It is relevant, and now that rgold is here we might get a comment ...

Fwiw, I always clip one of the two ropes to the powerpoint when belaying the leader from the harness. I hope that both ropes will eventually engage in the event of a ff2 fall, and by that neutralize the pully effect to some degree.

If you belay directly from the harness, the redundancy for the leader becomes very far stretched. If the belay loop or the belay carabiner fails, the leader will fall until the rope catches him again, since he still is tied in.

edited to add sungams quote

SD, my personal preference on alpine type anchors is to NOT clip the leader through onto the powerpoint because of the pulley effect. 9 times out of 10 I've been able to integrate some sort of stance into my alpine anchors, and my thinking is i'd rather use that in the case of a FF2 than 2 screws in ice whose quality i'm not always totally stoked on. That is just me, and like I said that 9/10 has been MY experience. Yours may differ and lead to different decisions.

1. As long as no one falls, any rig works fine.

I think you misunderstood my intentions for including a stance. I (I think) clearly said that I am not planning on catching a FF2 from the stance alone. But rather by integrating myself into the anchor I will be able to at least take some force away from the anchor...

If you use dynamic cord for anchoring (like you did) it's better to use knots. The dynamic cord is doing load distribution quite ok already - dynamic rope stretches 40% before it snaps. There is no need for sliding x. And if one piece fails the drop and "shockload" are less if you use static knots.
Plus its faster and more simple to rig.

About the speed and simplicity issue; how many knots do you have in your anchors?

Yo, that last quote about the knots wasn't me, it was from adnix. if you don't mind fixing that i would appreciate it, or i'll have to ask for the BANZING@>!>!>!@#>#>#(*$

If the pieces are solid, my anchors have two pieces and no knots. I'll "equalize" the anchor close enough with slings and carabiners. The resulting anchor is resting on one piece (preferably cam) and the second piece is a backup with very short or none slack in case the main piece rips (which it has never done so far). The system is kinda like a modern parachute with a pilot and a backup. The backup is easy to clean once the leader has his main piece in. The main piece is removed the same second the leader yells "belaying!" This saves a great deal time. A cam is easier to clean than anything else.

If the pieces are not too solid I'll add a third and fourth piece the same backup style. If it's really bad I might consider adding cord loop with fig 8 knot for distributing the load. I usually carry one 120cm cord loop knotted with fishermans to be left behind while abseiling. I usually use this cord loop in stead of climbing rope since block leading doesn't allow using climbing rope.
In case I'm climbing with less experienced partner I'll usully rig a main powerpoint which he/she feels comfortable (usually a loop of cord with carabiners clipped in pieces and a fiig 8 knot in the middle). The carabiners can be removed easily even by complete amateurs. I've learnt opening knots causes problems for less experienced people.

The best belay device is Reverso or Atc xp or similar. The second is belayed directly off the stand in autoblocking mode. The leader is belayed of the harness like in your picture.

The harness is not directly clipped in as in your picture. I use a cow tail with a carabiner for clipping in the anchor (ie. a carabiner clipped into the carabiner of the cam). Otherwise you have it perfect there.
The best belay device is Reverso or Atc xp or similar. The second is belayed directly off the stand in autoblocking mode. The leader is belayed of the harness like in your picture.
I'm no guide but I've taken loads of friends for their first multipith. And I've passed plenty of guides with their clients in Chamonix. This gives me perverse pleasure in most cases.

I do not fancy the cow tail myself and use the climbing rope. Especially after some horrible accidents recent years.

I found a picture of one of my anchors where I could have used your method:
[image]http://www.home.no/sittingduck/anchor321.jpg[/image]

[image]http://redlinegym.com/images/andy-bolton-01.jpg[/image]

A ff2 fall is roughly 12kN. In the picture you see a guy holding 4,5kN. I am no mathematician or phycisist, and that is probably why I think that he would not be able to hold a ff2 fall.
I have taken a long ff2 fall on multipitch trad, nobody could have stopped that fall with a stance in MY experience.
So yes, my experience leads to different solutions.

Belaying a second from a stance is perfect with a marginal anchor. We are normally strong enough to hold that weight.

[Catching a fall on the anchor directly on the harness minimizes the force on the anchor at the expense of letting rope slip through the device. This could be disastrous with bare hands but should be manageable with gloves.