quit top roping through fixed gear!

[Guest]

yeah I know this has been beaten to death here, but you can't say it too often. Also, I just saw this pic for the first time--this anchor is just 2 years old (from the NRG):

[Legion]

LOOK WHAT YOU DID YOU LITTLE MORONS!!!

[pigsteak]

maybe it was from those who get lowered instead of rapping?

[One-Fall]

[quote="Sandy"]yeah I know this has been beaten to death here, but you can't say it too often.

I talked to some people last month that were very friendly, but absolutely clueless about top roping through anchors. This is how they were taught to do it. I know it sucks, but we should all take it upon ourselves to inform these people in a way that isn't offensive or us coming off as arrogant.

[Meadows]

I climb with a guy who has climbed for years and still thought it was okay to just put the rope through the anchors. I threatened to drop him if he did. How is that for teaching?

[dhoyne]

The problem with those type of anchors is that lots of people think that they don't have to clip draws to them to top rope. After all, in the gym you just snap the rope into them.

When I was in the New last time, I saw lots of anchors that had bad wear like that at Summersville.

[JB]

Agreed... it's hard to teach newbies with a novice rope gun. The rope gun can finish the climb but doesn't think the newbies can... so he/she top ropes through the anchors so that he/she won't have to climb it again to clean.

That said, the culprit here is dirty ropes... clean ropes don't wear through anchors. We toprope through Fixe double ring anchors on our indoor wall and after a year and a half of constant abuse, we see absolutely NO wear on the rings. Why? our ropes are clean! dirty ropes are like a file on anchors, biners, and especially belay devices... that black stuff on your hand is aluminum from your atc... not dirt. Lowering does cause wear as well. The rope is weighted, and thus saws on the anchor a lot more than simply pulling the rope. Top roping through anchors would be absolutely fine if you never fell and always rappelled or downclimbed!!

sorry...
::: lecture mode off :::

[Ascentionist]

I agree with JB.

[haas]

That said, the culprit here is dirty ropes... clean ropes don't wear through anchors. We toprope through Fixe double ring anchors on our indoor wall and after a year and a half of constant abuse, we see absolutely NO wear on the rings. Why? our ropes are clean! dirty ropes are like a file on anchors, biners, and especially belay devices... that black stuff on your hand is aluminum from your atc... not dirt. Lowering does cause wear as well. The rope is weighted, and thus saws on the anchor a lot more than simply pulling the rope. Top roping through anchors would be absolutely fine if you never fell and always rappelled or downclimbed!!

That's a good point about dirty ropes, but another reason you don't see the wear on your ring anchors like the wear on the picture of the quick clip anchors is because the ring anchors are free to rotate and so the wear on them is dispursed throughout, while the other anchors take the abuse to the same spot every time. That's why ring anchors are better than quicklinks a the end of chains.

[dhoyne]

You can't exactly eliminate the dirt at a crag though... getting people to top rope correctly is somewhat possible.

What would you think would happen if someone made a pamphlet about setting anchors as well as various other issues at the Red and freely distributed it around via the most popular hangouts -- Miguel's, RRO, True North, Mark's, Shell, etc, as well as posted it on all the climbing bulletin boards? Good idea? Worthless?