Sport Climbing Basics - VDiff Climbing

Anchors Part 1: What To Do at the Top
Many climbs have bolted anchors at the
top. This is the standard for sport climbs
worldwide, but is also common at many
North American trad climbing venues.
These bolted anchors will usually be
equipped with mallions (quick links) or
lowering rings, sometimes connected with
chains. You won’t be able to simply clip
your rope through this type of anchor like
you would at the gym. Instead, you’ll need
untie from the rope and thread it through.
After that, you can either abseil, or have
your partner lower you down.
It’s important to learn how to do this in the
correct order. If you thread an anchor
incorrectly, you could drop your rope and
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be ‘stranded’ at the anchor, or even
become completely detached from the
bolts.
Lower, Abseil or Walk Off?
This depends on the type of anchor, how it
is positioned and what you plan to do after
the climb.
Lowering from a sport anchor is quicker
than abseiling. It’s also much easier to
retrieve gear on your way down when
lowering.
However, abseiling puts much less wear on
the rings. This could be the best option if
the rings are already showing signs of
wear.
If the next climber is going to top rope the
route, you should make an anchor from
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your own gear and lower down from that.
If you are the last person to climb the
route, you’ll need to ‘clean’ all your gear
from the anchor before you descend.
For anchors which are in a poor position
for lowering or abseiling (e.g: far back
across a ledge), it is much better to belay
your partner from the top of the climb. You
can then walk off.
Each of these scenarios requires a
different anchor setup. These are
described on the following pages.
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