68 degrees brings them out.

Yes, that's a caving rope, used for climbing, running it over a bunch of edges. Now, he had  all this rope as an anchor, and left his climbing rope coiled, sitting next to this rig.

The newest scourge of crags, hammocks.

Can you tie a knot without a carabiner?

At a recent meeting organized by the Excess Fund, there were complaints of hammocks showing up at crags across the country. This one crosses the main trail.

Totally side loaded.

Only as strong as the weakest link.

One wire gate carabiner.

Count the runners.

When you use just runners, you have to girth hitch small stuff like that skinny tree and the tree root for the anchor at left. They are also mixing materials, nylon and spectra, that can cut each other.

Trust your clove hitch? Well, no.

Another gym victim. Two unnecessary points of failure and an unstable clove hitch. A bowline is every bit as adjustable, and safer.

More 8 mil.

8mm slung around a loose block, with 2 cams, non-locking carabiners and the skinniest runners made. Also, don't leave your stuff at the top of a climb at Carderock, it can disappear. There is a rope bag/tarp (not at the bottom where it could be used), another cam, and the overpriced $40 guidebook.

What is the yellow thing with the rings? No clue. They still didn't quite get over the edge.

Yes, that is the climbing rope.

One piece of webbing, one carabiner, the climbing rope is running over a nylon pack, so it can abrade it. When they lowered a climber it ran so fast it could melt the pack.

Can you tie a knot without a carabiner?

Archimedes may be dead but he is still right. This school rigs its rappels way up in the tree, stressing the tree. Check out the one on the right.

Unnecessary links with the webbing and the carabiner. The anchor should be at the base of the tree.

Was it supposed to be a bowline?

When in doubt, make it a big knot.

A little blurry because he is being lowered. Single carabiners connecting to a single 1/4" sling.

Dog bones and flying anchors

The gigantic tree wasn't good enough so he used a dog bone, AKA sport draw, to connect to the sling around a rock.

Give the tree roots a break! The flying anchor looks like it is attached with a prusik to keep the anchor from sliding. The slings and carabiners are unnecessary and increase risk.

If it isn't quite a bowline, what is it?

One big loop clipped to another.

Love the flying horizontal carabiner.

Single strand webbing.

Uh, not sure about this.

Not quite...

If you aren't sure what knot to use, use them all.

That's a bowline, clove hitch, overhand, then another clove hitch on the small tree.

If you can't tie a knot...

They had at least 50 feet of rope left over, but they went with this. Note the brand new PMI rope.

Overkill

Rescue rope at least 1/2" and big steel carabiner. All this work and introduce risk by using the carabiner.

Where is all the 8mm rope coming from?

The epidemic of 8mm continues with some slings for good measure.

If you only have some rope, use it on sections crossing rock edges, not like here.

Using skinny webbing instead of the ample supply of rope is inexcusable.

Same thing here, with the sketchy clove hitch. Note that the end of the rope is clipped in because the climber doesn't really trust the clove hitch. This was tied by an instructor.

Tie off to the big tree?

Nah, sling the two loose rocks...

and side load the carabiners.

Two daisy chains connected by a quick link.

Why webbing is a bad idea.

How sharp would you like your edges?

Unclear on the concept.

Sort of tensionless anchor, since the clove hitch hasn't tightened.

Two bowline with less than 6 inches of tail and no stopper knots.

Thin dyneema runner and single strand nylon runner. Dyneema can cut nylon.

Thin runner, tiny tree, carabiners and a clove hitch, the whole package.

Lazy and dumb, a winning combination.

 

Lots of perfectly good rope, didn't need the thin runner, carabiner and clove hitch. Not to mention he tiny tree. 

Same, and 3 feet up the tree.

Why doesn't REI sell local climbing guides?

    REI just opened a 50,000 sq. ft. mega store in D.C. The one thing you can't buy is any local climbing guide. They claim they don't have the shelf space. Make REI the co-op again. Should we stop spending money there if the co-op was stolen by the $1 billion a year corporation.
    If you want the PATC guides for Carderock or Great Falls catch me at the crag, either book is discounted to $10 to make the transaction easier.

Mysterious

WTF? The knot in the white rope is a butterfly, so somebody had experience.

No, it isn't redundant.

Didn't make it over the edge. Looks like he used all his gear and his wardrobe

The gym instructors won't give this up.

He's back. Note the phone he left.

Could have used that runner full length and made it over the edge.

Unclear on the concept.

You can do a tensionless anchor, or a bowline. When you do both, things start to not work.

Just tie a loop.

All that rope could replace the cordalette and carabiner. More links in the chain means more points of failure.