Self-equalizing vs. static anchor

coldfinger wrote:J Mac..... The sliding X is no longer an accepted practice, lots of risk and little reward. Since you should always have a piece in ASAP to protect the belay (or a bomber bolt if it's multi pitch sport) your belay will be predictably loaded anyway.

What do you mean it is no longer an accepted practice? According to who? Or do you mean that the sliding X alone with no extension limitation is no longer an accepted practice? No disrespect to the engineering and climbing history of Mt. Sum, but his blogspot site is hardly an authoritative source.

In many ways I think that the self-equalizing vs pre-equalized vs whatever is a great example of creating a debate about something that wasn't really a problem. There are some important things to recognize about anchors that are "pre-equalized" - They will not equally load each anchor leg, moving from side to side can increase the load on a single piece, etc. Self=equalizing anchors are great at resolving some of those issues especially when top roping in places that will have a lot of side to side movement.

The thing is - Where are all of those terrible stories of 3 piece anchors tied off with an 8 or an overhand on a correlate failing catastrophically because of the cordelette? As Malcolm said, it is all about the connection to the rock.

Perhaps the real "solution" is to learn that there are different times to use different anchors and the real trick is knowing when and why. Then maybe people won't freak out when they see a bomber 2 piece anchor in the 'pine.

coldfinger wrote:J Mac..... The sliding X is no longer an accepted practice, lots of risk and little reward.

JBennett wrote: What do you mean it is no longer an accepted practice? According to who?

I have no dog in the fight, but for starters, try wivanoff's and cdec's links above on this page.

mountainhick wrote: I have no dog in the fight, but for starters, try wivanoff's and cdec's links above on this page.

I think it would be important to include that I was trying to clarify whether or not the sliding x that is no longer acceptable is the non-redundant version or the knotted version. I am not a huge fan of sliding x with limiting knots, and I rarely tie knots in spectra. However, it is still one tool in the toolbox.