Sunday, September 25, 2016

First beautiful Fall day, a big crop of dubious choices.

Single carabiner connecting the webbing, and the purple rope is 8mm at most

Unnecessary carabiner, not much tail on 8mm tensionless anchor.

There was plenty of rope to just tie around the tree. Introducing the 2 extra links in the chain increases risk.

Single carabiner connecting to what looks like 8mm or thinner rope.

Saturday, September 24, 2016

How to cut your rope.

This doesn't show you how really sharp that edge is.

You don't have to wrap the tree up like a mummy, 3 turns are enough.

Wednesday, September 21, 2016

Sunday, September 18, 2016

Another flying double anchor.

Single strand webbing, carabiner gate towards the rock, so it could be forced open, anchor angle of about 120 degrees to maximize force on all the points.

Another carabiner facing the rock.

Is 9MM anchor line safe? Yes. Is it smart? No. It will stretch twice as much as 10mm rope, cutting, abrading, and wearing out much faster. Here they had plenty of rope but came up about 6 inches short, even the clever rope condom won't prevent friction of the climbing rope.

Saturday, September 17, 2016

The instructor said,"There's safe, and then there's REALLY safe."

Sure, anchor 10 feet up the tree.

This block is not attached, so wrapping it half way up is way worse than at the bottom.

See the slack, the tiny tree at right is the only anchor actually working.

Since it is working, we know it is a tensionless anchor.

The anchor greater than 90 degrees putting more stress on each point.

Friday, September 16, 2016

Thursday, September 15, 2016

Coming up short.

Lots of rope but the climbing rope is dragging over several edges.

This backwards bowline loses the adjustability of the knot. This s really a tensionless anchor, so lots of things that could be good, but these guys don't really understand them.

If your anchor isn't long enough, pad the moving climbing ropes with your pack.

Single strand webbing way up a tiny tree.

Monday, September 12, 2016

Wrong anchor.

Couldn't find the static rope so they cut corners with webbing, having just enough to get over the lip. Single strand webbing, too far up the tree, using only the loose 1/3 of the block.

Sunday, September 11, 2016

The pay for play groups are back.

The guy's T shirt said he was the instructor for a gym's "Intermediate Rock Climbing" course. Too bad the anchor is mostly dead. The 2 inch "trunk" on the right has some leaves.

Another instructor's perfectly good knots. The carabiner says knots aren't entirely trustworthy, not the right message.

Don't make an anchor that adds risk. He could have put the rope left of the rock, instead it is pulling the rock out of the dirt, a missile in waiting.

Thursday, September 8, 2016

Is this a bowline?

It's a bowline, but tied this way it would be hard to adjust, losing its greatest advantage. Note the over-thought, overdone tieoff which may actually be acting as an anchor.

The massive tree would be fine, adding the two barely buried blocks introduces the risk of fatal missiles for the kids below. It had poured rain the night before, loosening the soil.