Chopped bolts at The Works © Peter Holder

The Works is a drytool specific bolted venue that does not encroach on other forms of climbing as has been remarkably popular since its development back in 2012 (see this UKC report on the development of the crag).

Chopped bolts at The Works © Peter Holder

UKC asked local climber Peter Holder for more information:

What is the extent of the chopping? What percentage of routes would you guess?

"The Lakes drytooling venue consists of two quarries, Bakestone and The Works. Bakestone is the smaller of the two quarries with around seven routes there. At present this quarry remains unvandalised, apart from the theft of around ten insitu quickdraws on Greg Boswell's project, which were donated by Mountain boot company.

The main vandalism has occurred in the main most popular quarry, The Works. The Works has around fifteen routes of which eight were fully equipped with insitu draws provided by DMM, Lyon Equipment and personal donations. I would say 80/90 percent of all the draws and bolts have been stolen and vandalised, leaving every route in The Works totally unclimbable apart from two that remain untouched. (Transfusion M8 and Steve's Corner M6). Guardian of the Underworld M12 has had around 5/6 bolts destroyed and quickdraws stolen, but the rest remain untouched and Andy Turner's project, which he hadn't finished drilling, still has the quickdraws in place."

© Nicholas Valente Chopped bolts at The Works

What exactly has happened - bolts actually chopped, insitu draws removed?

"In my opinion, someone has a vendetta against drytooling and wanted to make a point. This weekend there was meant to be a performance drytooling workshop run by, Paddy Cave, Andy Turner, Greg Boswell and Steve Ashworth. So the timing seems like too much of a coincidence.

The extent of the destruction is pretty mind blowing. It appears that the bolts have been sawn off with a hacksaw and all of this was done in the space of one day/ night, perhaps by one person?

Also the technical knowledge needed to remove all the bolts is quite high leading me to believe that this was done by an experienced climber. However I do believe it is wrong to speculate at this moment.

All the regular activists at The Works are very keen to get this place up and running again. The Cumbria Bolt Fund has lost out massively because of this incident."

You can donate to the bolt fund here: cumbriaboltfund

We have also heard that The Epicentre in Ambleside have donated 25 bolts immediately after hearing about the damage.