Climbers unite!

Check and check, American Death Triangle, retired leeper hangers,
 hardware store wedge bolt, star dryvin, a modern 3/8" 5 piece
 that's hanging ~1/2" out of the wall, lots and lots of faded tat and
4 extremely heavily worn leaver carabiners
 and all of it is...kind of equalized.

This past climbing season one of my big missions out in the desert has been working with a few other folks to replace and update as many anchors as possible. Bolting has been something that I've done on and off for the past couple years, though rather intermittently particularly when not doing first ascents. I prioritized rebolting and equiping old routes with new hardware which was kind of awesome, I got on routes that I had never done before, routes that I'd done years ago and not touched since, I worked on routes that I regularly lap and felt good about doing all of them. It was sweet to be able to structure my climbing day around routes that needed a little love, there were entire climbing days of doing only routes on the list which completely eliminated the "well we could do that one, but this one looks good, but that one is kinda long/short/wide/thin etc" hmmming and hawwing conversation. Instead it was easy to point my rope gun at the route and then ride a top rope up to the anchors.

I learned over the course of the season that fixed gear is far too often blindly trusted, and I'm certainly guilty of this as well, however there were so many anchors composed or sun rotted webbing, outdated bolts, poorly placed bolts, single bolts, fixed nuts...well the list goes on, that have been used for years and it is a minor miracle that more people have not died by ripping anchors in the desert. The alarming ease of removing some of the hardware that I did has certainly been an eye opener and solidified the need for a growth in the community of anchor updaters!

Close up of a poorly placed modern bolt.

If you're getting in to doing or have been establishing new routes please for the love of god spend the little bit of extra money and get hardware that is going to last! Buy the steel (not aluminium) rap rings and the 3/8 chain and quicklinks rather than 3/16" crap that I've seen hanging of new routes in the desert. If you've been using good stuff then many thanks for the hard work and investment in the future safety of others!

Check out some of these...sub par anchors for a good laugh and what not to do as well as these:

http://dumbanchors.blogspot.com/

http://www.supertopo.com/climbers-forum/569713/Good-Anchors-Bad-Anchors

Two bolts, two hangers and an faded tat. None to be trusted.

If you're feeling pscyhed on doing some of the same check out some of these groups and resources:

Here's a whole library on basically everything you could ever want to know on tech specs, how to rebolt, bolt identification etc.
http://www.safeclimbing.org/education.htm

Here are some of the places that have been at least partially updated.
http://www.safeclimbing.org/replacement.htm

http://www.climbing.com/ari/

Also feel free to use me as a resource if you're psyched, if I can't help directly I know some people that know some stuff that I can put you in contact with!

Edit: Here is a write up on some of these pictures.

Modern anchors and drilled angles with some
 heavily worn carabiners and cross threaded quicklink

Lots of keychain carabiners!

More crappy hardware.

One pile of bleached tat and cordalette.

Another pile o' tattered webbing and cordage!