Learn the "V clove" anchor
I first saw this clever technique from a video posted by Josh Beckner, an IFMGA certified mountain guide. A link to his video is below. Thanks Josh! Connect with Josh and the School for International Expedition Training.
When building a three piece gear anchor, many climbers will automatically reach for the cordelette. However, if all you have is a double length / 120 cm sling, and if your gear is pretty close together, here are a couple of ways to rig it.
One way is using a girth hitch at the master point, covered here.
Or, try the “V clove” anchor.
Will you use the V Clove very often? Maybe not. But for more advanced climbers, it’s a fine trick to add to the toolbox.
Note: if you have one gear placement that's noticeably better than the other two, it’s best to make that placement the one that gets clipped, not one of the two placements with the clove hitches. Doing this can slightly improve theload distribution, because the additional strand of sling can mean a slight increase in load going to this piece. (In the example below, that would be the placement on the right.)
Here’s how to do it.
Place 3 pieces of solid gear.
Clove hitch a double length / 120 cm sling to the left piece, with the stitching close to the clove hitch.
Add a second clove hitch to the middle carabiner. Try to get the stitching between these two clove hitches to keep it out of the way.
Next, clip the sling to the right carabiner.
Clip a master point locking carabiner to the two strands that are hanging down.
Tie an overhand knot, you’re done.
Check out the video below for full instructions, starting at 3:00.
How strong it it?
Ryan Jenks from HowNOT2.com tested this anchor. With a Dyneema sling, it broke around 15 kN.
While not as strong as some other methods, given that the maximum possible force in recreational climbing is around 8-ish kN, this anchor is definitely strong enough, IMHO.
Here is a link to his YouTube short video showing the testing.
Below is a screen grab.
