chains atop a sport route?

I've never sport climbed but I'm interested after discovering a few sport routes near home. I noticed chains bolted on the top of routes, are these for belaying off of, do you clip in with a quickdraw, how do you remove it?

Umm... you rappel off them. Use your own draws to set up for TR to prevent wear. Pretty straight forward...

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First you need spandex and a ton of expensive gadgets...get cams first, they are great for sport climbing because they make you look cool. Then find someone that knows even less than you and teach them to belay you as you are climbing. NOT!!!

Ask in the forum for your region if anyone can take you climbing at (insert name of your home crag). They will hopefully have indespensable route info. Make sure you rap off the chains instead of lowering off them.

The chains at the top of the route are used to hold down an offering to the all mighty Falkor. It is the ancient belief that if Falkor accepts the offering, the person making said offering will be bestowed with the full powers of the Osman. In modern times the chains at the top of the route have more of a symbolic significance as no one really makes offerings any more.

Your pretend ignorance ruined a promising concept.

What do you mean no offerings are left? Carabiners left for lowering are taken by "Falkors" all the time.

No they were taken by scumbags.

Scott McMahon wrote:haha ok this MUST be a troll....you can't lead trad, climb ice and mixed and not know what chains on top of a route are or where you belay from. Good one...

Ha ha, it's flattering that you think I know more than I do. God's honest truth I've climbed ice for a while, lead and top rope, but rock is new to me and I've only top roped rock. I even posted on this forum for lessons on lead climbing from someone in my area. I'm not a troll, just looking for answers.

They equalize the load when you lower or rap. They replaced the tat and ADT's left at anchors in the early days of sport climbing. They are easier to clean the route as you clip in direct to the hangers and have lots of room to thread the rope through the chains without the dreaded biner bind. They are a typically better system than just using links or rings alone with a spread between the hangers, however the drawback is that they're ugly and highly visible.

Thank you for the advice.

Great point about visability Mike, and I always wondered why trad routes (Squamish, Devil's Tower) have bolted anchors with beautiful cracks all around.

The nice thing about chains is that you can essentially clip any link. If you plan to do a lot of TRing on an anchor, get a 48" runner and either use the "Magic X" to call upon osman, or knot a bite and leave a loop for two lockers. Two biners reduces stress on the rope/biners, extending life, and also allows peace of mind in a system you cannot monitor from the ground. I prefer the Magic X, meaning clip biners at both ends of the runner to the chains, pull down the two middle strands, and put one twist in the top one, then clip through the loop the twist made, making sure to clip both. AMGA perfers the knot, but it weakens the system and you have to untie/retie it each time.
You can then "clean" the route by simply clipping into one of the lockers in the "anchor" you have made with the runner. Pull up a bunch of rope and put a clove into a biner somewhere. Untie from the rope and run it through the bottom-most link, then immediatly tie a large knot in the end (stopper). Finally, pull down the knot until it is on the ground (have someone tell you), and hook up your verso/atc. you can put an auto-block linked to your bottom leg loop and tied around the rope below the belay device for hands free cleaning. Clean the anchor by unclipping it from the chains, double check everything before you do so. Now rapp off, untie the stopper, and pull your rope. Voila!

Practice at home and you should have it down, not rocket-science.

Forestvonsinkafinger wrote:Great point about visability Mike, and I always wondered why trad routes (Squamish, Devil's Tower) have bolted anchors with beautiful cracks all around. The nice thing about chains is that you can essentially clip any link. If you plan to do a lot of TRing on an anchor, get a 48" runner and either use the "Magic X" to call upon osman, or knot a bite and leave a loop for two lockers. Two biners reduces stress on the rope/biners, extending life, and also allows peace of mind in a system you cannot monitor from the ground. I prefer the Magic X, meaning clip biners at both ends of the runner to the chains, pull down the two middle strands, and put one twist in the top one, then clip through the loop the twist made, making sure to clip both. AMGA perfers the knot, but it weakens the system and you have to untie/retie it each time. You can then "clean" the route by simply clipping into one of the lockers in the "anchor" you have made with the runner. Pull up a bunch of rope and put a clove into a biner somewhere. Untie from the rope and run it through the bottom-most link, then immediatly tie a large knot in the end (stopper). Finally, pull down the knot until it is on the ground (have someone tell you), and hook up your verso/atc. you can put an auto-block linked to your bottom leg loop and tied around the rope below the belay device for hands free cleaning. Clean the anchor by unclipping it from the chains, double check everything before you do so. Now rapp off, untie the stopper, and pull your rope. Voila! Practice at home and you should have it down, not rocket-science.

Thank you, these are the answers I was looking for

[Stay anchored or on belay at all times when off the deck]

stihlhead82 wrote: Ha ha, it's flattering that you think I know more than I do. God's honest truth I've climbed ice for a while, lead and top rope, but rock is new to me and I've only top roped rock. I even posted on this forum for lessons on lead climbing from someone in my area. I'm not a troll, just looking for answers.

Well in that case exactly what everyone else said here. You can either rappel or belay of your own gear. Pick up either Craig Luebben or John Long's book and it will teach you how to set up simple anchors.

Also you should go with someone experienced so you can learn to clean your anchor, thread the rope and like Rob said tied in on belay.

But also important if you're going to start climbing is NOT back clipping.

abc-of-rockclimbing.com/how…

The route in your avatar pic...
There are chains at the top of G1 on the left hand side where you are climbing, who set that up? You maybe should pay closer attention...

Jeff J wrote:The route in your avatar pic... There are chains at the top of G1 on the left hand side where you are climbing, who set that up? You maybe should pay closer attention...

I learned and climbed with Ron Brunckhorst, who's a local and a fantastic climber. I learned from him how to lead on ice, place screws, and clean up, but we always anchored to webbing around trees on top and tied in with a girth. Cleaning and anchoring I understand and have done, I never seen chains on Genesis, maybe the ice had them covered. I was just curious how the chains were incorporated in sport climbing is all. I posted in a beginner forum because I'm new to rock climbing and figured I'd ask here, if your trying to prove that I'm a novice there's no need, I'll be the first to say I am.

Okay, then. Sorry about the troll bit earlier. Some of us might have gotten a little touchy over the years...

Joe Huggins wrote:Okay, then. Sorry about the troll bit earlier. Some of us might have gotten a little touchy over the years...

No problem

stihlhead82 wrote: I learned and climbed with Ron Brunckhorst, who's a local and a fantastic climber. I learned from him how to lead on ice, place screws, and clean up, but we always anchored to webbing around trees on top and tied in with a girth. Cleaning and anchoring I understand and have done, I never seen chains on Genesis, maybe the ice had them covered. I was just curious how the chains were incorporated in sport climbing is all. I posted in a beginner forum because I'm new to rock climbing and figured I'd ask here, if your trying to prove that I'm a novice there's no need, I'll be the first to say I am.

Yea, I know of Ron, I have one of his Big Sky Ice Climbing guides....
Well good news if you are clever enought to bulid an anchor form webbing and trees you shoud be clever enough to use chains.
First climb route.
Clip draws to chains. I perfer to clip above the last/lowest link so it makes cleaning easer later.
clip rope in to draws and lower off or rappel.

When it gets time to clean the route. Climb up, anchor your self in and be sure you are 100% safe. Take a bite of rope an tie a loop and clip that in so you do not drop the rope. Untie rop from your harness and thread through the lower links of chain and tie a stopper knot.
Remove the draws from the chains.
and remove the knot on a bite. Pull rope to half way mark.
Set up you rappel device and clip in.
once you are secure remove your personal anchor off of the chains and rappel to the ground. TahDha you are done.

Thanks for all the advice, it's pretty much what I thought and I understand it now, can't wait to try out this local sport route.