are primarily interested in anchor bolts. so yeah, go with the long ones.

Save your shorties for dire situations. Don't waste them on practice. If you must, buy some cheapo Red Heads.

I didn't know which forum to put it in exactly, and I was just about to delete this one as I saw your message and was getting a lot of input on the other board. But, It wouldn't let me.

I gave you the benefit of the doubt in the other thread and skipped lecturing you about how you should find a mentor, you can't learn on the internet, "if you have to ask..." etc.

But seeing that you also posted this in the sport climbing forum leads me to believe that you really do need a bit of proper instruction in the real world before you start placing bolts on routes that are bound to be repeated.

Drilling the hole and placing the bolt is relatively easy, but putting everything in the right place is not. There are inevitably things that you will not think about until your 3rd or even 30th pitch. It would help you a lot and it would be much more fun if you had someone out there with you that could give you some pointers.

Having a "mentor" certainly contributed greatly to my experience and I learned 100 times faster with him around. Flying solo can be done, but it's not as safe or fun for you or anyone who repeats your routes.

You are being conscientious and that is really cool. Good you ask. In hard rock, more important than bolt length is bolt quality. Twenty seven years ago I placed some short, 3/8 studs in granite and they are still getting use. The problem is they are NOT coming out of the rock, and my choice in material means they need to. They are rusting. Don't do what I did back in the Jurasic... Make sure you spend the extra money and use stainless.

Sam Lightner, Jr. wrote:....spend the extra money and use stainless.

johnL wrote:It all depends on the situation.