Anchor Maintenance: Watchtower in American Fork

Last week, from May 21 to 24, the anchor crew headed down to American Fork's Watchtower for a second visit. In 2023, the Watchtower saw a significant increase in climbing activity. We believe word got out about how good the climbing is on grease-free holds. Whatever the reason for this new surge, we wanted to go back, update the remaining classics, and help spread out the traffic. Most of the routes at the Watchtower have stainless steel glue-ins, including the forgotten classic on the east face: Wasted and Wounded (5.12a).

After the Watchtower, the crew jumped over and did some work on the Juniper Wall. Routes like Time Crunch (5.8), Child’s Play (5.9), and Cranial Bypass saw updates of older bolts that remained on route. The Watchtower and Juniper Wall combo make for a great day of climbing!

The crew ended up replacing some newer plated steel bolts at the Watchtower. These bolts are a “newish” version of the plated steel 3/8" 5-piece bolt. This newer version reduced the bolt size to 1/4". This type of bolt is known as a PB+. These bolts are easily over-torqued, can easily snap, and have very little material to withstand repeated falls and rust. American Fork is a place that should only see stainless steel bolts. You can see the difference between the PB+ and newer stainless steel bolts in the photo below. The newer, thinner bolt is approximately 10 years old. You can see the amount of rust it has accumulated in just 10 years.