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It has been brought to my attention that there are climbers out there who are confused how to use this type of anchor.

1. Clip your quickdraws into the rings (not the actual hanger).
2. It is acceptable to rappel (recommended) or lower from these rings.

Wow. That sucks that there is confusion. This thread also sounds familiar...hmmm. me thinks this topic has come up before.

Thanks for clearing it up, J-Rock-- I'm one of those who were confused-- I've always clipped the draws into the hangers to make room for the person who's cleaning the route to run the rope through the rings.

I like rings because they are pretty and shiny, but I like chains because they are more funtional in my opinion. I don't think I've ever had a twisted rope after lowering from chains, but it happens quite often with rings.
You can clip your draw wherever you want on a chain (as long as it's not the real skinny chain), leaving the bottom link for rapping or lowering, and it seems chain must be much easier to maintain.
How do you go about replacing a worn welded ring?
Good poll by the way.

good point, Jeff. I like rings for convenience (and the shine of the bling!), but replacing them means replacing the hanger, too, doesn't it? Just another reason people should rap instead of lowering.

Even those rope twisting Metolius rap anchors beat a manky loop of webbing hanging on a dying tree, though!

The ring and the hanger come in one piece. It is possible to buy the rings separately, but that is probably for webbing anchors or adding it to a link. They can be replaced by switching out the hanger. It only takes a few minutes to remove the bolt, take off the hanger, and reinsert the bolt with the new hanger (with the stainless steel rap ring already attached). The rap rings do not need replaced as often as the chain links since the rope doesn't always run over the same spot. Also, they are also stainless steel (they don't corrode as quickly as a non-stainless chain). They chains do equalize well, but so do the rap rings (especially if two quickdraws are attached to them). Of course you could always drill a new hole if necessary too.

This is a great poll J-Rock. It's interesting to find people's preferences.

I am with Yasmeen here in that I clip into the hanger to free up the rings for the person cleaning.

My favorite though is the Fixe traditional anchor system (http://www.fixeusa.com/trad.htm) because it places the two bolts on different horizontal planes, which in sandstone could be a big deal. With the ring anchors you have to place them close to each other (<18") to not start multiplying forces, which means that they are close enough that if one failed it might take the other one with it since it is in the same fracture line.

I was doing the same thing as Yasmeen until J-Rock showed me the errors of my ways.

I like the over under setup with just one ring. Totally bomber, and people leave me booty all the time, because they don't want to lower off of one ring.

Best are the Fixe drop in's, but since everyone tr's though them, the get worn out to quickly.

Wes