Redundancy at anchors with a rappel tether

bonus 2
Written By John Godino
 
 
 

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.

 
John Godino
Next

Two options for rappelling loose rock