Mark O'Neal

I actually bought a replacement already...

I was using this Dyneema sling to backup a top rope anchor on kind of a goofy setup. The sling went through a horizontal crack and got this damage whilst I flailed about mightily in vain to climb the route. There doesn't appear to be any damage to the sling other than to the black cloth. My thought is that the black cloth isn't really doing anything. But a couple of guys at the crag were like "no way I'd use that dude!" Would you climb on it?

My two (well 3) cents. 1. You should avoid attaching to the anchor using a daisy chain as the chains are not fully sewn and as such, are not full strength. Buy a PAS (Personal Anchor System) if that's what you want to do. 2. I confess, I've lowered off of Sport routes. But the best thing for the longevity of the anchor (and your rope) is always to rap. Especially if you're attached to some sketchy chain with burrs on it. 3. Why not take that 2nd sling used to back up the first bolt and attach it to your harness and then the 2nd bolt. That way you have total redundancy. Yea yea. Nit picky....

I pulled a rope length through my setup and it imparted less twist than a munter. I don't know that I'll necessarily use it. Just thinking of options that aren't safety hazards. I'm thinking the MM would have too much friction on a snow slope to be usable to lower someone. I've been thinking of picking up the BD XP which might give me the extra friction I'm looking for but not be a specialized piece like a Reverso.

I think the rope looks like an "Edelweiss Discover 8mm x 30m Super Dry Twin Rope" Correct! Edelweiss Discover 8mm x 30m Super Dry Twin Rope. We're using it as a single for glacier travel and to climb moderate snow slopes (Gannett Peak in WY).

Yea, putting on a prussik or an autoblock is a good idea too. When I was playing around in the yard, I practiced prussiking up the 8mm rope using 5mm cord and it grabs plenty good.

Hmm. That's a thought. It appears like Petzl recently quit making the Reversino though. It seems to have limited availability. They offer the Verso now instead. Anyone used that on a thin rope yet? Still looking for some more comments on my strange ATC configuration. Mark

I saw the monster munter video after I made the post. I haven't tested it with body weigh yet, but I quickly set it up in the house. It had amazing friction and was easy to tie. It had more friction in fact than my modified ATC setup. I pulled a rope length through the ATC and didn't notice a ton of twisting, but there was a little. Here's a picture of my ATC setup and for reference the monster munter.

I'm planning on using an 8mm rope for the first time on a moderate snow climb. So I've been experimenting with how belaying would feel on the smaller rope. I realize the forces are much lower on the slope, but I experimented using full body weight. Long story short, I found that I couldn't create enough friction with a munter or an ATC on a single 8mm strand through 2 carabiners to be able to support my full body weight. After playing around a little I put the rope through the ATC normally, but then passed the free end back through the other side of the ATC (making an X across the top of the ATC), through the carabiner again and back up through the ATC. I created a ton of friction and was able to fully support and easily lower my full body weight. My question is: Is there anything wrong with setting up my ATC in this manner? It seemed OK to me when I looked at it, but I've never seen anyone do anything like that before. Thanks for any advice. Mark

They're bolted at the top because there is literally nowhere to place any pro in most places. We used to just tie off static ropes to large trees but the park service was nice enough to recently bolt it. In general, I think I'd rather clip the bolt for one less point of failure. My problem was that I felt like the biners, when clipped to the bolts, were in a bind between the bolt and the rock when the rope was weighted. I was incredulous when my buddies still insisted that was better than clipping the rap rings. Thanks for the advise, I feel vindicated.

I was climbing with some buddies yesterday. We were rigging TR anchors on some brand new bolts that were installed at the top of the climbs. I clipped the biners through the rap rings because the orientation of the bolts were such that my large lockers got bound up on the rock. My buddies insisted that you should always clip the bolt and not the rap ring. I agreed that the bolt is probably better, but ultimately I said that I didn't think it really mattered one way or the other as long as the ring is in good shape (in this case, brand new). I looked in my John Long Climbing Anchors book and while he didn't specify, I found pictures where he clipped the bolt and others where he clipped the rap ring. Long story short, what is the "right" way to do it. Clip the bolt, clip the rap ring, or clip whichever one is more convenient assuming the rap ring is in good shape?

Ah, see I knew I was missing something. You gotta love Google. They have the Luebben book online and I jumped right to the pages of interest. I'm not anticipating a big leader fall. I'm thinking I could be on a 45-50° slope and want to put a screw in, either as piece of mind fall protection or to rap down. I suck at making V-threads btw. So would the consensus be a 13cm?

Am I understanding you right? If the screw is too long and can't go all the way in to the hilt, you can sling it? Sling it where? At the ice line around the screw? I think I'm missing something because it would seem like the threads on the screw would be kinda sharp.

You make some good points. It depends on how many people I wind up with on the trip, but right now I was thinking 4. So I was figuring on having 2 people on each 30m rope. So if someone fell in, the other two would rig up the resuce on their rope. But perhaps it would be better to have all 4 folks on one rope so as to make arresting the fall easier. I own a 9.8mm 60m and my buddy owns an 8mm 30m. So I've been thinking about what I want to do. The only disadvantage of the 60m is the weight. Perhaps I should just force my buddies to carry all my food and the pro and we'll call it even...

If you were only going to carry one ice screw on a mixed alpine climb (as oh sh*t pro, it's icey here) What length would it be?