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Re: [bill413] Two piece anchors are plenty strong! Poll!:
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rgold
May 6, 2009, 3:43 PM
Views: 18395
Registered: Dec 3, 2002
Posts: 1804
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Two modern bolts, yes.
Two well-placed directionally secure (or secured) medium-large to large stoppers, ok.
Two cams, never unless forced to.
Smaller stoppers and cams require three or more anchor points in my book. Especially worrisome are small cam anchors (smaller than purple camalot size), in which I think four cams is minimal, the belayer ought to do everything possible to find a braced position, and the leader ought to strive to get in something good as soon as possible.
None of these things may be possible. I had to belay off such an anchor a year ago with very poor belayer bracing, absolutely no possibility of leader protection for a while, and 5.8 climbing in the offing. At times like this, it helps to know who the hell you're climbing with. Such situations are not common, but also aren't exceptionally rare either on trad routes that are either new or not well-traveled. All the theory in the world about multiple anchor points and Jesus nuts goes out the window, and the game boils down to good old-fashioned climbing competence---the leader better not fall, just as in the days of hemp ropes and nailed boots.
By the way, had the leader who must not fall fallen, he was in for one hell of a dynamic belay---I wouldn't have tried to stop him in a hurry. I had my gloves on (as always) and was careful to keep the rope out of the locked-off position for the belay device. Years ago we practiced catches like this, so I had a reasonable idea about how to clamp down.
Edit: Even in the medium-to-large stopper situation where two are ok, I'll usually place three pieces. But the third would typically be a cam, because using up three medium to large stoppers in the anchor would rather seriously deplete what we usually carry on the rack and possibly diminish the leader's protection options.
There's a lot to think about...
(This post was edited by rgold on May 6, 2009, 4:14 PM)
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Post edited by rgold
() on May 6, 2009, 4:14 PM
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