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River Tower Rivet

This  1/4 inch rivet pulled under a body weight load when I climbed the initial pitch of the Wyrick/Merrill route on the north side of the River Tower in The Fisher Towers of Utah. Climbing this route is like encountering a vertical museum. Most of the hardware is old and protrudes from the wall an uncomfortable amount. I found myself wondering “if I can see so much of this thing, how much is left in the rock?”. Well, a couple of them came out and I discovered the answer to that question. The piece above was in 7/16ths of an inch. I fell as it blew out and pulled the rivet below it as well. We didn’t find the lower one and it is probably still around the base of the tower somewhere. This piece was trapped in the rivet hanger much like in the photographs above.

 

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