Redundant personal anchor when cleaning an anchor and setting up a rappel?

Happy new year!

I've been using the Petzl Dual Connect Lanyard as a personal anchor and rappel extension device for single pitch sport routes. Yes it's bulky, and yes there are other solutions, but let's keep that commentary for a different thread, ok! My question is about cleaning and rappelling with it.

After climbing up to the anchor I use a locker to clip the Petzl to the bolt, go off belay and then clean the anchor and rig the rappel. Until I'm in to the rappel my only protection is the single bolt and the single Petzl Connect. Am I gonna die? Should I also back up the Connect with a sling or draw to the other bolt?

Thanks in advance.

-David

If the bolt fails, yes.  Bolts are not created equally, so use your judgment and personal comfort level.  I have never liked this scenario either, and sometimes back it up with draws or another biner from a different loop in my pas to the second bolt if the distance doesn't create weirdness.  

Just throw an extra sling in the system to the other bolt. Attach that to your belay loop. You got it.

There are multiple solutions to your question/problem, but I think the consensus would be that yes, you should connect somehow to the 2nd bolt in some redundant way (such as a sling girth hitched to your belay loop and clipped into the 2nd bolt).

If you have enough tail from the lanyard, use a clove-hitch on an extra locker to the other bolt. Or, easier yet, connect the two bolts with an extra quickdraw so that if the one you're connected to with the lanyard fails (highly unlikely), that bolt is connected to the other one via the quickdraw. Quick and adequate. 

Jason Halladay wrote: If you have enough tail from the lanyard, use a clove-hitch on an extra locker to the other bolt. Or, easier yet, connect the two bolts with an extra quickdraw so that if the one you're connected to with the lanyard fails (highly unlikely), that bolt is connected to the other one via the quickdraw. Quick and adequate. 

This is what I do, unless there are chains. If there are chains, I just connect them together with a locker. Though you have to remember to take your locker back.

Why not clip in with your tether to the master point?  That way, you are connected to both bolts and don't need another tether. Then proceed to clean the anchor after you are set up to lower or rappel (and I will now open the can of worms and ask you why are you not just lowering on a single pitch sport route?).

Of course, once you have clipped your tether to both draws at the master point, don't go opening the gates to remove the rope; you can thread the rings and set up your lower before removing the rope from the master point.

Another redundant thing you can do is to carry a few cotton swabs and a plastic test tube. Before you rappel, swab the inside of your mouth and place it in the test tube. Summon a drone or attach to a parachute. This way, if you succumb to an accident, you will be able to be cloned from the cells in the test tube.

Magpie79 wrote:(and I will now open the can of worms and ask you why are you not just lowering on a single pitch sport route?).

Good question! I'm just trying to become more comfortable with rigging the rappel so that when the time comes I've got the muscle memory. I've practiced a dozen times on the ground, but it's different 70 feet up...

Words, pictures, and a video for anchor cleaning safely and efficiently: https://americanalpineclub.org/resources-blog/2016/3/15/5ipkouk0id07cgc3dqks4fljnsgnx6

I don't mind being on a single PAS of some sort (whether Petzl Connect or whatever), but I don't like being on a single bolt.  I trust the manufacturing of the gear, it goes through QA procedures.  I don't trust the installation of the bolt, and I don't trust the rock it is in -- neither is generally tested, and the rock definitely doesn't have any QA process.  So, I want to be on two bolts to protect against bolt failure.

David Dentry wrote:

Good question! I'm just trying to become more comfortable with rigging the rappel so that when the time comes I've got the muscle memory. I've practiced a dozen times on the ground, but it's different 70 feet up...

Nothing wrong with that!  Practice is a good thing, and rappelling is an essential skill when you get into multi pitch.  There is a reason the AMGA and the AAC recommend lowering off single pitch fixed anchors: it is safer.  If you always tell your belayer not to take you off belay until you are back on the ground, that can prevent communication issues.  If you do decide to rap after all, the worst that will happen is you make your belayer feel silly by keeping their belay device on the rope while you are sliding down it.  (Think about the opposite: you usually rappel, but this time you decide to lower. What is your belayer likely going to do? Muscle memory aside (including your belayer's muscle memory), I would not want to bet my life on "likely"))

Always be connected to more than one fixed anchor point (ie bolt 1) in a redundant fashion (second sling) to another fixed anchor (ie bolt 2). You'll live long enough to thank us some day when something that appears fine lifts right out or some sling you would swear you put on your harness properly turns out not to be.

Magpie79 wrote:

If you do decide to rap after all, the worst that will happen is you make your belayer feel silly by keeping their belay device on the rope while you are sliding down it.  

I think they might notice before that.  Maybe when you try to pull up the rope to have enough to actually rappel on ;)

Tim Schafstall wrote:

I think they might notice before that.  Maybe when you try to pull up the rope to have enough to actually rappel on ;)

True, that.  I am a fan of hyperbole though. ;)

I'm one of the nerds that went out and bought a metolious PAS when they first came out, and this is my setup when cleaning sport routes 95% of the time (Not my picture though).