Translated DAV anchor/belay pamphlet

This is not my work, but that of the Deutscher Alpenverein (German Alpine Club or DAV) and Verband Deutscher Berg- Und Skiführer (German Mountain Guides Association or VDBS). However, I thought folks might find it useful, so I translated this anchor/belay digital pamphlet. A few things I think could be noteworthy:

1. Don't use single strands in anchor rigging (unless using rope).

2. Dyneema or kevlar/aramid cord is preferred over nylon.

3. One solution for a fixed point belay with rock gear is to place the fixed point as close as possible to the lowest component and tie off the ends of the cord wherever this happens to be. (This assumes a multidirectional lowest piece, but if you haven't been placing gear explicitly with upward pull in mind, you're implicitly stating that the lowest piece will double as the upward pull piece).

4. The FPB is recommended as the default belay tool.

https://staff.weber.edu/derekdebruin/research/anchorsdav2020.pdf

Thanks! Always cool to see how the folks across the pond approach anchor building. 

Dang, remember when metal on metal was "bad?" And now it's apparently the official Deutscher way to catch an FF2 fall. I feel dumb for ever having tried to avoid it.

JonasMRwrote:

Dang, remember when metal on metal was "bad?" And now it's apparently the official Deutscher way to catch an FF2 fall. I feel dumb for ever having tried to avoid it.

Metal on metal was never "bad". That was just an extreme extrapolation by folks who were taught not to make a chain of non-locking biners.

Looking at the brochure, unless there's more than what we're seeing, I don't see anything contrasting Dyneema to Nylon. They illustrate the former, and I can think of a few reasons why they may have chosen to do that. Nylon cordage does still have at least one advantage over the less elastic cords: it is better at distributing load over the pieces.

What jumped out at me from this brochure is the apparent whole-hearted embrace of the girth hitch master point, something that is almost never seen in the US.

JonasMRwrote:

Dang, remember when metal on metal was "bad?" And now it's apparently the official Deutscher way to catch an FF2 fall. I feel dumb for ever having tried to avoid it.

1. You don't have to do everything the DAV says ;)

2. Pretty sure what you just described is "learning," and there's no shame in that.

Thanks for sharing, always good to get some more wisdom :)

Nice work Derek! I have passed this on to some German friends in my DAV chapter who are trying to learn the English terms for their methods. The DAV does have some English language content, but it's hard to read an likely not been translated by a native speaker of English.

Thank you for sharing. Very interesting.

High Plains Drifterwrote:

Thanks! Always cool to see how the folks across the pond approach anchor building. 

They have been doing this for many,many years. After all they have been bolting and using the Italian Hitch [Halbmastwurfsicherung] for ages. Naturally there are a couple of variants with the French having their own. ENSA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqZQnCGl24A   the Canadian Guides base theirs on the ENSA  I believe Tech Files .