The better hanging belay: improvised foot stirrups
Are you multi pitch climbing a steep route without much of a ledge at the belay? That hanging belay is probably gonna hurt a bit. Here's an easy way to make it suck a little less.
On one of my first multipitch climbs, I quickly learned how much hanging belays can suck.
Without any sort of a ledge to stand on, all my weight was on my harness. My kidneys slowly merged into one, and my feet went numb. After that uncomfortable day, I came up with this little trick. It's been a help ever since.
Here's a tip for a better hanging belay: foot stirrups.
On the backside of your rope connection to the anchor, tie a friction hitch.
Take a sling, ideally a wider nylon one, and tie an overhand knot in the middle.
Clip a carabiner “into” this overhand knot.
Clip the carabiner and sling to the friction hitch.
Now put your feet into each loop of the sling! =^)
Done! Give yourself a high five. Now your weight should be a lot more balanced between your harness and your feet. It's not like lounging in a portaledge, but it's a lot better than hanging completely off of your harness!
The friction hitch makes it easy to adjust the height of the foot loops up and down; occasionally changing your foot position makes it more comfortable.
Here's a close-up of the sling, carabiner, and friction hitch. Note how the carabiner is clipped “inside” the overhand knot. This keeps the two arms of the sling from sliding around.
Block or swing: What's your leading strategy?
Learn some of the pros and cons to both block and swing leading.
One of the more famous examples of block leading. Billy Westbay, Jim Bridwell, and John Long, after the first one day ascent of The Nose on El Capitan, 1975.
Photo credit, Mike White
Photo credit, Mike White
When multipitch climbing, you and your partner have a choice to make:
Will one person lead multiple pitches at a time and then the other person takes a few pitches, known as block leading?
Will you alternate leads every pitch, also known as swing leading?
They both have their pros and cons depending on a few variables, so let's have a look.
Block leading
Block leading can be good for bigger days of harder climbing, as one person can get into the “leader-head” mentality. When the second arrives at the belay all tired, they get a rest.
If you're swinging leads, one person is standing still for two consecutive pitches as you move up the cliff. On a cold day, this sucks. When you lead in blocks, you only stand till for one pitch, so both partners stay warmer.
If you’re onsighting or on a climb where the route finding is tricky, block leading allows the person on top to scope out where to go, and maybe what gear is needed for the first few placements of the upcoming pitch.
If you're climbing in a team of three, block leading usually minimizes flubbering around at the belay.
It can be good for more experienced teams who are good at efficient belay changeovers and gear swapping.
For more advanced techniques, such as “fix and follow” or short fixing when aid climbing, block leading is strongly preferred.
(On a related note, when you have a long multi pitch rappel, it's often good practice to have one person be the “leader” and go first on all the raps.)
One early and well-known example of applying block leading strategy was the first one day ascent of the nose on El Capitan in 1975 by Jim Bridwell, Billy Westbay, and John Long. They divided the 30+ pitches between each of the three climbers, depending on their specialty, whether it was free climbing, mixed free and aiding, or mostly all aid.
Here’s a firsthand account of that famous climb, by (the late) Jim Bridwell.
You could use the same strategy on a longer multi pitch. Is one partner better with smaller size cracks because they have smaller hands? Is one partner better with thin face climbing? If you've got several pitches of a certain climb flavor, it may be best to have the person lead it who’s most suited.
Swinging leads
Swinging leads is more common for most people.
It can be better in warmer weather, because the leader can stand around more without getting cold.
Is it better for easy climbs or hard climbs? Opinions differ. When you lead every other pitch, you get sort of a built-in mental rest. On harder climbing, the follower can have a break, instead of climbing back-to-back hard pitches. So, there's some mental / psychological benefits as well as physical ones.
Swapping leads can feel a bit more fair and egalitarian.
Rope management and gear management is also slightly easier because the second has been cleaning the gear on the previous pitch. They have most of it already, plus their end of the rope is on top of the stack or coil.
That's a pretty good summary of the two methods, as I see it.
Just because most people probably learned swinging leads as the standard when they started climbing, doesn't mean you have to use that same strategy on every route. On your next multi pitch, talk it over with your partner and maybe try something new. You might like it!
Crevasse rescue - remove snow under your pulley
How can you keep snow from getting jammed in your Traxion pulley? Here’s a simple solution.
When rigging for crevasse rescue with a progress capture pulley (like the handy Petzl Micro Traxion) on the anchor, sometimes snow or ice can jam into the camming mechanism on the pulley, preventing it from fully grabbing the rope.
Here's a caution from Petzl about it.
There's a simple solution. Dig out a concave “bowl” under the pulley, so it's hanging in space, rather than in direct contact with the snow.
“Top to bottom” rappel safety check
Do long, complicated “safety check” acronyms have you scratching your head, when you should be paying attention to your climbing systems? Yeah, me too. Here’s a rappel safety check method that might make a lot more sense.
For some people, long acronyms of important climbing procedures, such as SERENE for anchors, or BRAKES for rappelling, work great.
However, my brain doesn't do well with long acronyms, and many of my climbing friends seem to struggle with them too.
At a skills clinic I helped teach with (the late and great) IFMGA guide Rob Coppolillo, Rob shared a rappel safety check system that makes much more sense to me. He called it the “top to bottom” check.
If you’re pre-rigged with your partner, you check them and they check you before the first person goes down.
It's about what it sounds like: You start at the top of the rappel system, and check every component, all the way down to the bottom.
In most cases, the “top to bottom” rappel check looks like this.
Are all the anchor components solid?
For a single rope rappeI, is the middle of the rope at the anchor master point? Does the rope have a middle mark? If it doesn’t, did you flake both strands of the rope so you KNOW the middle is at the anchor? (Yo! mark your middle!)
If it's a double rope rappel, is the knot joining the ropes properly tied, dressed, and has an adequate tail?
Are both strands of the rope properly threaded through your (and your partner’s) rappel device?
Is the device properly clipped to your (and your partner’s) belay/rappel loop (or extension) with a locked carabiner?
If you're using a rappel extension, is the sling properly attached to your (and your partner’s) harness?
Does the first person down have a third hand back up properly installed? (It's optional for the second person, because they can get a firefighter belay from below.)
Do the rope ends have stopper knots in them?
Did you make a clean toss of the rope and it's hanging nicely below you, or is it hung up on something and needs attention on the way down?
Are there any cracks near the rappel anchor where the joining knot might get hung up, if you're doing a double rope rappel? (If yes, the second person down might want to deal with this before they descend.)
Do the rope ends reach either the ground or the next rappel station?
To my brain, the “top to bottom” check is a more logical and comprehensive system than any acronym I've tried, and one I'm much more likely to remember.
Autoblock tip: make a twist to fine-tune friction
Sometimes your auto block / rappel backup is either too tight on the rope, or too loose and doesn't grab. Here's a quick trick to fine-tune that adjustment so you get a nice smooth rappel.
When you tie an autoblock / thirdhand rappel back up, sometimes you may find that your hitch has either too much or not enough friction. Here's a trick that can help with that.
Remove one of the wraps, and then twist one strand of your friction hitch several times. This makes the remaining wraps constrict a bit around the rope. You can think of this is the equivalent of a half of a wrap, which can give you just the right amount of friction.
Here's a short video from IFMGA guide Ian Nicholson showing how it's done. Check out Ian's books, highly recommended!
Why is a Petzl PURline 65 meters?
Most climbing ropes come in lengths that are a multiple of 10, typically 60 or 70 meters. The Petzl PURline comes in a rather odd length of 65 meters. Why is this? I asked Petzl; here's the answer.
The Petzl PURline, made for light hauling and as a rappel pull cord, comes in a rather odd length of 65 meters. Why is that, you might wonder?
I was curious about this, so I asked Petzl directly.
When you rappel on your 60 meter climbing rope on the other side of a rope block, you’re using the PURline as a pull cord.
Your dynamic rappel rope will stretch about 5 meters, which takes you conveniently to the end of the 65 meter static PURline. Yes, those Petzl product designers are quite clever!
In case you're wondering, the Alpinesavvy graphic design department is hiring. I obviously need some help. =^)
What’s the “Low Impact Style” of ice climbing?
While ice climbing might feel more secure when you bury your pick halfway with every swing, doing this has a lot of drawbacks. Edelrid introduces what they call the “Low Impact Style”, a more refined technique. Their real world testing shows that delicate pick placements are stronger than you might think.
Check out this great video (link at bottom of page) from the always useful “Edelrid Knowledge Base” series on YouTube (a very underrated place to learn tech tips, in my opinion.)
While most beginners might think otherwise, ice climbing doesn’t have to be a battle of big swings and exploding ice.
This video from the (always useful!) Edelrid Knowledge Base introduces what they call the low-impact style of ice climbing, a technique that lets you climb harder routes with reduced risk, more refined movements, and with much less energy.
Beginners often hack away with full-body tool swings from hip, shoulder, elbow, and wrist. (I know I sure did when I started, because I was kinda scared!) Instead, the low impact style calls for reading the ice more like rock.
The core ideas are simple:
Look for natural features that accept the pick with minimal force.
If you don't have a natural feature, repeatedly tap lightly and precisely to make a pick placement instead of strenuous bashing.
Place the pick only 2–4 cm into good ice.
Primarily swing / tap with your wrist, rather than the whole body.
This reduces shattered ice, falling debris on you and your belayer, and preserves delicate features.
It wouldn’t be an Edelrid video without some creative experiments, would it?
They ran a series of tests on different pick placements in real ice, using a load cell and pulley system to measure how much force different placements can hold.
A “standard” deep, half-pick placement in good ice easily withstands forces above 3 kN, far more than the ~0.7 kN typically generated when the climber loads a tool with body weight during normal movement.
Shallower placements of around 3 cm still hold roughly 1.7 kN.
Even a seemingly sketchy 1 cm placement in good ice can sustain 0.5–0.7 kN—enough for controlled climbing when you’re not shock-loading the tool.
The same mindset applies to footwork. Look for precise front-pointing on features instead of hacking deep steps, which preserves ice integrity and gives more options as the route steepens.
This is more of an intermediate to advanced technique, because if your pick is just barely in the ice, and you shift the pick angle as you move up on it (a common beginner mistake) it's likely to pop out. However, if you're practicing this on top rope, which you should be, it can certainly reinforce good technique.
The takeaway:
Be a woodpecker, not a wood chopper.
Refined tapping can give you shallow but solid placements.
These shallow placements are usually strong enough and significantly more efficient.
The “low impact style” saves a lot of energy, preserves delicate features, and reduces dangerous falling ice for you and your partner.
Check out the whole video below.
Tame that long tether with a slipknot
Good rule in climbing: avoid having anything hanging below your knees, because it'll trip you up. Here's a simple way to shorten up your personal tether, such as a Petzl Connect Adjust - tie a slipknot.
A good climbing guideline: avoid having anything on your harness dangling below your knees. If you do, it's probably gonna trip you.
That can be a problem with some of the longer tethers, like the Petzl Connect Adjust.
Here’s a solution: tie a slipknot in the tether.
That takes up enough of the slack so it stays out of your way. When you want to deploy, it comes undone with a quick tug.
If you want to shorten it up even more, clip the slipknot loop to the tether carabiner.
3:1 haul with no friction hitches
Standard 3:1 hauling rigging calls for some sort of a rope grab (like a friction hitch) on the load strand. Guess what: you actually don't need one! Here's how to rig it.
Here’s the typical method for rigging a 3:1 “Z pull”:
Put a friction hitch or rope grab of some kind (like a Petzl Tibloc) onto the load strand.
Clip your pulling strand to that to make the “Z”.
Start hauling.
Okay, pretty standard stuff.
But, what if you need to rig a 3:1 and you don't have a friction hitch or a rope grab?
Guess what? You can clip that hauling strand directly to the load.
Exact same mechanical advantage, but without any friction hitches or rope grabs. Pretty cool!
Some of you might be thinking, “Well duh, of course that's how it works.” But when I recently saw this demonstrated it was kind of an eye-opener, so I thought it might be something new for you as well.
Finally, to be sure this is a 3:1, let's do a quick run through with the “T method” (or counting tensions) to check the mechanical advantage. Check out my detailed article on the T method.
Here's how this can be useful in crevasse rescue.
You can drop a loop of rope with a carabiner or pulley on it to your victim, and have them clip it to their harness.
Then you can set up a 3:1 haul from the top.
This is the basic principle behind the drop loop 3:1 method; I have a detailed article about that here.
image: UIAA Alpine Summer Skills Handbook
What's the max load you can put on a rappel anchor?
How strong does a rappel anchor really need to be? Good news, not very strong! Here are some real world testing numbers with climbers of different weights, static and dynamic ropes, and various degrees of jumping around.
Do you ever wonder how strong your rappel anchor needs to be?
Answer, not very strong. Even if you bounce around like a special forces cowboy and weigh almost 100 kg / 200 pounds, turns out that anchor is not gonna see more than about 3 kN, tops.
If you rappel fairly normally on a dynamic rope, the anchor shouldn’t see much more than your body weight.
The chart below comes from a nice article from Black Diamond with a collaboration from IFMGA Guide Mark Smiley. It's a good read, here's a link.
Also, in the article is an interesting test of different sorts of buried deadman snow anchors. (Hint, you want to bring a 2 x 4.)
Revive the waterproofing on your shell layers
Is your shell jacket starting to wet through? Might be time to give it a special wash with some Nikwax (or similar) products. Here's how to do that, step-by-step.
Is it soggy season? Maintain your shell layers so they (hopefully) bead water like a new Ferrari.
There may be other products that do the same thing, but I'm gonna tell you ones that I'm familiar with: Nikwax Tech Wash and TX Direct.
First off, manage your expectations. Products like these are never going to get you back to “brand new” water beading, but they can usually stretch a few more years out of your favorite shell.
Don't go cheap and try to use just one; the Tech Wash and the TX Direct really do work better together. (These are packaged as a pair, that's a hint.) You can wash a lot of clothes with a couple of these bottles.
Frequency of using them mostly depends on how often you're out. If you're skiing 50+ days a year, you might want to do a wash cycle with this every two or three weeks during the season. If you're not out so much, maybe twice a winter should be fine.
Nikwax says the TX Direct is more for hard shell clothing. However, I've used it fairly successfully on soft shell pants and jackets. Your mileage may vary.
If you have other outerwear that you want to protect from the weather, like down jackets, gloves, fleece, etc., NikWax has a product for it. I haven't used these other ones so I won't comment on them, but they have a waterproofing product for just about everything you could imagine.
If you're wondering about nasty chemicals, Nikwax is water based and PFC-free.
This procedure is gonna last longer on newer garments rather than older ones, but it's still a good one to do at the start of every soggy season with most of your outer layers.
How to use NikWax on your shells, step-by-step . . .
Clean the detergent tray on your washing machine. Take it (carefully) completely out of the machine if you can, remove any excess regular laundry soap that might be in there. Put it carefully back in.
Empty out all pockets and close all zippers. Wash two garments at a time.
Start with the Nikwax cleaning solution. Give the bottle a good shake, and pour about 150 mL (for two garments) into the detergent tray.
Run the wash cycle. Nikwax suggests warm or cold water, slow spin, and extra rinse if possible.
Leave your clothes in the washing machine, and then run another cycle with the TX Direct. For this, use about 200 mL. Give that bottle a good shake as well.
If your washer has a lame spin cycle, let your clothes drip dry for a bit outside or over the tub, but don't let them get completely dry.
Put clothes in a dryer on low heat.
A more secure anchor with no locking carabiners
Need to build an anchor on cam placements, want the security of locking carabiners, but you don't have any? Not a problem if you know this anchor trick.
You’re alpine climbing. You finish your pitch, and see a nice crack which perfectly takes a couple of cams for your anchor.
(Yes, a three-piece anchor is a general standard, but in many alpine situations, two good pieces are acceptable, and you need to use what you’ve got at the end of a pitch.)
You could clip both of the racking carabiners with a 120 cm sling, tie off a figure 8 master point, and call it good. Standard textbook anchor, no problem with that.
But . . . what if you want to add a little extra security to this anchor, so you're positive the sling won't unclip?
Maybe one of the carabiners is being loaded in a funky way over an edge, and you're not happy with it. Or maybe you're a little sketched out on your two-piece anchor, and having a little extra security gives you a warm fuzzy feeling.
The main problem: you don't have any extra locking carabiners. What can you do?
Here’s one solution.
Evaluate your cam placements. In this case we’ll say the purple cam on the right is a better placement.
Step 1 - Take the racking carabiner from the better placement, and clip it opposite and opposed on the other (yellow) cam. Now you have the functional equivalent of a locker.
Step 2 - Clip your 120 cm sling to these two opposite and opposed carabiners.
Take the other end of the sling and pass it through the sewn loop on the other cam, making a basket hitch. (Don't worry about the basket hitch damaging the cam loop, it's plenty strong.)
Step 3 - Make a girth hitch master point on a large HMS carabiner. Done!
Schweeeeet! Now there's zero chance that sling will ever come undone from the cam placements. Take a deep breath and enjoy your well-earned warm fuzzy feeling. =^)
Because there are four strands going to the cam on the right, assuming ideal load distribution, that cam will see slightly more force than the one on the left. That's why we checked the placement quality when we started.
If both cams are pretty much equal quality/strength, then it doesn't really matter which cam gets the basket hitch.
Dealing with rope twists mid-pitch
The Evil Rope Twist gremlin decided to pay you a visit, and you have a snarled mess of pigtails in the rope in the middle of a multi pitch. Here's how you get those out.
We've all been there: the evil Rope Twist Gremlin decides that they’re gonna mess with you today, and your second arrives at the anchor with a rope in a mess of pigtails next to their tie in point.
Who knows how the twisties got there? It's your job to get ‘em out!
Once you start getting rope twists, you don’t want to continue with them. It can cause all manner of problems, ranging from problematic belaying, to a rope-snagging snarl at the anchor when you (try to) pull your rappel rope. (I've had some bad experiences with both of these issues!)
On a multi pitch route, solving this will probably mean that the second needs to completely untie from their end of the rope. Yes, this is little nerve-racking when you’re way off the deck!
There are a couple of ways to handle this.
If you have a tether, you can clip in direct to the anchor, untie from the rope, work the twists out, and then tie in again. Ideally, have your partner check every step of this operation.
If you don't have a tether, you can try a technique called the backside clove hitch. The photo above shows it pretty clearly. On the backside of the leader’s clove hitch tied to the anchor, the leader can tie a second knot. The second clips to this knot with a locking carabiner on to their belay loop. Now, the second can untie their retraced figure eight, remove the rope twists, and then tie in again. Have your partner check your knot after you tie in.
Here's a nice video from IFMGA certified guide Karsten Delap that shows the technique. The “removing rope twist” section starts about 4:05.
How can a “vector pull” be helpful for climbers?
The vector pull, long a #CraftyRopeTrick for whitewater rescue, has some climbing applications as well. Learn ‘em here.
In Anchors 101, you may remember a diagram that looks something like this:
If you have a close-to-horizontally tensioned rope, and you add a load that's perpendicular to the anchor points, it greatly increases the force on the anchors.
According to this diagram, by more than 500%. Think of a circus tightrope; those anchors need to be super strong!
Normally, we really want avoid this situation in climbing. But there are a few rare cases when putting this kind of sideways tension onto a loaded rope might be helpful.
While it’s long been a #CraftyRopeTrick in river rescue, it's seldom known in climbing circles.
It’s called a vector pull. How might this be helpful for climbers?
Imagine your struggling second below you, unable to quite reach that next hold. If you, the leader above, lock off the belay device, and reach down and pull hard (up or down) on the loaded rope (and take in slack) it gives your partner a small boost. This may be enough to help them get past that hard move. Repeat as needed.
You're certainly not going to do any real hauling with this method; it's more for assisting your partner for a short move or two.
Check out this Instagram video from Smile Mountain Guides @smilemountainguides for a demonstration.
Here's a video showing the vector pull applied to river rescue.
Basic idea: get a rope from your boat to an onshore anchor, tension the rope, then pull sideways on that tensioned line. Hopefully that's enough to get your boat unstuck, before you resort to more complicated mechanical advantage hauling systems.
First rappeller to the ground: untie stopper knots
Does your rappel end on the ground (with lots of extra rope)? Those stopper knots in the ends of the rope are no longer needed. The first person down has a simple task - untie ‘em.
Does your rappel end on the ground? Do you have plenty of extra rope lying in the dirt?
Here's a quick task for first person down: Consider untying the stopper knots in the rope.
Once you’re on flat ground (unless the previous rappel was a real rope stretcher, and you barely made it) stopper knots are no longer needed.
If the first person unties them as a (mostly) regular habit, it eliminates the possible BIG problem of pulling a knot up out of reach when you pull your rope.
If this hasn't yet happened to you, it likely will someday, and it can be a gigantic hassle. Simple solution for a common problem!
If untying your stopper knots makes you nervous, here's an alternative. Untie the stopper knots in each strand, and then tie the ends together with a simple overhand. Now, you still have a closed rope system, and your partner coming down can’t rap off the ends. But you also have a loop of rope, so you can’t absentmindedly pull one end up out of reach.
If your rope barely makes it to the ground, this might be the best of both worlds.
There are very few “always” and “never” rules in climbing. This isn't one of them.
There are some cases when you want to leave the stopper knots in, such as:
If the rappel is a real rope-stretcher, and there's very little rope on the ground.
If the rappel ends on some kind of a downward slope. There’s a chance your partner above could swing from where you landed upslope to farther downslope, and potentially rap off the ends of the rope.
A double rope rap with ropes of say 7 and 10 mm, and for some reason, you tied the joining knot on the fat side instead of the skinny side, there's a chance your rope ends can “migrate” because of the extra friction from the larger rope.
For the vast majority of standard rappelling scenarios, if you've got a decent bit of extra rope on flat ground, untying the knots like this is going to be just fine.
Practice rope ascending on a top rope
Proper training for your first big wall involves lots of rope ascending and related skills like cleaning, lowering out, and other rope trickery. Here's a simple way to set up a practice session with you and your partner to always stay secure.
The image below is from the outstanding online big wall climbing course from VDiff climbing. It's a great course and quite a bargain; highly recommended!
Want to climb a big wall? Dialing in your rope ascending and cleaning techniques is key.
Here's a way to reduce risk when practicing these skills.
Set up a solid top rope anchor. On that same anchor point or something very close by, hang a single fixed rope.
Now, as you ascend the fixed rope (green) you're always backed up with a proper belay from your partner on the top rope (red). Now you can practice things like cleaning a traverse, leapfrogging past fixed gear, cam jugging, lowering out, maybe doing a mock lead, and other big wall shenanigans.
If you screw up anything on the green rope, no problem! You're backed up on red.
(This also applies to non-bigwall flavors of rope ascending, like prusiking for crevasse rescue practice.)
image: https://vdiffclimbing.thinkific.com/courses/take/big-wall/lessons used with permission
Backup that single strand rappel anchor
Does rappelling off of a single strand of cord give you a warm fuzzy feeling? No, me neither. Here's a quick way to back it up.
Do you want to rely on a single strand of cord in ANY part of your climbing system to keep you from hitting the deck? I didn't think so.
Don't settle for that in a rappel anchor.
If you come across an anchor with a single piece of cord or webbing, it's good practice to back it up by tying another piece of cord or webbing through the existing ring / quicklink(s). This is quick to tie, very low cost, and easy to check for anyone else using the anchor.
This is one more good reason to carry 7-ish meters of 6 mm cord, and a knife.
If you're wondering about the redundancy of that single red aluminum ring . . . It's rated to 32 kN. That's stronger than your rope, your belay loop, and your belay carabiner.
It's never gonna break, and you only need one of them.
(But hey, if it gives you a warm fuzzy feeling to add a quick link, extra rappel ring or a cheapskate locker to have another connection at the master point, go right ahead! We are all accountable for our level of acceptable risk, no one else gets to dictate that.)
Knots decrease sling strength - one may surprise you
Tying knots in any sort of rope or cord decreases the strength of that material. Usually, we think that strength can't be reduced more than about half. But there's one unusual case where you can lose almost 75% of the strength of a sling; check it out here.
image: Jürgen Reinmüller, @alpinstil.at
This nice diagram is from Jürgen Reinmüller, @alpinstil.at.
Jurgen is an Austrian mountain guide who is publishing a how-to technical book, with the publication date planned for spring 2026. (To get an reminder email when the book is available, sign up through his Instagram Bio.)
He posts nice diagrams from the book on his Instagram, and this is one of them.
This should be fairly common knowledge for most climbers:
A sewn sling gets its full rating (22-ish kN) when clipped end to end.
If you basket hitch the sling, you share the load among four strands rather than two, so the strength is approximately doubled.
If you tie a knot in the sling (or more than one knot, as it turns out) you reduce the strength by about half.
So far so good . . . but that last example that made me scratch my noggin when I first saw it.
That seems like it would be closer to 50%, because you have 2 knots in the sling, right?
Well, turns out this diagram is correct. You're putting the load on one strand rather than two. Then, you're tying knots in that one loaded strand rather than two. Taking half of the material and reducing the strength by half gets you to around 25%.
How do I know Jurgen is right? Because I sent it to my buddy Ryan at HowNOT2, and he was nice enough to do a break test for me.
The video is below.
Ryan ran several tests. Two of them used a dynamic sling, which slipped in the testing machine so he didn't get a good result. The video below is of a nylon sling, which is a little grabbier and didn't slip.
The normal breaking strength that sling should be around 24 kN if you pull it it end to end; it broke around 6 kN.
Jurgen, thanks for teaching me something new, and I definitely look forward to reading your book.
Multidirectional gear anchor
It's often helpful for your trad anchor to be able to take a strong upward pull. Here's a fast and simple way to do this with minimal gear.
In some situations, it can be good practice to be sure your gear anchor can handle a strong upward pull.
As in the diagram below, when you're doing a fixed point lead belay off the anchor.
You have a heavy climber and a lightweight belayer, and there's a chance of the belayer getting launched into the air when they catch a fall.
Bolts, of course, are multidirectional. Cams, to a lesser degree, are also multi directional because they can usually pivot if the direction of force changes.
Most passive gear, like stoppers, are usually not multidirectional. In a typical anchor, they might be great for a downward pull, but have very little security if they suddenly take an upward pull.
There are a few ways to do this. Assuming you have some kind of gear placement down around your feet that can take an upward pull, this method is simple and effective.
Clove hitch yourself to the master point.
Take the rope from the backside of your clove, and clove hitch it to the upward directional piece by your feet.
Voilà, your anchor can now take an upward pull.
image credit: Georg Sojer / Chris Semmel / VDBS
Redundancy at anchors with a rappel tether
If you’re using a knotted sling or a sewn loop PAS as a rappel tether, here's a simple way you can easily connect to two bolts if you need to. (Redundancy, yeah!)
A tether of some kind is pretty much mandatory when rappelling, so you can clip yourself into the anchors. If you use a 120 cm sling with knots, or a commercially made “Personal Anchor System”, aka PAS, with sewn loops, here’s one extra benefit.
If you're a redundancy fan, being connected to more than one anchor point probably gives you a warm fuzzy feeling - whether you're rappelling or in most any other situation. Here's how to easily do it with this style of tether.
Clip the end of your tether to one bolt
Clip a quick draw to the second bolt
Clip the bottom of the quick draw into one of the middle loops on your PAS. Bang, instant redundancy, while maintaining the full length of your PAS!
You can’t really do this with a tether made from a single length of cord, such as the Petzl Connect Adjust. (Well, I suppose you could, but you'd have to tie a clove hitch or something in the middle of it, and that's not quite as elegant.)
If the bolts are solid, and you're standing on a nice ledge, then you probably don't need to do this. But if you're at a hanging belay, and one or more bolts is less than ideal? You probably want to be clipped to both bolts.
(For the Redundancy Polizei: yes, this is technically not 110% redundant, because you are on one tether instead of two. This is more a quick fix for when you encounter a substandard bolt or two.)
Another option when rappelling is to build an actual anchor with your own gear at the rappel station, and clip your tether to that anchor. Hopefully this anchor is:
Somewhat equalized
Attaches you to both bolts
Gives your partner(s) a good place to clip when they arrive
Gives you enough elbow room to thread and pull the rope.
I'm going to cover this topic in an upcoming longer article, so watch for that.