I tried out the equalette

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Zander

Trad climber
Berkeley
Topic Author's Original Post - Jan 29, 2007 - 09:11pm PT
I bought Largo’s latest book Climbing Anchors. This is a quick summary of the some things in the book, as I understand them, and what I thought trying them out last Saturday. I am no expert so this is just the start of a discussion.

They did extensive testing of belay rigging and found some interesting info. The tests were done for a standard three-piece belay anchor. It was assumed that the belayer was belaying with a standard belay tube with their body therefore in the belay chain. One of the things they found out was that if one piece blows out under load and the resulting extension is under five to ten inches it doesn’t shock load the other two pieces. The load stays the same. If the total load is 300kn the remaining two pieces get loads of 150kn each.

In the book the latest belay rig uses a standard 20-foot cordelette. A couple of knots are pre-tied in the cordalette and it’s then called the equalette because it does a better job of equalizing the normal three piece belay setup. You tie a couple of knots 10 inches apart in the middle of the cordelete. The two strands between the knots are the new power point; you tie into one piece with one of the loops. You tie into the other two pieces using the two strands on the other loop. It is hard to get the three pieces to share the load.
You use two locking biners, one on each of the power point strands. They found that twisting the one of the strands like you do with the sliding X on a sling introduced to much friction. This is easily tested by trying it out. There is a lot less friction with two biners.

I tried this system last Saturday on a climb. It takes just a little bit longer than tying
a cordalette. It seems to me that if you did not tie the equalette in a loop but rather left one of the loops open you would have more flexibility and could reach farther to the farthest piece. It’s hard to tie the two stands on the one ”side” of the rig to be equally loaded when the power point moves around. You need to put them pretty close together.
Anybody else tried this out yet? It’s a good book with lots of info.
See ya,
Zander
Jaybro

Social climber
The West
Jan 29, 2007 - 09:15pm PT
Looks weird on 'paper', looked weird in real life. I quit, no more anchors for me.
rhyang

Ice climber
SJC
Jan 29, 2007 - 09:21pm PT
I understand that you can clip the two strands like a sliding X if you are only clipping in with one biner, but if you have multiple people clipping in with just one biner, should they all share the same loop ?

Seems that if they use separate loops things get twisted pretty quickly. Try it and see ... or am I missing something ?
'Pass the Pitons' Pete

Big Wall climber
like Oakville, Ontario, Canada, eh?
Jan 29, 2007 - 09:23pm PT
Why not just use Ultrabiker's really bitchin' knot? This little beauty should be in every climbing text! I can't believe I've been climbing nearly thirty years and never saw it before I saw it here. Live and learn, eh?



Click the photo as it is a link to itself.
rhyang

Ice climber
SJC
Jan 29, 2007 - 09:34pm PT
I haven't used Ultrabiker's (Rick's) knot, but I have seen it in Craig Luebben's How to Ice Climb.
GOclimb

Trad climber
Boston, MA
Feb 5, 2007 - 11:16pm PT
I don't love the Equalette, for exactly the reason you mentioned - it really only equalizes between two pieces. But it's quite nice for any scenario in which you really must minimize extension while still wanting a bit of equalization.

By the way, if you read the test results carefully (which I only just had time to do this weekend) you'll note that the only true difference in test results between the crossed-sling and the equalette was due to the methodology of the testing. In other words, if you take a crossed sling with limiter knots on both sides, uncross the crossed side and put a wide-mouthed biner on both strands - you actually will get the test results of the equalette.

The business of adding clove hitches on the biners and whatnot has nothing to do with the nice test results - that's just to try to take make a crossed sling work for three pieces.

GO
rwedgee

Ice climber
canyon country,CA
Feb 6, 2007 - 12:02am PT
Zander, I think your cam should have a biner on it.
ec

climber
ca
Feb 6, 2007 - 03:21am PT
NoRushNoMore

climber
Feb 6, 2007 - 04:53am PT
That equalette contraption is useless.

Cam on the left on your pic gets half the load.
So much for being equalized.

Just ask yourself a question, why do you need to be equalized?

Even if you are belaying with the gri-gri and thru the anchor and get FF2 you are still looking at about ~6-7K max load or half of what cams are rated for.
raymond phule

climber
Feb 6, 2007 - 06:45am PT
I belive there are some common missunderstandings here.

"The tests were done for a standard three-piece belay anchor."

No, they tested a two-piece belay anchor.

"It was assumed that the belayer was belaying with a standard belay tube with their body therefore in the belay chain."

This setup wasn't tested. The rope was fixed to the belay with a knot. So no belayer or belay device in the chain.

"One of the things they found out was that if one piece blows out under load and the resulting extension is under five to ten inches it doesn’t shock load the other two pieces."

I dont think that they actually tested this because they didn't have a belayer in
the chain. A falling belayer is going to load the anchor.
If you attach yourself with 10 inches of dynamic rope and the extension is 10 inches. Then is
the load on the anchor because of the falling belayer be the same as in a class 1 fall. You also get the load from the
falling climber of course.

This is simplified but I belive that the rope connecting the belayer and the belay is often shorter than 10 inches and this could result
in high loads. Disaster could also happend if the connection is static of course.

This is atleast my understanding of the tests actually performed.
caughtinside

Social climber
Davis, CA
Feb 6, 2007 - 12:54pm PT
I tried out the equalizing fig. 8 last weekend, that thing is pretty sweet!
Zander

Trad climber
Berkeley
Topic Author's Reply - Feb 7, 2007 - 11:37am PT
rwedgee,
Good eye man. I want you to know I just drew in a locking biner on the original artwork.
raymond phule,
You are right, I could have written my original post much more clearly. What I wrote about the book is my summary of the "tests" and discussions therein. My summary is based partly on; the tests in the appendix, on chapter five “Fall Forces and the Jesus Nut and mainly on chapter nine, Belay Anchors.
What I want from the book is info for me to set up a better belay. I assume the info in the book is good because the authors are known climber, etc. and it makes sense reading it. The authors go over the pros and cans of the cordalette and the sliding X. They don't say the equalette is the only solution to belay rigging. My reading of the book is that they generally recommend the equalette over the sliding x and the cordalette.

My summary again. The equalette has all the pros of the cordalette (except there is less redundancy at the power point) and all of the pros of the sliding X including better redundancy at the power point. After one day of using it I’ve found it is pretty easy to set up.

See ya on the rock
Zander
dirtineye

Trad climber
the south
Feb 7, 2007 - 11:56am PT
Two things about the knot it PTHP's pic:

Can you get enough friction to brun the rope if a piece fails?

In the event of something cutting one leg, there is no redundancy, so the whole anchor fails. Clove hitching each loop to the biner on the loop's pro would still allow some equalization (complete if the legs are equal length, not so good if unequal) but stop catastrophic failure caused by cutting a leg.

I can't see risking something cutting one leg and compromising the whole rig, no matter how small that chance is.
Thom

Trad climber
South Orange County, CA
Feb 9, 2007 - 08:52pm PT
The "3-loop equalizing eight" knot has been in use for a long time outside of the U.S. by some of the best SAR teams around. I've used that knot for years; it's bomber.

In answer to Dirt's question:

No. When I first saw this knot I thought the same—friction and lack of redundancy. My partner and I tested it by equalizing the three loops and tightening the knot. Then, we pulled each of the pieces, one at a time, and took some rather substantial falls directly onto the anchor and knot (with a second rope as a toprope backup in case something failed). We weren't able to get the loops to slide; what we did find was that the knot tightened on itself making it nearly impossible to untie.

I figure, if I can't get the loops to slide while taking factor-2 falls onto them, they ain't gonna slide it the real world.

Maybe Ultrabiker will chime in here; I think he was involved with one of the SAR teams that use the knot(?)

T.

P.S. Some people have used this knot mistakingly believing it is "self-equalizing"; it isn't and, obviously, if you tie it loose to allow it to "self-equalize" then you'll have the friction issue to deal with and you're an idiot that will likely confirm Dirt's concerns.
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