How to create an anchor

When learning how to rock climb safety should always be your number one priority. When it comes to climbing up to 100 ft in the air, you can’t be careful enough. From you equipment to your techniques the smallest mistake can be fatal. On the contrary if you always practice safe climbing techniques you will most likely never have a problem with sport climbing. Sport climbing is a relatively safe way to climb. This is because you are always using permanent bolts that are drilled into the cliff side to secure yourself to the climb. What is the alternative you might ask? Well when Traditional (trad) climbing you are burdened with placing your own protection in the form of cams, pitons, hexes etc. All of these things can be very effective ways to secure yourself in the case of a fall, but they require that you carry them up the climb and place them yourself. This a lot more human error potential. This means that you are going to need a lot more experience than you already have to be able to do this type of climbing. Not only can traditional climbing be more dangerous, it can also be far more expensive. A simple rack of cams can cost $800 and you probably need more than just one rack. So I’m just going to assume that if you’re reading this blog you aren’t ready for Trad climbing just yet. Now back to sport climbing. Like I said before when you’re sport climbing you are using pre-placed bolts to secure yourself as you go up the climb. This is also the case for when you get to the top of a climb and need to create an anchor. Creating anchors was always one of the more daunting tasks for me to learn how to do because the safety of the next people to do the climb is at state as well as my life. This always added little bit of extra precaution to the way I approached this task. There are multiple ways of creating an anchor when sport climbing and this video does a great job of outlining exactly how it should be done. My preferred method is the 2 quickdraw method with opposite and opposing gates (this is the first technique she outlines). This is the simplest method and is plenty safe for most applications. I have also created a “locking quickdraw” which is a normal quickdraw dog bone with a locking biner at either end for added safety. The second 2 methods she outlines are important to know as well. If the 2 bolts for the anchor are not at the same height when you get to the top you will need to use one of the other 2 techniques she outlines. This is because if you use the quickdraws (which are the same length) all of the weight from the climbing will be applied to just one of the quickdraws creating an un-equalized anchor. This can be very dangerous. And remember it’s always safest to practice any of these anchors on the ground first before doing it 100 ft off the ground. Here is a link to a good video that can help you understand how to make a top rope anchor. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-pLP9dRWPc&t