How to Set Up a Top Rope Anchor on Two Bolts

hi I'm Elena renze a certified Rock Guide I'm going to show you my favorite ways to set up a top rope anchor when you have two bolts at the top of a climb the first method I'm going to clip my quick-draw underneath any existing hardware there directly into the hanger the reason why I want to do it this way because I want to be sure that my carabiner is not going to get potentially cross loaded across any of that fixed hardware I'm going to toss two quick draws one on each bolt with the gates opposite and opposed then I attach my climbing rope and lower to the ground this is a great method if I'm arriving at the anchor and I quickly want to lower back down and maybe it's just a friend and I who are gonna be top roping on this for a short term period of time the next method you can see I have one double locking quick-draw and this is great if I expect I'm gonna have a little bit more time top roping off that anchor the locking quick-draw provides a little bit more security for several people top roping off of it and it's quick and easy to install if the top rope is gonna be up for a while and have a bunch of people heard me climbing on it I'm going to use something slightly more secure I'm gonna take a 48 inch sling with two non lockers attach that to my two bolts underneath the hardware like we talked about I want to be sure that that bar tack is up and out of the way so when I go to tie my master point which can either be an overhand on a bite or a figure eight on a bite depending on the height of that master point if I choose to do an overhand here here's a pro tip for you take any extra non locking carabiner and attach it directly into that overhand on a bite so after this has been top roped on all day it makes that overhand much easier to untie last step add two locking carabiners to the master point tighten everything down clip in your climbing rope boom boom and then screw the gates down so you don't screw up so if you do attach a non-locking carabiners into that overhand you want to be sure that nothing else gets clipped into it another pro tip take a non locking carabiner clip it between the two lockers clip the rope in the reason why I'm doing this is not for any extra added security the wider radius for the rope to pass over is going to increase the product life of my climbing rope and my locking carabiners my final go-to is the quad again a non locking carabiner underneath the hardware I'm going to double up my slang keeping that bar tech isolated at the end I'm and tie an overhand knot about a third of the distance on one end I'm tell you second overhand knot by the 30 of the distance on the opposite end experiment with different materials for constructing your quad in this case I'm using a Dyneema sling because the anchor is free and clear it's not rubbing against anything if I were concerned about any sort of friction of the material being top ripped on for a long period of time I might use a quarter led to do the same the reason why I use overhand knots is because they're easier to adjust I want to move those down as close to my master Point carabiners as possible to limit any possible extension should one side release I'm going to take two locking carabiners again opposite and opposed I'm going to isolate the strands two and two and clip those carabiners to each one of those and then I can attach the rope once the rope is attached to your carabiners you're gonna screw down so you don't screw up and now you have a perfectly self equalizing top rope anchor that you can use to top rope multiple lines off at one point what you definitely don't want to do is clip all four strands because should the anchor come unclipped from one side a best practice is to not top-rope through the fixed hardware so we always want to attach our rope with our own materials and then remove it when we're done climbing at the end of the day mossy hooks are great for lowering off of I simply clip my rope into each one of them paying attention to which way they naturally hang oftentimes they're not designed to be clipped opposite and opposed sometimes they are so you need to be paying attention to how they naturally rest remember mossy hooks are there for the final lower off and they are not intended to be top roped off of another way to set up a top rope anchor is to thread the Rope through the chain but in this configuration we've added a locking carabiner above the chain so the carabiner is taking all of the friction which is not inducing any extra wear on our fixed hardware this has a couple different benefits such as I don't have to come back up and clean an anchor which is especially helpful if the last person climbing is unfamiliar with how to do that practice these on your own time before your life is on the line you

Channel: Outdoor Research

Views: 441,155

Keywords: climbing, mountaineering, rope, anchor, top rope, lower, rappel, bolt, outdoor research, or, amga, american mountain guides association, set up, setup, build, construct

Id: Y-pLP9dRWPc

Length: 5min 58sec (358 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 06 2018