Thailand is a sort of paradise, that western climbers discovered in the late 80s, with a development boom in the 90s. Sun, sand, delicious food, well featured rock, and rustic accommodations had climbers returning season after season to put up new routes on seaside cliffs. By then, stainless steel expansion bolts were the gold standard in the climbing community, and as routes went up, that’s what was used. Sure, the saltwater in the air might make them rust a little faster than normal, but 304 stainless is pretty durable stuff.

Well, that’s what we thought. Soon bolts were failing during whips, and then under just bodyweight. An anchor bolt gave way nearly costing a pair of climbers their lives. So the hunt was on – did they need to go to surgical steel? To glue ins?

The title gives it away I suppose. The Thaitanium Project (Trailer Here) documents the winding path from initial development, through terrifying bolt failures, concerns climbing might be banned by the park service, concerns someone would be hurt or killed, to the eventual solution – Titanium. Unlike many other films, I’ve not left a list of the named climbs below – many are shown, but at no real length.

For a geek like me, this was actually a really fun film. This film starts with the story of area’s development (after the require montage), to bolt failures, and takes a 10+ minute detour for SCIENCE. In my engineering career, I’ve had the pleasure of knowing two top-notch metallurgists, and both have staggered me with their subject matter expertise. This film showcases such a metallurgist, and a geologist\hydrologist, and for me at least, the science behind why the stainless bolts were rotting through was fascinating. Titanium is a pretty unique metal, but its also much much more expensive.

What you need to understand is this isn’t a film about the sends, this is a film about the process, and a call for support. Climbers from all over the world come to Thailand to vacation and take in the routes – many of which are fun “moderates”, and without a local coalition the necessary re-bolting effort is shouldered by a few dedicated souls that feel personally responsible for the area. As such, all the proceeds from the sale of the film go to the retrofit efforts. If you ever plan to climb in (or even if you don’t), we should support these efforts to keep our community safe.

Verdict: Buy It. For only $20 you can help make climbing safer, and get a DVD out of the deal. Even if you don’t want the disc, maybe chip in a few dollars anyway, we did.