Opinions on the sliding x

I have never seen anyone using the sliding x for anchors, it's easy to set up, automatically equalize, and only needs a 120mm sling but nobody uses it, are they considered unsafe? 

1/10..

Lets place our bets on which will fail first:

1 One of the bolts, resulting in an extending anchor, or

2 Your sling slides back and forth across the rock and is cut, killing the climber

Neither very likely, but why make the bet when you can tie stopper knots

When using at Magic X or sliding X I would recommend that you use limiting knots so that the anchor is redundant. If you do this it is a great anchor because it is quick, self-equalizing and lightweight. 

Just depends on whether you're using a grigri and what knot you use to tie in.

There are very few scenarios where a sliding x with limiter knots would be preferable to a masterpoint or quad. It doesn't distribute the load as well as other sliding configurations and without limiter knots it can easily result in catastrophic failure. 

amarius wrote:

Searching is 5.hard

Has anyone out there made a sliding X anchor using two bolts and had a bolt fail on them resulting in shock load?  I'm not saying it's impossible, but extremely unlikely so I use it all the time.  Fast and easy for setup and cleaning.  

A sliding X is only appropriate for some routes.  Those will be marked with an X after the number grade, e.g. 5.11b X.

Mike Womack wrote:

Has anyone out there made a sliding X anchor using two bolts and had a bolt fail on them resulting in shock load?  I'm not saying it's impossible, but extremely unlikely so I use it all the time.  Fast and easy for setup and cleaning.  

The issue of shock-loading isn't really a big deal. As long as there is a dynamic rope in the system, the anchor isn't gonna get hit hard. The bigger issue is a sling getting cut resulting in catastrophic failure. If you want something that's pre-tied and very quick and easy use the quad. It will distribute the load better and is less likely to fail if one thing gets cut.

They are fine, I am sure lots of folks use them.  Are they bombproof, no, but they are close enough in just about any situation.

I use a quad, which I keep pre-tied with 2 lockers for the ends and 2 lockers for the rope.  Overkill, I know.  I could do the same thing with a sliding X, but with the quad, I have a masterpoint that slides independently of where I clip in with my PAS for multipitch.  It is also preset, so there is no possibility that I misclip the system and bypass the redundancy that is the advantage for both systems.  Also, in the very unlikely situation that one of the bolts fails, the quad will extend less than the sliding X, which means less of a shock load on the remaining bolt.

If you want to use a sliding X, go for it.  I have friends that are perfectly safe and use other methods for tie ins that are lighter and faster than the quad.  I wouldn't have an issue with anyone that set up a sliding X for top rope or to bring up a second.  It just ins't what I do.

eli poss wrote:

The issue of shock-loading isn't really a big deal. As long as there is a dynamic rope in the system, the anchor isn't gonna get hit hard. The bigger issue is a sling getting cut resulting in catastrophic failure. If you want something that's pre-tied and very quick and easy use the quad. It will distribute the load better and is less likely to fail if one thing gets cut.

I understand that issue.  Although, I'd never place a sliding X somewhere over sharp edges that could result in cutting the sling.  That seems fairly obvious.  

Everything is fast and easy for setup and cleaning if you learn it well and apply it judiciously.  A pre-built quad is fairly lightweight, and I would argue even faster than a sliding X.  And if you're building the anchor on lead, I would argue that I can build a cordallette faster than you can tie your sliding x with all of your stopper knots, and break it down just as fast.

The key difference is what you can use it for.  In toprope, anything works, as long as it lines up with the route.  That's where equalizing anchors come handy - you can do multiple routes from the same anchor without significantly weird loading.  Aside from that, whatever.  Where the difference becomes more significant is where you start dealing with top belays and stuff like that, where you are adding more things and doing more at the anchor.  Then, the differences between the quad, equallette, cordallette, and magic x become far more important.

So Yer gunna die isn’t the standard answer any longer? 

amarius wrote:

60% of the time, it works every time!

Start a thread on a dead horse topic: "dude, ever heard of the search function?"

Use search function to find old thread and ask a question: "Dude, way to necro a 7 year old thread. Check the date next time!" 

Lol. Us. 

Talking about the magic x never seems to get old for some reason. It reminds me of Obama. It sounded like a really good idea.  But after years of implementation and testing it didn't really do what it claimed it could do and it's dangerous in some  situations. 

Kyle Elliott wrote:

Start a thread on a dead horse topic: "dude, ever heard of the search function?"

Use search function to find old thread and ask a question: "Dude, way to necro a 7 year old thread. Check the date next time!" 

Lol. Us. 

Dont be this guy ^ the self-know-it-all prick that has never been good at anything other than climbing

Evan Thomas wrote:

Dont be this guy ^ the self-know-it-all prick that has never been good at anything other than climbing

Is that me? Did you gather all that from my joke?