Potentially unsafe hardware at Vantage on Neon Indian

I climbed Neon Indian at Frenchman Coulee on Zigzag wall today. The anchor hardware for this route consists of two bolts with chains and a pair of questionable Mussy-style hooks. These hooks are held in place with very thin wires that are pinched off to keep an axle-like rod in place. They appear to be different from the Mussy hooks we usually encounter for lower-off hardware (example in third photo). Is it likely that both of these, or even one, would imminently fail? Probably not, but these little wires don’t appear to me to be sufficiently strong to hold a climbing anchor together. I may not go back to Frenchman until later in the fall but would like to remove these and ideally add some better lower off hardware too. These wires look like they could easily be untwisted with household pliers and then the hooks would come right off. I will plan to remove these if no one else has by my next visit, but posting here in case anyone else would like to remove them or add better lower-off hardware sooner than I would. As it stands I think it is safer to rappel this route with the rope through the chains or quick links until this is improved.

The first two photos are from the Neon Indian anchor. This next one is from the ASCA and shows a more typical Mussy-hook anchor setup.

Please tell me if you think the Neon Indian mussy hooks are actually super safe and I’m missing something here.

They're super safe. The cotter pin just holds the bolt in place and doesn't take any load. They can rust, but they look fine and probably won't cause any problems in Vantage.

The Climbtech Mussys are nicer, but there are thousands of generic hardware store ones out there that work fine. I wouldn't buy these to put on a new route, but I certainly wouldn't be going out of my way to replace them.

These are made for crane rigging.  I am a crane operator so I recognized this right away.  Like Austin said, super safe. 

Thanks for the responses. I’m definitely not an expert in this kind of hardware. I know that the cotter pin doesn’t take any load, but it looks really flimsy. My concern was that this would break by being repeatedly knocked into the rock, or corrode, and then the clevis pin holding the hook in place on the chain could fall out. It still seems like a lot of importance for a flimsy little pin, even if it’s not load-bearing? 

As others said above, the mussies are safe. 

But the ASCA mussies are safer :p

One of the anchor bolts blew completely a couple years back.   That route gets a lot of traction.   Next time I'm out ill get the hooks replaced with WARP lower-offs.  There isn't a lot of wear on those hooks after all these years but you are correct to question the cotters.  They are not the weak spot but it is nice to have standardized gear on the popular routes. I would greatly prefer that no one raps off of this route. 

My issue is that whomever installed the Mussy bolt did not use a proper cotter pin. What was done is fine for temporary jury-rigging but not long term. A proper cotter pin properly bent should have been installed:

A properly installed cotter pin will be 1/64-inch smaller in diameter than the hole in the shank of the bolt and will be long enough so that when it is bent over, it will extend at least to the center of the bolt or clevis pin. For convenience cotter pins are usually longer than needed and then cut off.

Allen Sanderson wrote:

My issue is that whomever installed the Mussy bolt did not use a proper cotter pin. What was done is fine for temporary jury-rigging but not long term. A proper cotter pin properly bent should have been installed:

I was thinking the same. 

Cotter pins are fine and safe, and are used in applications with much higher loads than a climbing anchor, but the ones in the photo are bent all wrong.  They look like they stick out enough and in such a way that a rope end could even catch one when whipping through the hooks on a pull. 

Sounds like someone will replace the hooks anyway, but at least cleaning up the pins would be nice.  

New WARP lower-off stainless steel captives are on the anchor.  Based on wear on other routes I predict these will need to be replaced around 2028.  I still have the original mussys and was going to drop them on a more obscure route but with the current discussions on mussy safety I'll hold off for now. A single SAR event would collectively cost more than upgrading a hundred routes so I don't see the immediate need to recycle the equipment.

A big takeaway I want to share with the community is that the mussy gates are bent badly out of shape just from having ropes snapped through them at a funny angle and the springs are shot by weather.  The hooks are good, the gates are trashed and unreliable.  The cotter pins were a hazard for soft anchors typically placed for top roping parties.  These anchors were the correct choice at the time but are not appropriate for modern use.  There are only 2 other routes that I know of at FC that have these mussys, and neither route gets enough action to be a concern.   

WARP has a collection of climbing-specific Mussys that may show up on anchors in the future - if you see new snappy mussys stay mindful of their limitations and let the most experienced party member do the cleaning.  At this point I would consider hardware-store mussys as inappropriate for future anchors.  Please keep in mind that many of the routes that you love were developed at a time where the current crowds were unimaginable.  FA teams often designed routes for themselves and their friends. They had no idea that thousands of awesome climbers (like you!) would be following in the next few decades. 

If you like the work being done at our shared crags, I would suggest donating to WARP/WCC.  This is a Washington-specific organization that has been very active in the region. Climber safety is a community effort,  be it anchor maintenance, trail work, or campground ethic reminders.  

Thanks Garth for the effort and the sentiment. What stainless steel captives are you using?

Thank you Garth!

Erroneous Publicus wrote:

Thanks Garth for the effort and the sentiment. What stainless steel captives are you using?

Cypher