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Rock Protection and Anchors

Toby Contreras

BCEP 2016

ICS 2017-18

AR 2019

ICS 2022-23

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Agenda

Types of Rock Protection

Fixed
Gear (Trad)
Natural

Short Breakout – trad gear
Anchor Rigging

SSS anchors
Extension
Rappel anchors

Breakout – practice rigging

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Learning Outcomes

By the end of this lecture, you should start to understand:

How to inspect and use the various kinds of protection used in rock climbing
Placement of basic traditional protection
How to create appropriate anchors for climbing and rappelling

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Rock Protection

What is rock protection?

Attachment between the climbing rope and the rock
Used to connect the rope/climber to the wall while climbing or to build an anchor at the top of the pitch

Fixed: Bolts
Temporary: Trad Gear
Natural: Rock features, Trees

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Fixed Protection

Bolt and hanger

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Inspecting Bolts

✓

✗

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Not all bolts and hangers are trustworthy. On some less trafficked routes you might see old, even homemade hangers and small bolts.

On the right is an old “Leeper” hanger with a ¼” bolt. On the left for comparison is new hardware, including a ½” expansion bolt.

Bolting and re-bolting are a contentious project in the climbing community. Don’t place your own bolts unless you have specialized skills and are part of a coordinated effort.

photo caption: “Old 1/4" with Leeper style hanger vs. the 1/2" 5-piece bolt used to replace the old hardware.” Greg Kuchyt Jul 30, 2016

https://www.mountainproject.com/photo/112036290/old-14quot-with-leeper-style-hanger-vs-the-12quot-5-piece-bolt-used-to-replace-t I sent Greg Kuchyt a facebook friend request to see if I could get permission to use this photo

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Inspecting Bolts

What to look for:

Is it old?

rust
diameter of bolt
design of hanger

Is it loose?

okay if hanger moves
not okay if bolt moves
may be able to tighten a bolt

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Pitons

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Gear Protection (Trad Gear)

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Nuts

AKA “stoppers” or “chocks”

Place them in constricting cracks

Pros

Lightweight
Inexpensive
Simple/Intuitive
Wide range of size/shape

Cons

Don’t work in parallel cracks
One directional
Can be lifted out of cracks by rope movement: use longer slings or opposed nuts
Can get stuck

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Nut Placement

Good placements:

Constricting cracks that fit the wedge shape of the nut

Lots of surface contact

Resists outward as well as downward pull

Notes:

Can be oriented to use side width

Don’t rely on nubs or bumps that could crumble

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Nut Placement - Good or bad?

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Nut Placement - Good or bad?

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Nut Placement - Good or bad?

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Cams (aka Spring Loaded Camming Device)

Use in cracks or pockets

Pull trigger to contract lobes and place cam

Pros

Great for parallel cracks where nuts do not work
Fast placement
Multidirectional - resist pulling out if side-loaded

Cons

Expensive
Heavy
Rope movement can “walk” them deeper
Can get stuck if over-cammed

lobes

trigger

sling

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Cam Placement

Choose the right size cam for the crack

Under-cammed: may not hold fall

Just right

Over-cammed: may get stuck

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Cam Placement

Cams may “walk” if placed in a flaring crack, either no longer serving as protection or becoming impossible to retrieve.

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Cam Placement – Good or Bad?

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Cam Placement - Good or bad?

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Hexes

Similar to nuts
6 sided and have much larger sizes than nuts
Placement is the same as nuts, or
Can be placed in a camming orientation
Size and weight can be a factor

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Tricams

Place in cracks with minor indentations that the beak can nestle into

Pros

Good in irregular pockets or horizontal cracks
Can be placed like a nut, or in camming mode
In camming mode considered multidirectional
Lightweight
Inexpensive

Cons

Can be tricky to get good placement
Can get stuck

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Inspecting Rock Pro

Start with the big picture (a few feet around the pro) and then zoom in

Is the rock solid?

Is it a loose flake, or part of the mountain?
Hit with palm, look for movement, listen for hollow sound

Is the placement solid?

How much rock would have to break in order for this to come loose?
Is the pro weighted over a sharp edge, etc that could damage it?

Direction of Pull

Could the pro get pulled in a direction that would pop it out?

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Natural Protection- Rock Horns

Can tie off a horn of rock or “chickenhead” with a girth hitch or slipknot

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Natural Protection- Trees

Bowline (with long tail & back up knot)

Tensionless hitch

aka full strength tie off

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Natural Protection- Inspecting

Can it move?
Can it break?
Trees should be 5+ inches in diameter and alive (5 and alive)
Boulders must be immovable

If detached must be large enough and on secure enough ground to be unmoving

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Breakout (10 minutes)

Assistants around the room with gear to share

Cams
Nuts
Hexes
Tricams

You will get more practice with these in the field sessions

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What is an Anchor?

An anchor can be any device or method for attaching a climber, a rope, or a load onto a climbing surface
This can be accomplished using slings and webbing on natural features (boulders or trees), or
Individual protection points can be linked together creating a master point that the rope and climbers clip into to be securely attached to the rock.
Typically used at the start and/or end of each pitch

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Anchor Anatomy

Protection

Rigging

Attachment to climbers�(rope or slings)

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Evaluating Anchors

An Anchor should be

Strong
Secure
Simple

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Evaluating Anchors

SSS – Strong

Will it sustain 2X all potential loads applied to it?

Is it padded with a margin of error to account for human mistakes?

What is the expected load?
Rappel? Top rope? Lead fall?
Each piece of protection should be strong enough to hold the load
Three micro or marginal pieces do not equal one strong piece

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Evaluating Anchors

SSS – Secure

If anything unexpected happens - components fail, direction of load changes - the anchor will survive.

This includes:

Backups and redundancy.

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Evaluating Anchors

SSS – Simple

Goal is to minimize:

Time needed to build and break down

How many knots? How far apart?

Equipment needed

rope, slings, carabiners, trad gear.

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Evaluating Anchors

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Direction of Load

Consider the direction of pull when you are tying your anchor.

Downward
Sideways
Upward

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Direction of Load

Downward pull:

When does this occur?

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Direction of Load

Upward pull:

When would you need to build protection for upward pull into your anchor?

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Direction of Load

Sideways pull:

Would this anchor also work for a sideways pull?

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Number of pieces

How many pieces of protection should an anchor have?
Some rules of thumb:

1 huge tree or fixed boulder
2 good bolts
3 good pieces of trad gear

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Rigging Materials

The “cordelette” - 7mm nylon accessory cord

About 20 ft. is good for rigging most 3 point anchors. Shorter (13-14’) is better for a “quad”.
Tie into loop with double fisherman knot or rack untied

Sewn runners
Carabiners (locking or non-locking)

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Rigging - Cordelette

Best uses:

Rigging together 2, 3, or 4 (rare) pieces of protection
Flexible and works in nearly all circumstances

Limitations:

Best suited for a single direction

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Rigging - Cordelette

Anatomy of a Cordelette Anchor:

Master point
Shelf
Legs

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Rigging a Cordelette

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Explain or demonstrate how to tie a cordelette.

Clip the cordelette into each of the pieces with carabiners and pull down the top sections between the pieces.

Join the sections with the bottom part of the cordelette by bringing them together and clipping a locking carabiner to all three loops.

Pull down on the carabiner to even out the tension in all the strands of the cordelette.

Position the fisherman’s knot so it is below the highest anchor point to keep it clear of the master point knot that you will tie.

Figure out as best you can where the force on the anchor will come from and pull the carabiner in that direction.

Tie all three sections together with a figure eight knot to create the master point. If you don’t have enough cord to tie a figure eight, tie an overhand. Both knots are effective, but the overhand is more difficult to untie after it has been weighted.

Give the carabiner a tug to make sure all three anchor points are equally weighted.

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Rigging a Cordalette (Credit: Obsession Climbing)�https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__MyrIfiy-I&t=57s

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Rigging - Quad

Best uses:

Rigging together 2 pieces of protection.
Great for sport climbing with bolted anchors.
Can be pre-rigged and quickly attached.
Two independent masterpoints
“Self-adjusts”

Limitations:

Best used with 2 pieces of pro that are close to each other.

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Rigging a Quad

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Take your cordellete and double it up so you have four equal-length strands.

Clip a locking carabiner into both strands of the loop end nearest to the double fisherman’s bend.

Clip that same carabiner into one of the bolts.

Hold the opposite end of your cordelette loop up to the other bolt.

Grasp the low point in the your cordelette loop with your fist.

Tie an overhand knot on either side of your fist (about 8” apart)

Clip a locking carabiner into both strands of the free end of your cordelette loop.

Clip that same carabiner into the remaining bolt.

Create the power point of your anchor (where the top rope will clip in) by clipping two opposed locking carabiners into three of the strands that run between the knots you tied earlier—leave the fourth strand free. This setup limits (catches) the carabiners in the event that one side of the anchor fails.

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Tying a Quad (Credit: Explore and Traverse)�https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxFELMDflfiT8zkha2E8Vz-cH5RsBPLxo4

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Other Rigging Styles

The cordelette and the quad are currently the most common anchors and will suffice in most situations when rigging gear anchors. There are others you may know or see:

Sliding X

Equalette

Girth Hitch

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Anchor Angles

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Extending Anchors

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Setting up belay station

Considerations for positioning master point

Ease of belay
Comfort/Stance
Rope management
Positioning second climber

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Rappel anchors

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Rappel anchors

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Rappel anchors

Thoroughly inspect rappel stations

Never assume bolts, chains, trees, or existing webbing is solid

Existing webbing is especially suspect

Cut away old webbing and pack it out
Inspect the entire length of any sling

Bring enough material to make it to the ground

Improve anchors when you can
9 feet of webbing makes a good kit (1” or ⅝” are common)
Cord or slings can be used if necessary

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Practice

Tie a cordelette anchor on two bolts.
Pre-rig your own quad anchor and attach it to two bolts.

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Resources

Anchors | The American Alpine Club

Rock Climbing Anchors: How to Build | REI Co-op

How To Use Cams | VDiff Climbing

How To Use Nuts and Stoppers | VDiff Climbing

Cordelettes - General Tips | Alpine Savvy

Rock Protection and Anchors