Sacrificing gear?

[luwayo]

what type and woeful quantity of gear have you ever taken for the intended purpose of sacrificing to get off the mountain(s)?

 

and while I'm on the subject, how do you feel about trusting abalakovs for rapping off alpine ice, if it's not blue. carry throw away screws?

 

i guess one more question follows, which is...anyone got experience with cheap screws being total shite? i've seen the nesting screws, which are pretty funny but the concept is good. (the largest one is so fat that it has huge friction on turning).

Edited May 31, 2005 by luwayo

[bonathanjarrett]

A well made v-thread anchor drilled with 22cm screws will almost always be stronger than a single screw of the same length. That said a couple meters of 9/16 super tape and a v-thread hook will be perfectly adequate to get off an ice climb. With that you can also thread natural chockstones and horns. Remember that anything that you leave behind is trash and thereby contributes to the overall problem of impact created on a climb. As for "throw away screws" I would not suggest them. There are better options. Plus, if they really suck so much you are willing to leave them, chances you might not bring them anyways because who is going to bring a couple of extra screws that they "might" leave in an emergency.

 

My philosophy when it comes to prepping for a climb that I might back off of is to integrate into my rack pieces that I would not be sad to leave. For example I rack some of my gear on a few older d-biners so that I don't have to leave any of my precious and expensive wire-gates.

[Ade]

bonathanjarrett is right. If the ice will hold a screw then a thread is better. If the ice is cruddy you can always dig a bollard.

[luwayo]

indeed, that was my belief too. but i reckon i wanted to be armed with more conviction since one of my climbing partners gets wigged out by the idea. tx for discussing.

[thelawgoddess]

not sure you're only asking about ice, but i generally carry a couple of rap rings and chain links with me. i've had to leave a nut or two in the past and it's nice to have some inexpensive hardwear to attach to it instead of a more expensive 'biner.

[fern]

 

I suppose it should be obvious, but you can always drill multiple abackeroff threads and equalize them if you don't trust just the one. The limiting factor on building retreat anchors often comes down to having enough string to tie stuff together.

[luwayo]

wot! no bootlace stories Fern?

[catbirdseat]

I suppose it should be obvious, but you can always drill multiple abackeroff threads and equalize them if you don't trust just the one. The limiting factor on building retreat anchors often comes down to having enough string to tie stuff together.

I hadn't heard that term "abackeroff" before. That's amusing.