Learning Top Rope Anchors/Anchors in General

Howdy!

One of my biggest downfalls is overthinking about anchors. What are the best ways to learn and maintain knowledge about anchors and continue to grow confident with this? I feel it’s me overthinking and becoming overwhelmed… any insight and advice would be tremendously appreciated in this area!

Oh anchors have been a discussion lately, haven’t they?

So the best you can do is find mentors to help you learn, and read about anchors. John Long’s More Climbing Anchors is an update to his classic Climbing Anchors, you can find copies on Amazon for like $5. He goes over a lot of different scenarios, and explains the strengths and weaknesses and what to look out for.

I’d be careful of the YouTube/social media realm, there’s a lot of, frankly, dubious advice out there. At minimum, be extremely weary of it and remember there’s probably a ton of context stripped.

Gyms have gym to crag classes. I’ve overhead some of them. They’ve been absolute shit. Don’t go near them. I can’t speak to a lot of the guiding service classes, but from the quality of guides I’ve run into - I would guess they have a ton of variance. If you want to go that route, make sure it’s recommended from someone you trust.

In general, I follow the philosophy of I’d rather have a few techniques in my quiver that I know really well and can adapt to any situation rather than a lot of tools that can fit any situation, but that’s personal preference. Learning climbing techniques is a lifetime pursuit, so just take your time. Again, finding mentors and good sources, find people who do things differently to get a range of influences. Try to understand concepts and forces at play, don’t try to memorize specific scenarios.

If you have two bomber bolts and a nice rope path and you're not belaying from the top it pretty much doesn't matter what you do as long as you connect the rope through both bolts without the chance of it getting unclipped (anything works: if there are chains a single locker at the end is fine; two opposite and opposed draws are fine; a sling set up as quad or pre equalized or girth hitch master point is also fine, using a draw to connect both bolts and putting the rope through a locker on one of the bolts is also fine, etc).

There's no reason to overthink that condition. There's too much content about anchors on the internet that I think leads to analysis paralysis. Use what you have, make sure the rope can't unclip itself, and you're good.

It's only in other situations that knowing how to build many types of anchors will come in handy.

For example if you're belaying from the top then you probably want to make sure you have a good stance too as well as enough places for you to clip yourself, clip your belay device, and your follower(s) to clip themselves, so you might want to have something that has a shelf and you might want to extend the anchor a bit to make yourself comfortable if possible (while keeping the line from anchor to belay device to climber straight). If you have a nasty rope path (rubbing against a slab, or sharp corners) you might want to extend the anchor so the dynamic rope isn't rubbing against anything bad. If you don't have two bomber bolts then you probably care a little more about load sharing across the pieces and you also care about limiting extension if one piece pops and you might also care about direction of pull; you might also have natural anchors (trees, big boulders) which have better and worse ways of tying yourself to them. You might be carrying a cordelette, or slings, or just have the rope on you, and it's useful to be able to make an anchor with whatever combination you have left. For these settings a book / a guide / a mentor really helps. But don't stress for the case of two good bolts on good rock with a clean rope path.

Read, watch, listen, visualize, practice, study, practice, do.

Climbing Anchors 3rd edition is a good resource

We just finished a new Climbing Anchors, 4th edition which will be released in March 2024.

I had no idea new versions were still getting released, still have a few of the 1998 copies.

Daniel wrote:

I had no idea new versions were still getting released, still have a few of the 1998 copies.

Yep, equipment and anchoring techniques continue to evolve. A lot has changed in 25 years!

You're right Alex. In the old books, The Equalette was covered, but not in our more recent books. The Equalette evolved into The Quad, which is essentially a doubled Equalette. The Quad has gained almost universal adoption, particularly with professional guides, as has the Joshua Tree System.

In Climbing Anchors, 4th Edition, The Quad, the Joshua Tree System, and Girth Hitch Masterpoint anchors are covered in detail, plus we debunk some common myths about equalization and shock-loading.

I'd also recommend some of the more recent books I coauthored with John Long, including How To Rock Climb, 6th Edition (published in 2022) and Rock Climbing: The Art of Safe Ascent (Published in 2021) for a solid presentation of up-to-date anchoring fundamentals.

You dont need to overthink it. You connect the things with independent strands and tie a knot to the masterpoint, and it is done.

You could rig up a couple of rings, bolts, etc. above a doorway and then practice what you learn from the books.  It'd still behoove you to have a mentor double check your system the first couple times out just to be safe.

^ Do that like a lot.  I build anchors in my dorm room to practice semi frequently.  

I think like any guide/ class it will vary of course as a beginner you wont be able to tell, but they aren't all bad but ask questions and if they dont have good answers I would tend to worry especially if it doesn't match up with what you have heard from other people. 

Secondly figure out what type of climbing you will be doing and then master that, if the majority of climbers these days are sport climbers you really don't need to learn to much opposite and opposed draws, maybe with one of them being a locker draw. and MAAAYBEE a quad.  

TR off trees IMO has a lot to do with local ethics, but learn that if you need it.

If you are trad climbing and it has bolts you only have to do a couple things, but should always be done with a mentor or guide.  

IF you are trying to build gear anchors that is where things get nasty, watch read learn study as much as you can using the resources you have available but really find mentors and understand everything involved.  

The point being this can all get messy and over complicated very quickly but find a system (slings, coordalette, rope) and learn it well, being will to adapt it to the many situations you will get yourself into.  But don't try to go to broad without a strong base in what you actually use. Then get ready to learn others have your systems critiqued and see where it goes.  It is a journey and I am still learning and asking questions.

All of the above, but adding in a few thoughts…

You don’t really specify what types of anchors you’re obsessing over but…

• A couple of bolts for toproping require minimal thought.  Clip and go with several acceptable and quick methods.   Spend your mental time on the proper cleaning and takedown sequence at the end
• For trad anchors by beginners with minimal trad gear placement experience, can’t go wrong with 4 pieces.  Don’t trust a bunch of discontinuous blocky cracks as much as true long unbroken cracks.
• Distribute your pieces into different features as much as possible (ex. trees, slung blocks or chock stones, cams, nuts etc. in different cracks) unless all you have is a single splitter crack in the area.   It’s not really that this is necessary so much for safety, (like often one big tree would be sufficient) but it is good equalization practice and efficiency building for when time really does matter and the gear is not as bomber.   
• I challenge anyone to find a record or tale of a 4 piece, distributed and redundant anchor failing.  It doesn’t happen.  Don’t give it a second thought.   You’ll win the lottery before your anchor fails.  Build it, check it, turn off imagination, and go climb

Bob Gaines wrote:

Climbing Anchors 3rd edition is a good resource

We just finished a new Climbing Anchors, 4th edition which will be released in March 2024.

I was interested to actually buy your book, the 3rd edition. But now that you says that you have a new one coming out. It is worth buying the 3rd ? Or wait dor the 4th? 

Is the 3rd not a bit outdated now?

Thank you for your reply :)

Hi Julien,

Climbing Anchors 3rd Edition was published in 2013, so it's a bit outdated, as techniques are always rapidly advancing. The 4th edition is much more up to date. 

Bob Gaines wrote:

Hi Julien,

Climbing Anchors 3rd Edition was published in 2013, so it's a bit outdated, as techniques are always rapidly advancing. The 4th edition is much more up to date. 

Hey Bob I used your 2006 version but will be preordering the new one after seeing this.

Best advice I have ever received was in that book where you say to go aid 5.10 crack to learn gear placements. That has been a blast for me thank you very much. I plan to continue to practice on bird of fire which your co-author was one of the fa's. Neat

Adam R wrote:

Best advice I have ever received was in that book where you say to go aid 5.10 crack to learn gear placements. 

Great way to build trust and confidence in your pro skills!