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SRENE anchors may go the way of the dinosaur 7-Mar-2006 At 10:31:01 PM tmarsh

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SRENE = solid, redundant, equalised, no extension

The classic SRENE anchor would be 3 pieces, equalised with a cordolette in a fashion that should one piece fail, there would be no resulting shock loading on the remaining pieces.

The sliding X is two pieces (or two groups of pieces), with a long sling between them, with a half-twist on one of the strands of the sling and a biner clipped though the resulting loop and over the other strand. hard to describe, but very simple in practice. Think of the sort of set-up you would use to set up a top-rope for a meandering route.

The sliding X has the benefit that it dyamically equalises itself and ensures the load is always shared between the two groups of pro, but has the drawback that should one of those groups fail, it will extend itself to the full length of the sling and possibly shockload the remaining piece.

SRENE was a concept promulgated by John Long in his book 'Climbing Anchors'. While I'm not surprised to hear that it's not the be-all and end-all in anchor systems, it's not a bad way to look at how to set up anchors. It's a simple system which, if followed, will maximise the effectiveness of the available placements most of the time. I have no doubt that there are other approaches that will be better in some circumstances. It's kind of like arguing that a double bowline is better than a figure-8. It might be in some situations, but the figure-8 is still good enough, reliable and easy to do under adverse circumstances. ie, it's not a bad practical solution.