All articles tagged with #bolts
Climber and guidebook author Eric Sloan says he’s adding bolts to Snake Dike, Yosemite’s iconic eight-pitch 5.7 on Half Dome, reviving a long-running retrobolting debate. The piece recounts that first ascensionist Eric Beck long supported increased protection bolts but warned against defanging the route, notes historical bolt upgrades and a 2022 accident, and includes an update that Beck later pushed back against heavy retrobolting.
The NTSB reported that bolts securing a panel on a Boeing 737 Max 9 were missing before the panel blew off an Alaska Airlines plane midflight last month, leading to a harrowing emergency landing. The incident has raised concerns about manufacturing quality at Boeing, with questions about who removed the bolts and lack of documentation. The FAA is investigating manufacturing processes at Boeing and its supplier, Spirit AeroSystems, and the grounding of Alaska Airlines' 65 Max 9s is estimated to cost the carrier $150 million.