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Building an anchor with climbing rope

Original Post
William Domhart · · Ventucky, CA · Joined Sep 2011 · Points: 5

I've found lots of references about building an anchor with your climbing rope on here (20 pages of search results on MP), but I haven't seen an explanation and picture (I'm visual).

Anyone have a good picture or link of an anchor built using your climbing rope so I can get the gist of it? I've had two situations come up so far where it would have been nice to know and that's two too many for me. Grassy ass in advance.

Oh...and yerr gonna die!

Matt N · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Oct 2010 · Points: 415

Will, I think for you it would be "YAARRR GONNA DIE"

Here's a read to get you started
supertopo.com/climbers-foru…

Its something I'd like to practice too - I just never seem to do any lead swapping multi-pitches.

William Domhart · · Ventucky, CA · Joined Sep 2011 · Points: 5

Ahoy ahoy, I think you're right Matt! How was J-Tree?

Oh, and Yarrrghz gonna die!

Jan Tarculas · · Riverside, Ca · Joined Mar 2010 · Points: 917
Greg Malloure · · Prescott Az · Joined Mar 2010 · Points: 20

I like the self-equalizing figure eight knot.

The pros; it equalized pieces, bomber simple rigging, built in safty and the ability to extend the anchor much further and easier than using slings and cordelettes.

The cons; if one of your pieces pop it will extend also it can use quite a bit of rope.

youtube.com/watch?v=vOuCbHA…

Another way... After you place three peices of gear tie off two of them, then run the rope through the third peices biner, pull the two loops formed in between the peices towards the direction of pull and tie tie a master point. Think of it like single strained cordelette.

Its easier to visualize if you just play with it inside your house or something.

Or in joshua-tree where the route are short I pull up fifty feet of slack after finishing the climb and run it around the largest and nearest boulder I can find. Normaly they are about thirty feet long and ten feet wide and I am sure those things arent going any where. Just tie them off with a figue eight and biner to your side of the rope.

Theres are so many ways to do this. Have fun be safe and yer gonna die.

BirminghamBen · · Birmingham, AL · Joined Jan 2007 · Points: 1,620
Bobby Hanson · · Spokane, WA · Joined Oct 2001 · Points: 1,230
BirminghamBen wrote:Some examples.
In your first example, if you put the ATC biner on one of the bights instead of the linking biner, you will move the tri-axial loading off of the linking biner and onto the rope. The rope is better suited to take such load configurations.
Canyonclimber Mike · · Casper WY · Joined Mar 2008 · Points: 52

I use the rope for anchors all the time. I see lots of questionable anchors here in this post. Later today I will post a simple (tried and true) rope anchor system for you.

Peter Franzen · · Phoenix, AZ · Joined Jan 2001 · Points: 3,730

Picture #2 and picture #4 in BirminghamBen's post look sketchy as hell to me. I can't even tell what's going on in #2, and everything is far too close together in #4 (in addition to not really being equalized).

fat cow · · St. Paul, MN · Joined Nov 2009 · Points: 10

ya those pics are shit, there are better ways to do all of them except # 2 because who knows what the hells going on there. it may be a joke though, hopefully he knows it.

Sir Wanksalot · · County Jail · Joined Sep 2011 · Points: 10

Buy a book (Craig Lubben). Find some rope. Find some cracks (on the ground). Build anchors. Pull the shit outta them and try to make them fail. See what happens. Scientific Investigation.

Definately don't listen to internet wankers for advice or you proably will die. You can always hire a guide.

Anthony Keogh · · Broomfield, CO · Joined Jan 2012 · Points: 5

i found this video by Eli Helmuth very helpful. and hopefully what you are looking for
climbinglife.com/rock-ancho…

Bobby Hanson · · Spokane, WA · Joined Oct 2001 · Points: 1,230
Peter Franzen wrote:Picture #2 and picture #4 in BirminghamBen's post look sketchy as hell to me. I can't even tell what's going on in #2, and everything is far too close together in #4 (in addition to not really being equalized).
The only problem with #4 is that the quickdraw is unnecessary. Everything else is in that setup is fine.
Mike G · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Jan 2011 · Points: 0

#1 places load on the gate of the biner. extending the knots further from the tree would relieve that

JoeP · · Littleton, CO · Joined Sep 2006 · Points: 0
JSH wrote:#4 above is three pieces in a row. That's not synonymous with an anchor, at least in my mind. Some kind of equalization of load would be a good start.
I believe I've seen that exact setup in the Luebben book. The pieces are tensioned with the cloves, so that they are sharing the load to some degree.
mattm · · TX · Joined Jun 2006 · Points: 1,885
Greg-Az wrote:I like the self-equalizing figure eight knot. The pros; it equalized pieces, bomber simple rigging, built in safty and the ability to extend the anchor much further and easier than using slings and cordelettes.
Pretty sure it has been proven via testing that the friction in the knot pretty much kills any hopes of equalization.
Harry Dorcy · · Denver, CO · Joined Nov 2011 · Points: 0

+1. This was the video I was going to refer you to. Great resource.

RNclimber wrote:http://climbinglife.com/rock-anchoring-systems-videos-advanced/building-a-multi-piece-anchor-using-the-climbing-rope-3-57.html
JesseT · · Portland, OR · Joined May 2011 · Points: 100
JSH wrote:#4 above is three pieces in a row. That's not synonymous with an anchor, at least in my mind. Some kind of equalization of load would be a good start...
Nothing wrong with rigging stuff in series. No anchors really equalize anyway.

I'm surprised nobody's posted this one yet:



Classic!
Yarp · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Jan 2011 · Points: 0

Classic photo but the interwebz told me there is a bolt just out of frame. Anyone know if that is the verified truth?

William Domhart · · Ventucky, CA · Joined Sep 2011 · Points: 5

The method in that video looks like a good start for some garage tinker time later tonight. Not sure what I think of the setups in the pics, except that awesome rig in picture 2, ;)

JesseT · · Portland, OR · Joined May 2011 · Points: 100
Yarp wrote:Classic photo but the interwebz told me there is a bolt just out of frame. Anyone know if that is the verified truth?
I heard that too, unverified though...

(edit: it has been verified that there is currently a bolt there, but unverified that it was there at the time this photo was taken)
Guideline #1: Don't be a jerk.

Trad Climbing
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