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Top Rope Anchors 101
Posted on February 7, 2014
It was an unusually warm day today and I wanted to go out climbing, but surprise, surprise, everyone who I know that climbs wasn’t picking up their phones… Anyway, I just wanted to reflect on something that happened last fall. I was at our local crag, setting up a top rope on one of the crack climbs here (this is different than most outdoor/gym climbing, because you actually stick your hands inside of the rock), and noticed there was a group top roping a route next to mine, using only 2 quick draws?! Is this normal? This did not seem safe at all. They had one quick draw on each bolt, but all of the carabiners were NON LOCKING! This doesn’t seem safe to me because its quite easy for these carabiners to unclip the rope in the event of a fall.

I believe in being “bomb proof”, so I try to make a top rope anchor that can survive a number of catastrophes, something like this:

This way, I can keep myself, and others safe, and not have to worry about the rope unclipping itself.

Please, before you go out trying to top rope, learn how to be safe first!

Be safe, have fun, “send” me your thoughts! (get it?)

This could mean that if your climber falls, you wont have enough grip to catch them, or worse, could mean 4th degree burns on your hands

I quickly excelled at the sport and found myself instructing people on such things as Top Roping, Bouldering, Knot Tying, and Safety. Recently, I have further grown as a rock climber and have taken my sport to new heights: Outside! Words cannot express how great it is to be outdoors on the rocks and being an example and inspiration to the climbing community.