Using rock features and placing protection when building climbing anchors

Submitted as assessment for a Sport Science (Outdoor Activities) degree at Bangor University

Talk through of basic gear placements for building a climbing anchor

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• Climbing
• Instruction
• Placing protection
• Gear
• Outdoor Activities
• Funny
• Adventure
• SPA
• Single Pitch Award
• Podcast
• Bangor University
• Rock Climbing
• Slings
• Nuts
• Hexes
• Cams
• technical friends
• Karabiners

[chokeonaloaf]

The advice about how to use a camming device is correct, but the reasoning is wrong. You say in your video "If the cam is too small, the camming arms are too open to exert significant force" and "overcamming is less secure". Neither of these are true. An undercammed unit exerts the same amount of force as an overcammed unit, however if the rock fractures the cam will rip. With an overcammed unit, the force is also still the same (please google "logarithmic spiral of camming devices")

[mdwykurz]

Many thanks for the correction, I did my best with the knowledge I had and tried to keep things simple and within the time limit, so it is a shame that I got that bit of info wrong, thanks for taking the time to comment!

[Pethem]

whats the name of the song? thx

[mdwykurz]

It is '8 Ball' by Underworld

not radiohead which for some stupid reason I wrote in the credits.

[mdwykurz]

Hi there, thanks for the comment. It appears as though I have been marked very poorly actually, quite disappointing really especially as the feedback i was given seemed to be really positive. But ahwell, many things in life are inconsistent. Thanks again

[mdwykurz]

Turns out it was an administrative mistake and I did in fact do as well as I'd hoped! :-) 

[007Variable]

The green hex looks like a bomber placement, but I would be weary placing this in the flake. I would trust body weight and then some, however, if this is your anchor and the leader takes a factor 2 fall, it may blow the flake. What does everyone think?

[guitarrules762]

@mountainguide77 Ok then, what's wrong?

[guitarrules762]

@51629jbgemu They're Wild Country Technical Friends, a type of spring loaded camming device or SLCD as the Amercians like to call them :P

[guitarrules762]

Just some constructive criticism, it's generally very bad practice to clip a screwgate straight into a wire, as when loaded the wire can make sharp grooves. If this is then clipped, say into a sling, the sling can be cut by the grooves. Therefore it is better to use a quickdraw so that the damaged screwgate is never in contact with the rope or a sling, thus avoiding the problem. A great, beginners introduction though. Well done!

[51629jbgemu]

@mdwykurz wat type of cams are those

[jvballatore]

Nice effort.

[DeShark88]

Firstly, a great video. Just one clarification of the friction forces of the hex. Although what you say is true, a larger surface area is a good thing, there's still (surprisingly) the same *friction* force if you have a small surface area. The difference is that the force exerted on the cam (the normal force to be technical) is concentrated on a smaller area. This means that the hex is more likely to fail. Also, the force is more concentrated on the wall, so the wall is more likely to fail.