Chockstone Forum

      Sponsored By
      ROCK
   HARDWARE

Chockstone Photography

Australian Landscape Prints

Chockstone Forum - General Discussion

General Climbing Discussion

Topic Date User

N008ie mistakes??? 26-Oct-2008 At 10:12:46 PM hotgemini

Message

So was the bloke a wanker or deliberately leading you astray?

1) Daisy chains are an aid climbing tool, adopted by many as an adjustable anchor for sport climbing but they're an expensive and potentially flawed way to directly attach yourself to an anchor. But I guess now that you've got one, we might as well teach you how to use it, go to black diamonds website and watch/rewatch their daisy death video until you understand the mechanism, then avoid it by always using the two-biner method.

2) You need enough to have enough, given that you're a bumbling noob, what you probably should have been aiming it would be to have enough to be independant gearwise as a seconder for a while, then expand your gear as your needs, desires, competency and understanding dictate.

3) Depending on your ability to find some mentoring climbers, you hopefully won't *need* any yet, that said, a couple of extendable draws are handy versatile things to have.

As for the q/ds facing opposite ways, the guy is a tosser, next time you see him kick him the teeth on behalf of all those who resent the perpetuation of misinformation.

There's absolutely minimal significant data out there regarding sys- or trans- orientation of quickdraws, it will simply boil down to a personal preference thing. There's some argument with regards to the behavior/orientation of the gates as rope drag pulls the quickdraw one way or another.

Here's what the very excellent former BD testing guy had to say

[quote]I have to dissagree with the recommendations of having the gates face the same way or the opposite way, every situation is different and may require different techniques. I recommend setting up draws with a selection of different length of runners with the biners oriented in the same direction and the opposite direction. I only recommend fixing the bottom biner. Here are my reasons in order of importance (based on likelyhood of failure in my opinion):

Note, I think through these issues EVERY TIME I clip a piece of pro on every route. Learn to do this quickly. Assess every piece of pro every time. I do not believe that there is one technique that works in every situation.

1) Bottom biner must not be loaded over an edge or buldge. Use different length of draw if needed. If this is not possible then use a locking biner. Look for rotational effects. The buldge or edge may not be located directly below the bolt but could be off to the side. Make sure you think about how the draw will move when you fall from different places on the route above you. Often times a route will force you to climb both to the right and to the left of the piece below you. Remember this when clipping your pro. Try to assess where you might be most likely to fall from and set up your pro accordingly.

2) Top biner must not be loaded over an edge or buldge. On bolted sport routes this does occur fairly often. Use a locking biner for these situations, two biners, add a backup tie off, or better yet if you think you might fall on this bolt-BAIL. Then slap the first ascentionist repeatedly until they fix their f---up. Often times you can simply rotate the biner with the gate opening downwards to reduce the likelyhood of the buldge opening the gate. In general I try to make sure that the gate faces away from the bolt head. It can interfere with the biner gate in some rare situations. Top biners are much less likely to unclip if they are not fixed to the quickdraw, therefore I do not fix the top biner to the draw.

3) Bottom biner must not be back clipped. Unclip and reclip the rope until it is clipped correctly.

4) Bottom biner gate must face away from the direction you are climbing towards.

5) Orientation of either biner is independent of where you are clipping from. They are dependent on where you are going and the variables above. Be able to clip with either hand with the biners facing either direction. Setting up your draws and clipping them in one direction just because you have poor technique is a bad excuse that could have harsh consequences given the right circumstances. Learn the pinch clip and the index clip and the palm clip and and and. Be proficient at any clip! There are times when this is not feasible. When climbing at your limit you may need to force a certain type of direction to make the clip easier. Be aware that this may not be the best situation when falling from above.

6) Carry 1 or two draws with locking biners on both ends for those situations where you can't avoid biner interaction with buldges or edges or when faced with a hard crux or runout where gear failure would be disastrous.

These are my personal opinions from my own experiences in climbing not from testing that I have done.

Chris Harmston (chrish@bdel.com). Quality Assurance Manager. Materials Engineer BS, ME. Black Diamond Equipment Ltd. 2084 East 3900 South, SLC, UT 84124 phone: 801-278-5552[/quote]