Locking carabiners for sport anchor quickdraws

A standard anchor is for the leader to simply clip two standard quick draws to the bolts (opposite and opposed at the master point) and lower off.

Two quickdraw sport climbing anchor with non-locking carabiners.

Gates on the quick draws are facing away from each other, or outward. This makes the bottom gates opposite and opposed and also mostly keeps the bottom gates from potentially messing with each other.

Nothing wrong with this setup.

This is certainly safe enough. The fact that it is been done literally millions of times without incident should probably tell you that it's an acceptable practice.

Having said that, many people prefer at least one designated “locker draw” as part of the anchor.

If you’re in an instructional setting, with many people top roping off the same unattended anchor all day, without a more experienced person going up regularly to check things, locking carabiners can add great peace of mind.

Because it's a top rope, you’re not right there next to the anchor to see if any carabiners are getting cross loaded, gates getting unscrewed, or other strangeness that could lead to an anchor being compromised.

(Sidenote: there are lots of other handy uses for having a locker draw, you can learn them here.)

Personally, I pretty much always use one locker draw on top rope anchors.

This is an easy and inexpensive set up. You probably already have a few extra locking carabiners around, and the long “dogbone” draws are only $5-$6 apiece.

If you’re inclined to be a little more cautious, using lockers on your sport anchors can be a little extra insurance, with low cost and high confidence factor. Look at it this way: Other climbers might call you a little paranoid, but there's really not much downside to doing this.

“I don't want to climb with that guy, he's too safety conscious.” That's the kind of criticism many people don't mind hearing. =^)

As I like to say here at Alpinesavvy, it's YOU who’s accountable for your level of comfort and acceptable risk. It doesn't get to be dictated by anyone else, regardless of their experience or credentials.

Now, we have a locker draw in place of one of the regular quickdraws. Definitely a bit more security here. (The angle of the rope running through the carabiners will going to add a bit of friction, but it's still acceptable.)

Here’s an (overly cautious?) alternative. Similar setup, this time with two locker draws. Long dogbones, round stock carabiners at the bottom for a smooth lower, and super secure.

There's no way to objectively prove this but personally I don't think that extra locker draw offers much tangible improvement and safety. But hey if it gives you a warm fuzzy feeling and you want to do it, go right ahead.