Sunday Skill Builders: Advanced Anchor Tricks

Activity Notes

• Sunday Skill Builders: Advanced Anchor Tricks
• Sunday Jan 22
• 6:00 pm - 9:00 pm
• Mazamas Mountaineering Center (SE 43rd and Stark, Portland)
• Mazamas members $25, non-members $35
• Recommended experience level: intermediate/advanced

New for 2023, the Sunday Skill Builders happen on the second and fourth Sunday of the month, usually from 6 to 9 PM. The second Sunday is more for beginner/intermediate topics, and the fourth Sunday is more for intermediate/advanced techniques.  Registration opens one month before the class. Topics will rotate and repeat, so if you miss one and want to take it, keep an eye out for it again.

Do you have a basic understanding of anchor principles and know how to build a few simple ones? Excellent, let's learn a lot more!

Crafty anchor tricks we’ll cover MAY include (we won’t get to all of these . . .) 

• Quad anchor, two slings
• Quad anchor, double top rope set up
• Cordelette: keep it open / untied
• Cordelette: using a long cordelette on two bolts close together
• Cordelette:  bunny ears 
• Using a second “rigging rope” for building a top rope anchor, when anchor points are far back from the edge
• Using the climbing rope, Munter hitch and BHK (Big Honkin’ Knot) to use anchors that are far from the edge on multi-pitch climbs to bring up your second
• Walking the rope around a tree or tossing it over a rock spike, tie a BHK
• Double strand bowline around a tree or rock block 
• The “Alex Honnold anchor” with the rope: clove to one bolt, butterfly on backside of clove, clove or figure 8 to the other bolt. 
• Safety near cliff top: Grigri (or friction hitch) and a bight knot backup
• Girth hitch master point
• “V clove” anchor - 120 cm sling and 3 anchor points
• SWAMP anchor - 60 cm sling and 2 anchor points
• “Wrap 3 pull 2” anchor 
• For a rappel anchor, simply clip a quick draw between both bolts so each person can tether to one bolt and have redundancy
• The cheapskate locker - add some tape
• Clip a 2-chain anchor directly with a master carabiner
• The courtesy anchor
• The easy-to-clean top rope anchor - First person up threads the rope through the hardware, and then clips a carabiner onto the bolt hanger 

Gear needed: harness, a few locking and snapgate carabiners, prusik loop/friction hitch, two 120 cm slings, cordelette (about 16 feet 7 mm cord). If you want to practice with a quad anchor, I recommend a Dyneema 180 cm sling.

You don't need to have all of this gear, we can share. This will be "ground school", so no helmet or rock shoes are needed.

The links above go to some articles on my website, Alpinesavvy.com. If you make time to watch them before class, your class time will be much more effective, hint hint.

Look forward to seeing you, hope you can make it!

John Godino