How to think about safety on trips

Before you trust a rope

If you are new to climbing outside, here are some things you should be thinking about.

When climbing on a top rope anchor someone else has put up you are trusting your life to that anchor.
Was it put up correctly? How do you know?

Early on it can be hard to tell, especially since you likely cannot see the anchor until you have climbed to it.

Here are some things you can to do decrease your risk.

• Ask the person who put it up the anchor to explain the setup to you.
• Ask about redundancy. What happens if one part of the system fails.
• Ask another climber nearby if they understand the setup. Ask them to explain it to you.
• Climb on the anchor and only go up a few feet. Take a practice fall down low. It'll be a lot better for it to fail when you are 3 feet off the ground than 30 feet.
• Get a book on anchor setups
• Take a class on anchor setups

Check the source

Another thing to check in on is who you are getting information from.

• How long have they been climbing outside?
• When was the last time they built an anchor? If it's been a while sometimes it takes time to remember the details.
• Are they primarily a sport climber or trad climber?
• Where did they get their knowledge and experience from?

On that topic, how good is the information is that you are reading now. Who wrote it? Was it peer reviewed? Is it just one person's musings?

No one at Cragmont is a certified guide or trained by the AMGA. Cragmont is a social base camp, not a guiding or teaching organization.

That said, if you are reading this and have additional thoughts or disagree with parts, send us feedback.