Start your anchor with a quickdraw
When you arrive at a bolted anchor, and the stance is fairly small, a good first step is often to clip a quickdraw.
If you have a decent place to stand, you might only need to clip the rope to the draw. if the stance is more marginal, you can tie a one handed clove hitch to attach yourself directly to one bolt. This gives you the temporary security you need to focus on building the rest of the anchor, whether it's for top rope or multi-pitch.
After clipping or clove hitching the draw, you stay on belay, still protected by your partner down below and all of the gear between you.
Here are two examples: 1) for a multi-pitch climb and 2) for a one pitch top rope.
For both examples, let's assume there's not much place to stand, so you secure yourself initially with a clove.
I'm using a pre-tied quad made from a 180 cm Dyneema sling, but the anchor could be pretty much anything you like.
After you build a proper anchor, you can use the bottom carabiner on the quickdraw as a place to hold your backpack, or maybe a sling with extra gear. It's probably NOT a good idea to use this as the first clip for the next pitch. That is a rather involved topic, and it's discussed a bit at the bottom of this article.
Method 1: Sequence for multi pitch anchor
What you need:
One quickdraw
Pre-tied quad, racked on one snapgate carabiner
One locking carabiner
Procedure:
Arrive at two bolt anchor.
Clip quickdraw to one bolt. For this example, the right bolt.
Clove hitch your lead rope into the bottom of the quickdraw. You’re secure at the anchor, but stay on belay, as you’re only clipped to one bolt. You are protected by your belayer and all of the gear you’ve already placed.
Clip the snap gate carabiner and the left arm of the quad to the left bolt.
Clip the right arm of the quad to the top carabiner on the quickdraw.
Clip the locking carabiner into two strands of the quad.
On the back side of the clove hitch connecting you to the quick draw, tie another clove hitch and clip it to the locking carabiner.
Take a breath and check everything: the locking carabiner is clipped to 2 strands, locked, and the clove hitch looks good.
Remove the first clove hitch you tied on the bottom of the quickdraw, and feed the resulting slack through the second clove hitch to adjust your position.
Schweeeet! Now you’re clove hitched to a locker that's on two strands of the quad. Add your belay device to the other two strands, pull up slack rope, put your partner on belay, and bring ‘em up.
Step 1: Clip a quickdraw to the bolt, and tie a one handed clove hitch to secure yourself temporarily. Stay on belay.
Step 2: Clip the quad to the left bolt with the snap gate carabiner it's racked on, and to the top carabiner of the quickdraw.
Step 3: Clip a spare locker to the quad, and tie a second clove hitch to the locker.
Step 4: Systems check - locking carabiner is clipped to 2 strands, locked, and the clove hitch looks good. Now you can remove the first clove hitch from the bottom of the quickdraw and feed some slack through the clove to adjust your position. Schweeeeet, you should be secured to the master point on the anchor. Give yourself a high five. =^)
Add your belay device to the other two strands of the quad, pull up rope, and bring up your partner.
Method 2: Sequence for one pitch top rope anchor
What you need:
One quickdraw
Pre-tied quad, racked on a locking carabiner
2 locking carabiners
Procedure:
Arrive at two bolt anchor.
Clip quickdraw to one bolt. For this example, the right bolt.
Clove hitch your lead rope into the bottom of the quickdraw. You’re secure at the anchor, but stay on belay, as you’re only clipped to one bolt. You are protected by your belayer and all of the gear you’ve already placed.
Clip the racking locker onto the left bolt and clip the left arm of the quad to this locker.
Clip the right arm of the quad into the top carabiner of the quickdraw.
Clip the two locking carabiners, opposite and opposed, onto the quad. Capture two strands of the quad with each carabiner. (It's even easier if these two carabiners are already in place before you start the pitch.)
On the backside of the clove hitch, clip the rope through both lockers and lock the gates.
Take a breath and check everything: Each locker should be clipped to 2 strands, gates locked, and rope running through them cleanly. If it all looks good, remove the clove hitch from the bottom carabiner of the quickdraw.
Schweeeet! You should now be clipped through both locking carabiners on the quad.
Call for “Take” and lower off.
Step 1: Clip a quickdraw to the bolt, and tie a one handed clove hitch to secure yourself temporarily. Stay on belay.
Step 2: Clip one arm of the quad to the left bolt with the racking locking carabiner. Note the two gold locking carabiners in the bottom of the quad. They are properly clipped with gates opposite and opposed, you can do this on the ground.
Step 3: Clip the other arm of the quad to the top carabiner of the quickdraw.
Step 4: On the backside of the clove hitch, clip the rope through both of the locking carabiners at the bottom of the quad. Lock the gates.
Step 5: Systems check - anchor looks good, all lockers are locked, each is clipped properly to two different strands of the quad. If it all looks good, remove your original clove hitch from the bottom of the quickdraw, call “Take”, and lower off.
You might be tempted to also use that quickdraw as the first clip for the next pitch. This is a common practice for many people, but there are some reasons why it’s not such a good idea.
It doesn’t really protect against a factor 2 fall.
It creates a 2:1 pulley effect, here on the right bolt.
It will probably mean the belayer is going to be yanked HARD into that gear if a big fall happens.
So it really doesn't help much, and may actually create some additional problems.
Here’s an interesting article by expert Canadian climber Will Gadd that covers the pros and cons of this. Summary: doing this makes sense only in a fairly specific situation (unquestionably strong piece, and belayer clipped in a way so they can't get pulled into it). Will concludes it’s probably not a good idea to do it as a common practice.
If you’re concerned about the leader taking a big fall right off of the belay, probably a better approach is to use a fixed point lead belay. With this method you belay directly off of the anchor rather than from your harness. There's no pulley effect, and much less force put on the belayer. I have a detailed article about that, you can read it here.
