This tip comes from AMGA Certified Rock Guide Cody Bradford.

While sadly Cody is no longer with us, his Instagram continues to stay up and is a great source of tips like this, check it out.

Note - The following tip is intended for more advanced climbers to add to the toolbox, and not meant as standard practice. Use carabiners when possible to attach a runner to bolts/chains/gear.

Someday in your climbing career, you’ll need to build an anchor after you’ve pretty much run out of carabiners.

If you have just one sling (either a double length/120 cm or a single length/60 cm) and one carabiner for the master point, you (might be) in business.

Note / disclaimer:

This example is on a bolted anchor with rap rings. The rings give a nice rounded metal edge and is bomber strong. While you could get away with it, it's not best practice to girth hitch a runner directly into a bolt hanger or to a stopper cable. If you do this and catch any sort of significant fall on the runner, inspect it carefully and possibly retire it. On the other hand, testing has shown that hitching a sling to a stopper cable can hold between about 8 kN and 12 kN, which is probably more than you think. Can a bolt hanger be much worse than that? So, like I said, something for the advanced climber’s toolbox, and not for standard practice. See the last photo at the bottom of the page for what you generally do NOT want to do.

Girth hitch a double length runner through one of the bottom rings, here the left. Try to get the runner’s stitching close to the girth hitch.

Pass the other end of the runner through the other ring, here the right.

Bring the loops together and clip your master point carabiner like so.

and tie it off with an overhand knot, done.

and here’s a video from AMGA Guide Cody Bradford showing how it’s done. (Note that Cody is using Metolius rappel hangers, which have a larger, rounded, sling/rope friendly edge than a regular bolt hanger.)

How strong is this?

I posted a similar set up to this on Instagram, and got a fair amount of disparaging comments about girth hitch weakening the sling, never put a knot in Dyneema, Yer Gonna Die (YGD), this is stupid, blah blah blah.

So, I visited my gear breaking buddy Ryan at How NOT2, and we tested it.

Well, it did break . . . the steel carabiner, at 31 kN!

That's pretty crazy so I'm gonna say it again. The steel carabiner broke before the sling! Case closed, #MoreThanSuperGoodEnough.

Here's the video from HowNOT2 to showing the testing.

This can also work if you have two pieces that are vertically offset, or if one is a piton. Note the girth hitch at the master point. This example comes from a nice PDF file showing some European style anchor techniques, made by the German Mountain and Ski Guides Association (“Verband Deutscher Berg und Skiführer” or “VDBS”).

Supposedly, this style of anchor is more common in the south Tirol / Dolomites. In this area, the rock is often fractured or heavily featured and there's often fixed fixed gear. Using slings like this to connect directly to pitons and rings means there’s less chance of a carabiner being loaded sideways over an edge.

Other rigging options - chains and a single length / 60 cm runner

You can also do this with a single length/60 cm runner. But you won’t be able to tie it off with an overhand knot as shown above, because it's too short.

One option is to make a girth hitch at the master point, which uses less sling material than an overhand knot. (Don't freak out about this, a girth hitch is fine to use at the master point. We cover it extensively at this tip.)

Or, even easier, if the chains are long enough, you might be able to clip both of them with the single big locker and have that be your Masterpoint. Yes, it's cool to do this and don't worry about three-way loading, we cover that in this article.

Oh, and on your next lead, bring a couple extra carabiners for the anchor, will you? When your partner arrives with some extra gear and freaks out about the anchor you built, feel free to add a some carabiners from their rack if it makes them happy. =^)

If you happen to face this situation with only hangers and no chains/rings, it's still doable, but WAY Less Than Ideal. Please don't rig an anchor like this unless you really have to. Going straight through the bolt hangers is not the greatest. You may want to: 1) Check the sling after you’re done and retire if needed; 2) Brace the belay if you can with your body and belay from your belay loop; 3) Rebuild this with proper carabiners once your partner gets to the belay.

and sheesh, bring more gear with you next time, will ’ya?!