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Sierra Ledge Rat
Mountain climber
Old and Broken Down in Appalachia
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Topic Author's Original Post - Aug 8, 2013 - 07:12pm PT
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What are the worst rap anchors that you've ever used?
I've had 2 that were pretty bad.
Once I removed my shoe laces and used them for the rap anchors. That was a pretty desperate time.
Another time we had to rap off a rounded flake. My partner and I flipped for the privilege of rapping down first. The plan was for the guy left behind to hold the rope in place while the first guy rapped. The second guy down had to move v-e-r-y slowly to keep from flipping the rope off the rounded flake. We both survived.
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apogee
climber
Technically expert, safe belayer, can lead if easy
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Hasn't this thread been done before?
No matter...sure to be entertaining as the beer-hour approaches...
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Sierra Ledge Rat
Mountain climber
Old and Broken Down in Appalachia
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 8, 2013 - 07:14pm PT
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Hasn't this thread been done before?
I searched on "rap anchors" and didn't find much.
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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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What are the worst rap anchors that you've ever used?
I would tell you, but that would mean going into a place in my memory that I've carefully sealed off, and I really don't want to do that.
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tradmanclimbs
Ice climber
Pomfert VT
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Top of Triasic sands 1986. loose split shaft1/4" threaded studs with the nuts missing from the home made hangers. Sport tape wrapped arround the treads kept the hangers on....... Drilled angles in Zion rigged w/ the death triangle and so loose you could pull tem out with your fingers and slide em back in no problem... also 1986...
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Toker Villain
Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
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Wait a sec, you're not talking about MY drilled angles are you?
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Seamstress
Trad climber
Yacolt, WA
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This is where the little lassie always gets the short end of the stick. Big strong husband goes first to teset, then I go down removing the back-up.
I remember bailing on a very small tree - OK it was a bush - off of the Mordor Wall on Cathedral. I remember a night time bail down a fourth/fifth class gulley in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness off a rock perched on a dirty ledge. We called it a horn to feel better. The Cascades have a special kind of choss, and I have resorted to rappelling off of pinky sized plants. Does it count as rappelling if you have tried to more downclimbed it than weight it???
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tradmanclimbs
Ice climber
Pomfert VT
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Yours on touchstone in 2004 were bomber. these were loose in the holes. It may have been Cherry crack? pretty vauge description of A 5.10 crack in the Harlin book?
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mojede
Trad climber
Butte, America
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Two separate raps down off the South Twin Sister at City of Rocks each had single 1/4" ers with rusty hangers--they worked well enough, as that's all there was...
I'd be interested in knowing the person(s) that placed them, for historical sake, one of the Lowe's maybe???
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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SLR, are you gonna pick up the tab if I have to go back into therapy by
dredging those dark events back up?
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Sierra Ledge Rat
Mountain climber
Old and Broken Down in Appalachia
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 8, 2013 - 09:41pm PT
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Sure, Reilly, come on over.
I recommend Tequila therapy. A lot of it.
When I was a new climber, a crusty old-timer asked me what I thought about rappelling. I was new but experienced enought to know that rapping was a despised but necessary evil, not a stand-alone sport of its own. Apparently I impressed that crusty old timer, because he pronounced me a "real climber" based on my answer.
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DanaB
climber
CT
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Wedged in water bottle.
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Sierra Ledge Rat
Mountain climber
Old and Broken Down in Appalachia
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 8, 2013 - 09:45pm PT
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^^^
My favorite was wedged knots. It beat leaving hardware behind. The old 1-inch tubular slings had some nice big water knots that made for excellent chocks.
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Sierra Ledge Rat
Mountain climber
Old and Broken Down in Appalachia
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 8, 2013 - 09:58pm PT
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I just remembered my worst ever.
We were high on a peak on a class 5 route. It was supposed to be an easy grade III, but somehow it was getting dark and we were still high on the face. Cold. No headlamps.
To make a long story short, we down-climbed a lot of the route in the dark (poor cheap bastards don't like to leave gear behind). But then we got to an overhang and it was pitch black, no moon.
I couldn't find any anchors except for a crack under the overhang. But I couldn't see it, so I reached down and under and placed an anchor blindly. We argued for a long time about a standing bivouac versus dropping onto a blindly-placed anchor... And finally I said "F*#k it" and dropped over the lip. "On rappell!"
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Oh, wedged knots are bomber, not even worth losing sleep over.
I've had a beer so I'm feeling expansive.
I still lie in bed at night, or sometimes in the morning, wondering how I
survived this one. The Three Noobs had just done a new route on Sloan Pk
in the Cascades. Yes, Larry, Curly, and Schmoe; the blind leading the blind.
Of some historical note one was the inimitable Steve Barnett, yet to invent
his perverse solo belay system. I don't even remember the third guy. He
was sort of a Great Northwest version of Warren Harding's Desert Frank.
For some reason we didn't rap the route; don't ask. We had made it about
halfway down and it was getting dark and cold. We wound up on a nice big
ledge. It was really big, it would have made a nice bivy ledge and if we
didn't pick up the pace that was looking increasingly likely. We pulled our
ropes and then realized we hadn't really scouted out an anchor. I mean, on
such a big ledge how could there not be one? Well, trust me, there wasn't.
Not one crack, not one nothing, except for this big sort of boulder. It
was about 4 feet in diameter and it seemed almost perfectly round. It was
sort of a goiter, if you will, growing out of the main mass of rock, and there
was no way to sling something behind it. There was this sort of slight
depression on the top slope. I tied two or three slings together so
the rap ring would hang as low as possible. Then I sent the other stooges,
er, noobs, down while I put all my weight on the sling. When it was my turn
all I can say is that I sort of slithered over the edge fixating that sling
with every bit of concentration I had, making sure to breath as smoothly as
possible. I need another beer. No, I think I'll break out the gin bottle.
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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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The one in Sedona last December that didn't work.
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Oplopanax
Mountain climber
The Deep Woods
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I was learning how to aid solo by myself on an unclimbed crag near Hope.
Climbed a flake through a roof (kbs to #3 camalot) and continued for 5 or 6 m up a 5.8 OW, pushing the #4 ahead of me with aiders attached to it. Got to a ledge and above me the crack was choked with dirt and moss - hey enough of this shit!
Hauled up the drill and tagline. Now I had brought some cheap split-shaft bolts I had bought from a retired climber. Drilled two 3/8 holes and found out that the 3/8 splitshafts were too big to fit in. When I started hammering them they wouldn't go into the holes - the rock was breaking off around the holes instead of the bolts going deeper.
I ended up rapping off two of those things tied together with cord. The bolts were 2 1/2" long and only about 1" of each was nailed into the hole. 25m free hanging rap. Stupidest thing I've ever done.
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ladyscarlett
Trad climber
SF Bay Area, California
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I don't climb with people who rap...
It's WAY too dangerous!
;)
Cheers
LS
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Wayno
Big Wall climber
Seattle, WA
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The one in Sedona last December that didn't work.
Donini gets the prize for the first most obvious response.
Let's get real kiddies.
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