The bolt

Abstract

The first bolts in Poland were fixed in Góry Sokole (Falcon Mountains). This was a climbing technique which became a turning point in rock climbing and changed the ethical framework of mountaineering. The first device for fixing bolts was developed by Tadeusz Zipser, a young mountaineer and graduate of the Wrocław University of Science and Technology. He and Stefan Ścięgosz carried out practical tests in Góry Sokole in 1955 and the novel technique was used in the same year by Jan Długosz to traverse two new routes in the Tatras considered until that moment to be inaccessible. In the following years the new technique made it possible to achieve results similar to those of leading Alpine climbers.