Anchors: Do you need lockers everywhere, all the time?
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Many people (including some highly qualified guides) advocate for locking carabiners on every component, of every anchor, all the time.
Do you really need to do this?
(To be clear, we're talking about recreational climbing and not professional riggers, rope access, arborists, etc.)
As a broad generalization: most American climbers think you don't, and many European (British?) climbers apparently think you do.
In some situations, like setting up an “all-day” top rope, lockers everywhere might be a good idea.
But for standard multipitch climbing, I feel it's unnecessary.
Imagine the following scenario:
You’re multipitch trad climbing with a rack of cams.
Each cam has its own non-locking racking carabiner clipped to it.
At the top of your pitch, you find a nice crack.
You place three cams to build your anchor.
You take out a sling to build your anchor.
What happens next?
Ignore the racking carabiners, and take three extra lockers and add those to the cams. (Or maybe fiddle with the racking carabiners, removing one and adding it to another cam to make opposite and opposed carabiners, etc.)
Use those convenient racking carabiners to build your anchor!
Keep in mind, if your partner did the same thing on the previous pitch, that means you're both carrying 6+ extra lockers!
A conservative approach would be #1; adding lockers to each cam.
However, for me, #2 is completely acceptable.
Why is it okay to use non-locking carabiners on a multipitch anchor?
If you don't have lockers, and you want some extra security, what are some things you can do?
What's my go-to lightweight locker?
