I was bored while sipping my coffee this morning, and rather than do something more enlightening, such as memorizing the phonebook or banging my forehead against the wall, I made the intractable mistake of reading discussions on www.mountainproject.com. In one of these threads, the question was asked:
How would you use the rope to equalize 3 bomber pieces in a crack, with a 4 piece place for an upward pull?To which I'd answer:
Sliding X or cloves with the rope or something, but more importantly stop placing gear after the first two bomber pieces, and you'll have more gear for the next lead and more daylight for the descent.
Don't make belay anchors like this. If you see one in real life, and its creator will not let your party pass up their party, bail while it's still light out.
People spend about 90% of their nervous energy worrying about stuff like redundantly-equalized 12-piece web-o-lette anchor installations, meanwhile we have folks decking from 6 bolts up a sport climb when their (homemade and glued!) quickdraw falls apart and their belayer doesn't catch them. Anchor failure is a scary prospect but how often does it happen? (and anchors are weighted almost atop every pitch) Meanwhile, things like miscommunication, rappel/lower off ends of rope, etc are hurting or killing folks seemingly every week.
