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Cord for personal anchor?


Alyosha

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Can anyone comment on using a loop of (Perlon) cord girth-hitched around one's harness for a personal anchor when free-climbing? (Instead of a sling or a daisy-chain, which most people seem to use). It certainly seems that 7mm or 8mm Perlon has enough tensile strength to provide a comfortable safety margin. Has anyone tried it? Can anyone tell me why it's a bad idea?

 

Thank you

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...loop of (Perlon) cord... ...for a personal anchor when free-climbing? ...7mm or 8mm Perlon has enough tensile strength to provide a comfortable safety margin...

 

Yeah, sounds great. That's what a cordellette is made from is perlon in that same range (same for prussiks, btw). That's what I use for personal anchors at belays, instead of the single point attachment that you seem to be using/want to use. And the cordelette can be attached to 2 or 3 anchors simultaneously, which your method cannot, giving it more redundancy.

 

And, yes, what Billygoat said as well. I often start my top anchor with a clove hitch to get my second off belay quicker so he/she can get ready to follow sooner. Then I build my anchor and insert the cordelette into the system. It's easy to dump the clove hitch if you need/want to after everything's up and tested.

 

Another benefit of the clove hitch to anchor is that you can put the knot exactly where you want it to give yourself the right distance to comfortably set up your belay, just like a daisy chain does, whereas the single-length runner/cord does not have this advantage.

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I wouldn't say it is necessarily a "bad" idea, but why not use a daisy chain or tie in with the climbing rope instead? I sometimes use one of my shoulder length slings as a personal anchor at a belay ledge or rappel station, and I think it is a good idea to carry a few of these even on a sport climb or where you otherwise don't really plan to use them, but I don't think I'd carry an extra loop of perlon specifically for this purpose. Are you thinking that your loop of perlon may come in handy for a rappel anchor or a prussik sling or something? In my view, you're better off carrying an extra prussik cord on the back of your harness and deliberately NOT using it while on belay so that it may be handy when you want to escape the belay or do something else with it.

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yesterday was probably the last time that i'll ever use a daisy. i'm going to the cord w/knots tied in it. i was bounce testing a v-thread at Haffner yesterday and the stitching started ripping out loop by loop on my daisy hellno3d.gif just as i was telling my girlfriend that they're not full strengh. go figure. oh, the v-thread held of course. cantfocus.gif

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I agree,

 

another reason I dont use daisy chains. I admit I have on assertion by partner that I only climbed with once to get him to shut up recently.

 

The work in applied situations fine. But the best bet is to tie in with the rope or a real anchor in order to not shockload your anchor by ripping chords on a daisy. I have as well as many others here been required to use a less than good anchor of question. In here lies the reason why I use a rope since it it less fallible and rely on the shit anchor.

 

:-)

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I posted the link for the benefit of Alyosha. You were one one of the people who contributed to that thread. I am not disagreeing with you. There is no substitute for tying in with the rope. The rope is strong, dynamic and cut resistant. I still use a personal anchor in many situations. For example, I think it was Dru who mentioned it in the previous thread, if the leader runs out of rope just short of a belay stance, you can untie the rope from the anchor to give him another couple feet and be safer if you are tied in by means of a sling of some sort.

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