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Rap anchor with 2 pitons

Original Post
Noodle · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Aug 2009 · Points: 195

There was an existing piton as the anchor on a route I have been working. Since you can't bolt where it is, and my nut and lockers where taken as"booty", I placed another piton to have two points. I bought 2 rap rings and webbing. I threaded the webbing through the rap rings and each side through a piton. Pulled back down to form a V, and threaded the webbing back through the rings and tied a water knot with 4 inch tails. My question being, if a piton fails, the rap ring will just slide out of the webbing and most likely the piton. So how do I make a "sliding X" style anchor with rap rings so if a piton fails it will still be connected to the sling? My only thought was to use another cord or something tied off.

DannyUncanny · · Vancouver · Joined Aug 2010 · Points: 100

thread the rings backwards the second time through

Gee Monet · · Las Vegas, NV · Joined Jul 2010 · Points: 732

I wouldn't use a sliding x for this application. I'd just tie an overhand or figure eight at the bottom and then you'll have redundancy.

Noodle · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Aug 2009 · Points: 195

Aha! Thanks Danny, it makes stupid sense to me know. I'm amazed at how simple that is. As far as the figure eight or overhand goes, it a makes sense to use the x in this situation because the rap actually moves quite a bit around an arête. Thanks for the quick responses. Now hopefully it stops raining so I can go fix it and give it another burn.

rgold · · Poughkeepsie, NY · Joined Feb 2008 · Points: 526

I think this is the way to do it if you absolutely have to have significant lateral motion and hope to keep loads well-distributed. This is better than sliding-X configurations, in which friction interferes with load distribution. The solid blobs denote overhand knots, and of course you'd leave much longer tails than shown in the schematic. Not a bad idea to back the overhand knots up with a barrel knot just for good measure, because what you have if one of the pitons pulls is a essentially an EDK. (This is why I didn't suggest figure-eight knots).

Scot Hastings · · Salt Lake City, UT · Joined Apr 2013 · Points: 35

I agree with Gary that a sliding X isn't ideal for this application. You should be able to determine the load direction and create a pre-equalized anchor with extra redundancy and minimal extension.

Depending on the pins, you might want to add quicklinks, too. I would do it once or twice in a pinch, but I wouldn't want to repeatedly weight cord/wedding over a non-rounded metal edge.

Guideline #1: Don't be a jerk.

Trad Climbing
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