RRC Archives

hearn, you must be joking. Its faster than messing with sligs, is less eqipment to carry, and you'll always have it. A cordlette provides SRENE anchors, and are THE standard if you are setting in anything but a vertical crack (which is rare on mulitpitch routes in the red.) You have a ton of cordage for bailing. You'll still have it if you had to use a bunch of slings. The only reason to leave it out is if you only plan on doing routes with bolt anchors.

huggy..not to beat it, but a cordellette does not neceassarily provide SRENE anchors...hard to get equalized and no extension in the same set up..always a trade off of course.

i hate cordellette myself...only because it is a pain to carry

How's it a pain to carry?

It is hard to get both, but is easire to do with a cordlette than slings, unless you use the 'death X. ' I don't like that set up because your anchors get shockloaded if one piece blows.

overhung....just a bulky pain. i know i am whining. i just find using slings more efficient. just personal taste.

huggy..we found that when you use sllings, to combat that shock loading you can tie a knot in the sling to take some of that "play" out.

web-o-let is the best thing.

web-o-lets beat the hell out of cordellettes if that's the setup your looking at, but you still don't get a SRENE anchor. It's a fact -you don't get equalized achors with the cordellettes or the webolettes. The sliding x, or "death-X' as you call it, the best way to get an equalized anchor and if you take 3 seconds to tie overhand knots in them the shockloading is minimal. You're talking about 3 inches of shockload in a dynamic system. I'd be willing to put money on it that if you testing the shock load part would be minimal, you have to figure that ever part except the sling itself is dynamic - rope stretch of the faller, rope strech from the tie-in and belay device slippage.

I have been using Trango's Alpine(6ft) Equalizer for trad anchors. I really like it. Clip 3 pieces to it and automatically equalized with Master Point and "shelf". Have any of you guys used the equalizer?

hearn, You DO get equalized anchors with a cordalette or a webolet. You don't get self-equalizing anchors, which may be better for TR'ing, but don't really give you all that much for multi-pitch.

We

Personally, I prefer a cordalette. true equalization is over-rated since if any one peice fails, your anchor moves significantly and shockloads quite a bit.
A well-applied cordalette won't move more than a few inches if a peice fails and shifts instead of shocks. The last thing on earth you need when a peice pops is the anchor you are also hanging on moves a foot out and to the side. Think you might let go of the rope? Sling-shot belay or not, your instincts beat cognition when you get rag-dolled like that.