UKC

I went abseiling on Sunday, and wanted to check if my setup was okay... As an anchor at the top, I flopped a sling over a nice solid spike, doubled another sling through the first one (i.e. without any knots connecting them) to extend it over an edge and attached a screwgate to both ends of the doubled sling. The rope then obviously went through the screwgate.

I have been made acutely aware, by the recent thread of the accident in the Peak, of the importance of redundance in setting up anchors, even if you think that the one piece of gear you have is bomber... The reason for my only placing one piece was that I had a hard enough time finding one decent spike, let alone two in close proximity (I have only been able to afford buying a few slings so far, and so I own no other forms of protection). I do not now intend to set up an anchor again without at least two bomber placements.

What I mainly wanted to know was whether I should have connected the two slings with a knot, or another screwgate, or if it was fine as it was.

Thanks in advance,
Peter.

In reply to Peter H: A knot would place additional weakness into the set up. Personally, I always use a screwgate as I don't like tensioned sling material running over each other, but it would be unlikely to cause a high risk in a static situation. Even when having to use a single solid tree, I tend to place two slings around it, if you have the time and equipment - why not?

In reply to Peter H:
without wanting to get into why would anyone want to "go abseiling" discussion - most climbers see it purely as a means to an end, and one to be avoided where possible - if you aren't aware already, the proportion of "climbing" accidents that involve abseiling is surprisingly high.

My order of preferred methods for connecting slings together goes like this : (1)screwgate karabiners (2) two straightgates back-to-back (3) as a last resort, by larksfooting. The larksfoot is a weak knot, but at least it minimises the chance of two loaded slings rubbing across each other too much.

Presumably you were able to regain your start point to retrieve your slings, if so why not just use your (hopefully) low-stretch abseil rope to tie around your anchor? - minimising links in the chain.

these are just my thoughts and understanding of best practice - so are open to question/criticism

Take care

I was using an ordinary dynamic rope for abseiling, as I cannot afford a separate abseiling rope. Thanks for your comments, they are helpful.

I have another question... Say I have an enormous boulder which I want to make an anchor out of, and two 120cm slings will go around it when connected, but there's quite a high risk of loading the screwgate over an edge if I use that method... Is the lark's foot my only option? Are overhands never used to join two slings?

Thanks,
Peter.

In reply to Peter H:

If it's an enormous boulder and you are in a position to retrieve your rope/anchor at the end of the day, then you're safest just using the rope itself, rather than two badly linked slings.

The other question is, having linked the two slings, could you not slip them round the boulder so that the krab would be resting on a flat surface?

In any event, if it were me, I would still back up the system with an additional bit of gear. I am never comfortable abbing off a single piece of gear, no matter how bombproof it appears.

In reply to Peter H:

One of the reasons for avoiding abseiling where possible is that even though it seems safer it actually kills a lot more people than climbing does. To reduce the risk of hurting yourself you should abseil where the kit you have fits the abseil point or buy more kit. The problem with looping your rope around a boulder and abseiling is that unless the boulder is on the edge of the crag it can damage the dynamic rope when it slips over the edge (so consider a rope protector). Also when abseiling you should always consider wearing a helmet and using an autoblock like a prussic (a simple slip could cause an inversion and if you bang your head you could be in serious trouble). If teaching others to abseil, always belay them with a second safety rope.