Trad anchor with main rope

I've seen a few videos showing how a trad anchor can be made with the  main climbing rope.  I am curious about how the belay change over is accomplished. Because the leader has to unclip themselves so the 2nd can set up belay. I haven't seen this done so in my  imagination this seems more dangerous than using a cordelette or sling.  Id love to hear some insight on how this works.

Usually you only build the anchor with the main rope if you are sure you'll be swapping leads or are at the top of the climb. It's not ideal logistically if leading in blocks.

It works best if you're swinging leads. The follower comes up, gets put on lead belay, and starts leading. Then when all the rope is used, the old leader, who built the anchor with the rope close to his tie-in, breaks down the anchor, and follows the next pitch.

Steven Lopez wrote: I've seen a few videos showing how a trad anchor can be made with the  main climbing rope.  I am curious about how the belay change over is accomplished. Because the leader has to unclip themselves so the 2nd can set up belay. I haven't seen this done so in my  imagination this seems more dangerous than using a cordelette or sling.  Id love to hear some insight on how this works.

Yes. Trust your reasoning about this.  Sometimes it is better to not use the rope.

If what you're imagining is "dangerous", it's not right. Here are some safe methods of block leading with a rope anchor:

1. Both climbers connect themselves to the anchor, untie, and swap rope ends.

2. Extra biners or quickdraws are used on the protection to allow the follower to basically re-build the anchor under the existing anchor. There's are some helpful graphics for this here: people.bath.ac.uk/dac33/hig…

I find both of these to be far less convenient than just using a sling to build the anchor when block leading.

Climbing is a constantly problem solving process. This is not a hard problem to solve

If you figure out for yourself, you’ll really know how to do it. If you read about it, Or someone tells you how to do it, not so much.

Mark is right, but I'm still going to make a suggestion.  The second carries maybe three carabiners and a locker and simply rigs their own rope anchor underneath the leader's anchor.  If everyone is efficient at what they're doing, it really doesn't take long...

Or use biners like Camp Photons with lotsa capacity and simply lift up the leader's cloves tying together the anchor and put the second's underneath. The leader is "on top" and can unclip the rope and go when he's on belay. 

Seriously, that climbers today think this is hard or slow is sad.

Here’s an example of a common anchor i build. I first clove into the left most cam, with enough slack to then clove direct to the master point. As said above, this only works if you’re swinging leads. Which i do 99% of the time. I never bring cordalette anymore. In the event you decide to not swap leads, you have 2 options.
1.) The second builds the exact same anchor under the current one, then flip the rope pile onto them. 
2.) Both leader and follower tether into the master point with a sling or PAS. Then both untie, swap ends, and flip rope pile.

When rgold speaks, people should listen. 

Mark Hudon wrote: When rgold speaks, people should listen. 

We at MP are lucky to have him giving his $.02 worth.... in reality it’s really worth about $5.00 now.
And your a great addition also Mark! 

Max R wrote: In the event you decide to not swap leads, you have 2 options.
1.) The second builds the exact same anchor under the current one, then flip the rope pile onto them.
2.) Both leader and follower tether into the master point with a sling or PAS. Then both untie, swap ends, and flip rope pile.

Don’t even need to flip the rope pile if you swap rope ends. I much prefer the second adding their own carabiners to the anchor though. Seems easier, faster, and safer than untying. 

Sean Fujimori wrote:

Don’t even need to flip the rope pile if you swap rope ends. I much prefer the second adding their own carabiners to the anchor though. Seems easier, faster, and safer than untying. 

Regarding your option 1 I’m curious if you mean place new pieces or just new carabiners in the cam slings? 

Whoops, you’re right. No need to flip the pile. The only time i’ve ever done option 1, was because my partner was sketched out by the idea of having to untie. But yeah, we just cliped new carabiners to the slings. Would not reccomend