Secure anchors at lofty heights

Drilling and setting anchors in the airy heights of the alpine mountain landscape – these are among the extreme tasks of the climbers of the youth section of the German Alpine Club (JDAV) Baden-Württemberg. In July of this year, the experts from JDAV renovated a climbing garden in the Gotthard massif. In the process, five additional routes were newly developed. fischer heavy-duty fasteners made of steel and chemical anchors secure the safety hooks in the rock walls. The fischer Quattric II drill proved its worth when creating the drill holes in the very hard granite.

“To ensure safety in the mountains, high-quality products such as those from the fischer group are essential when setting up climbing routes,” emphasizes Fynn Renner, Head of Training for Youth Leaders at the Youth of the German Alpine Club (JDAV) Baden-Württemberg. Therefore, fischer heavy-duty fasteners and drills were used in the five newly established climbing routes in the Gotthard massif. The renovation and expansion of the climbing garden were integrated by JDAV Baden-Württemberg into their training catalogue for youth leaders. At dizzying heights, the climbers first cleaned and cleared the existing routes using spades, pruning saws, joint scrapers, and wire brushes. This was followed by “extreme fastening.”

Type of object

Fastening in nature

Scope

Renovation of 20 climbing routes

Number of checked boxes

approx. 450 safety hooks

“When attaching the climbing hooks, it was necessary to drill holes in very hard granite,” explains Fynn Renner. “Under these very challenging conditions, we were convinced by the fischer Hammerbohrer SDS Plus Quattric II with their longer service life and higher drilling performance compared to alternative solutions.” This was made possible by many technical features. “The solid carbide head for diameter sizes up to 10 mm, massive main cutting edges, and the two-part drill flute accelerate the work progress and increase the service life,” explains Bernd Wetzel, application technician at the fischer Group. “These are decisive advantages for extreme fastening tasks such as securing climbing routes.” The reinforced core also increases stability during drilling.

Important for use: Thorough hole cleaning so that the installed chemical and mechanical anchors achieve their guaranteed load capacities. After that, the climbers installed two different hook systems. On the one hand, so-called adhesive hooks (also called Bühler hooks) were used together with the fischer injection mortar FIS V 300 T. “The composite system is firmly connected to the rock face and provides permanently secure hold,” says Bernd Wetzel. For installation, the climbers injected the fischer injection mortar FIS V 300 T into the borehole using the corresponding fischer dispensing tool, screwed the hooks in, and smoothed out the swelling residual mortar. After its curing time, the composite system is fully loadable and achieves permanently high load capacities.

To ensure safety in the mountains, high-quality products such as those from the fischer group of companies are essential when setting up climbing routes

Fynn Renner, Head of Training for Youth Leaders at the Youth of the German Alpine Club (JDAV) Baden-Württemberg

In addition to the adhesive hooks, so-called drilled anchors were installed in the rock walls. For this purpose, the fischer bolt anchors FAZ II made of stainless steel (R) in 10 x 80 mm were used. With these mechanical anchors, the climbers securely and firmly anchored the 10-mm drilled anchor tabs in the rock walls. "Our fischer FAZ II bolt anchors reliably transfer very heavy applied loads into the base material," emphasizes Bernd Wetzel.

After drilling and cleaning the hole, these can be installed either as pre-installation or through-installation. When tightening the nut, the conical bolt is pulled into the expansion clip and clamps it against the hole wall. Once the specified torque is reached, the anchor is securely set and immediately loadable. Very heavy forces acting on the drilled anchor are reliably transferred into the base material by the FAZ II bolt anchor. As redirectors, the experts from JDAV also installed chain anchors with rings or even carabiners. These serve at the end of the route to redirect the rope and lower the climber back down.

Secure anchors at lofty heights

fischer fastening solutions prove themselves in the Gotthard massif

Our used products