Like B Hansen, we used to rap off knotted slings instead of leaving stoppers; and also stopped that after first children. Probably scarier still for subsequent parties were the rocks we hauled up and slung in the cracks around Indian Creek in the early 80's. The very first time was sorta desperate (we used rocks from the base of the climb). That was so spooky that I'd look for rocks from the creek and haul em up in a stuff sack on the trail line. That was a real improvement, but eventually the best paid of us (clearly the smartest) bought a drill and we left pins and bolts. BTW, the method was to climb until gear ran out, haul up the rocks and sling it/them and belay the second up. (Who would then fire in a back-up piece he'd cleaned.) He'd rap with a slightly loose back-up in place and clip the last two pieces on the way down. The lightest person (me) would pull the back-up and rap down, pulling the last few pieces on the way. It worked every time, but I wouldn't want to do it today. (Unless I broke both drill bits...)

stock cattle. that's all I'm gonna say about that.

I came to the top of a route in NM and found a single piton in an old gnarly juniper tree. WTF?

Glad you're climbing again jeff

I slung a big rock on the top of a dome once after giving it really good pull tests, when I came back later I decided to get my webbing, I barely leaned against it and it rolled off the other direction.

Lee or Tom can you share this picture?

Jeff,

The only place I have ever seen this picture is on page 60 of John Long's book "Climbing Anchors".

....and the only place I saw it was in Yosemite Climber, which I've never owned.

Leaving out Taylors Falls and Devils Lake, because there are just so many... Or the crap anchors I have set over the years.... again, many.

Gunks, Sunday Sept 16th, 2007 - While walking off came across a TR anchor that consisted of a dyneema sling girth hitched around a tree, with 3 or 4 slings girthed to that (i.e. girth chain of slings) to the biner w/ the rope. The rope then went over a sharp lip.

I guess atleast the slings were not running over the sharp edge.

my partner once set an anchor by stuffing the knot in his gear sling into the crack and backed it up with a ballnut. i then proceeded to jug the pitch without knowing this.

the worst anchor though was one i put in on Deep Space on top of the crux pitch. I was sitting on a ledge braced, so hopefully we wouldnt need it, but it consisted of a blue alien about 4' back and left of me, and a black alien about 7' up and right. i had also clipped to the rap slings underneath the ledge i was sitting on, but i wasnt optimistic considering they were at least 20 years old. we're lucky we didnt die that day.

A couple of buddies of mine once rapped off a jammed biner into the depths of SOB Gully in the Black Canyon. A personal low point for me came with the use of my 5mm chalkbag 'string' for a low-angle rap anchor someplace up at Lumpy. But my all-time scariest had to be some of the godawful manzanita bushes on the Death Slabs below Half Dome. A few of them didn't move, but many did. All three of us took turns watching them jiggle as we descended. Gulp.

Me and my brother were on 3 o'clock rock in Washington. We must have climbed too high because after the 1st rap we found ourselves in a sea of granite with no anchors to speak of. We found a pathetic bush in a crack and doubled the rope over it. He went first and I had a #13 stopper backing him up (loosely). The twig didnt twitch so I followed him safely to the next anchors below (might have gone a little grey that day). Is it really necessary to KEEP that 10dollar piece of gear?

BD's tent the first lights stuff sack. This is a pretty small stuffsack

I buried the stuff sack filled with faceted snow and dug three feet deep to rap over a 80ft serac. Took 10 minutes to pack the sack full and compact and another 20 to consolidate the snow in the hole and pack it in enough to hold the deadman, Some of the worst snow for this type of anchor, but it worked. Backed it up with skis first to test, lowered all my gear and pack, then went for it as light as I could be.

A Spanish friend of mine was climbing in Patagonia with a Brazilian he had just met.... Got to the top of a pitch and the Brazilian had used plastic (50 kilo max) caribiners for all three pieces of pro. I don't think they climbed together after that.

We named (actually the genius of all route namer's, Chuck Grossman did) a route the "Blowout Cracks" in Escalante Canyon after the stacked hex's we rappelled off and left fixed for the next day were blown out by the wind leaving the ropes and hex's in a pile at the base the next day. No shit. Helmet's were often used as both protection and belay anchors in desert as well. They were used more that way then their intended role. I ruined an old Joe Brown by hammering it into a particularly wide and ugly crack, wrapped a sling around it, mantled on to it, and then struggling on. Indian Creek use to be a little sporty to be sure.