How to equalize anchor on neighboring route

Hello,

I am new-ish to sport climbing and recently ran into a situation where I got to the top of my route to find no anchor bolts directly above my route, but there were anchor bolts/chains for the neighboring routes to the left and right of me, about 6 feet in either direction.

What is your prefered anchor in this situation to set up a top rope? I had trouble visualizing how to equalize in the direction of the fall, as the fall would be a drop + pendulum. Would a self-equalizing anchor be the best option here? Is it safer to attempt to manually equalize to eliminate extension and comply with SERENE?

Thanks in advance!

Don't get tunnel vision for equalization.  If it appears to be a solid bolted anchor do the best you can to equalize it but I wouldn't worry too much about it.  Extend the anchor as much as is feasible to reduce the pendulum.

The only thing the really equalizes is a quad or something similar where the master point biners can slide, but that introduces possible extension. With bolts you shouldn't need to worry about equalization. The more important factor in this situation is the V angle. You don't want to exceed 90 degrees, and ideally 45 degrees. I would use a long rope or webbing, hook the ends into one bolt at each anchor and tie an eight on a bight at the bottom for the masterpoint.  It should look like a V with a figure 8 at the bottom, not a triangle as mentioned in the article.

From https://www.alpinesavvy.com/blog/a-closer-look-at-the-american-death-triangle  

The best course of action is to either setup a directional, find a natural anchor above your route or to climb something else.

What route was this that didn't have top anchors?

Ry C wrote:

Pretty standard for this kind of situation, might have to fight drag depending on the route though.

Depending on how popular the area, this may be a shitty thing to do since you're taking up 2 routes

Dan D wrote:

Depending on how popular the area, this may be a shitty thing to do since you're taking up 2 routes

Very true, yes. Be courteous and pay attention, share or pull the rope if someone wants one of the routes.

Building an equalizing anchor (without a directional) on the neighboring anchor is still the same thing as taking up two routes though. 

And besides having the second follow and walking off, how else are you supposed to deal with an anchor-less bolted route (and given the sport climbing scenario where would you rig to anyway… unless there’s a tree or something)? Plus you can share a bolted anchor with no problem. So just stand out of the way of the bolt line with the anchors and communicate the situation with anyone who wants to climb the route, I guess.