UKC

Tony Howard in his autobiography describes finding "golos " on a climb in the Dolomites.  Not a term I know, sounds like they might be in situ pitons.  Can someone enlighten me? Keep it clean!

I think golos used to protect white gold at chee tor in the good old days

;0)

A relatively poor kind of bolt from back in the day.

A golo was a tiny bolt, maybe 5cm in total length with a small eye and square shaft that was driven into a pre-drilled hole. Some had a tiny metal wedge in the tip, so when it hit the back of the hole it split the bolt and helped it grip,

Chris

Are they the type used on rare gritstone applications like The Prow on Wimberry? ( I think Graham West may have placed those )

Not sure if this link works but it is a BMC bolt guidance pdf.

There is a photo of a golo and old coach screws on it if you scroll down to page 7.

https://images.app.goo.gl/YVqGma7yaV5fFBJo7

Thanks Chris.  I had had searched quite a lot without getting an answer

I'm not sure if the ones on The Proe at Whimberry are golos, it is years since I looked at them but iirc they are hammered into some kind of sleeve rather than straight into a hole. If Graham West placed them, they could well have been home-made,

Chris

Golo is just a generic name really, a lot were like star drivins with a soft sleeve and a nail system. The name is reputedly a corruption of a french word.

From Chris' description and the illustration in the BMC pdf, Maestri's infamous Cerro Torre bolts were golos; the simple 'interference fit' ones that didn't have a wedge in the end. Scroll down to the third photo on here:-

https://gripped.com/news/british-free-attempt-on-cerro-torre-southeast-ridg...

Spot on, I reckon, Ian.

I recall seeing some for sale in an early 70's yha shop catalogue. Made by cassin. 

Nearer to home , there are still two in near the start of r+s / Dawes on raven langdale.

Look like pegs until you realise they don't need a crack, though the langdale ones are drilled near a crack, possibly in an attempt to deceive or in hope of easier drilling.

On dove , the aid line up the start of the original north buttress route were all the same type of golo, put in by boyson or crew , legend has it.

Isn't the thing on Great West Road at Millstone a 'golo'? Still feels surprisingly solid, on the unscientific basis of a finger waggle.

Guessing it is one of the North Buttress golos you clip on your Fear and Fascination (E5 6a)? Not overly reassuring if I remember!

Felt very reassuring forty years ago.

That would be the first golo on the bolt ladder followed by Steve Mayers (on sight !) when he followed his nose up the north buttress. 

Ha, yes, the inexorable toll of time! (And different perspectives!)

I feel like Steve Mayer's climbing achievements across the British isles are inexplicably little known. Odd.

The golos used by Graham West et al. on the first ascent of Mecca on Ravenstor in the very old days were hammered into a soft metal sleeve which was fitted into the drilled hole first.  The hole size was not very uniform in those days of course because they were all hand drilled using a star drill and hammer.  I can still remember the trepidation using them - they looked very small and insecure!

Golot - with a t - is a French word. Golot: boulon à coquille d'expansion, boulon à gaine d'expansion, boulon de scellement, boulon expandeur... So not specific, just refers to a fixing in rock/concrete etc.

That's the word I was looking for!

Hi Rick

Yes - I have one of those from the early seventies; almost contemporary with Maestri's, but not quite. It has a noticeably shorter shaft than many of those in the Cerro Torre picture, so they were presumably available in at least two lengths. You're correct about the brand, of course - Cassin - but I'm fairly sure that these, and the rest of his [Cassin's] piton range, were actually manufactured for him by the Premana-based firm of Nicola Codega, who also made his ice axes and hammer[s?]; better known now, I think, as CAMP. In his seminal work 'Big Wall Climbing' Doug Scott also illustrates similar items from Stubai and Salewa - like CAMP both based in or close to the predominately limestone ranges of the Eastern Alps - and Charlet Moser in the West.

The earliest mention of the term 'golo' of which I'm aware is in Guido Magnone's account of the first ascent of the West Face of Les Drus in 1952. Having retreated on their previous attempt from the top of the 90 metre Dièdre - at a point very close to the left edge of the West Face, and with a ledge on the North Face route just around the corner - the team subsequently returned to the fray by climbing the North Face route [Allain, Leininger - 1935] to the aforementioned ledge and then establishing a bolted traverse across a blank wall to regain their West Face highpoint; and thence upward to success. [Apologies here to Jim T; in correspondence several years ago I referred to this traverse as having been used to escape the West Face - whereas it was actually established to regain it!] The traverse was led by Marcel Lainé, who had also designed and made the bolts. These are illustrated in the glossary of Magnone's book [in translation] 'The West Face', consisting, as suggested upthread, of a sleeve into which a tapering bolt was driven - in this instance with a rather more pronounced taper than that evident in the simpler 'interference fit' models mentioned above. Interestingly, Jon, Magnone uses the 'golo' spelling - although, like you, I would have expected to see a 't' on the end.

I'd assumed for a long time that this instance on Les Drus was the first occasion on which bolts were used in the Western Alps in the course of a first ascent - as distinct from during the subsequent equipping of routes, installation of fixed ropes etc, to make them more practical guided options. It turns out I was wrong - by about 25 years! By 1927 Laurent Grivel had apparently designed and manufactured some sort of bolts which he used that year in the course of the first ascent of Le Père Eternel on the north side of the Aiguille de la Brenva. I've no idea what form they took or whether he gave them a particular name - although if he did I assume it would have been in Italian rather than French.

Leaping now to Pete Crew. There's a photo somewhere of his bolt that Ed Grindley removed from The Boldest [FA 1963]. Can't remember what it looked like. Any ideas?

All good stuff as usual, Ian.

What amazed me on the dru was  the size of the traverse bolts , huge. Not the dainty golo which are only just big enough for a krab to clip.

On the Boldest, legend has it that Gordon ( Higginson) , Ed's second , took out the bolt on his instruction.

When did you do the Drus, Rick? American Direct, presumably; or was it the 1952 original route? Do you think the bolts that you saw were original, or could they have been replacements? There's a photo of that traverse in Magnone's book, but unfortunately it's too small to determine the detail - or indeed the size - of the various fixtures. I'm assuming that you didn't actually use them; or did you have to 'escape round the corner'? I gather that in more recent years - as the rockfall area has edged ever closer to that upper groove system - that the exit onto the North Face at that point has become somewhat of a voie normale.

Ah yes; to be honest I don't know for certain which of them did the deed. I'm fairly sure that it wasn't removed prior to the ascent; I recall at the time feeling somewhat critical of Grindley for lack of commitment, in that when he set off up the pitch he still had the option of using the bolt or not - depending on how things were feeling when he actually got to it. I don't know whether he removed it on lead, or whether he simply ignored it and left its removal to Higginson.

1978. American direct finishing up some amazing pitches on the west face route.

There was a few easier(IV,V) pitches up a magnificent groove system, the only line between acres of smooth unclimbed rock either side, all now presumably on the deck.

The bolt traverse to the north face is off left at the top of the 90 m diedre. In 78 it all looked pretty industrial relic like , and must have been sensational in 1952. There may have been some additions during the rescue  extravaganza in 66? I got the impression from my son when he did the direct a few years ago that the standard traverse now onto the north face (possibly the only option) is this bolted traverse.

Perhaps some modern photos from recent ascents will turn up.

According to my Cloggy guide 1988 (Paul Williams) quoting Mountain mag (number not quoted) "Grindley chopped the bolt before leading the hard moves on sight" this seems to imply that he actually did the deed on the ascent. Athough he would have still have had the option of clipping it if he was feeling stretched, seems pretty ethical to me.