Alpine Tips
Retreat anchors - alpine climbing
Retreat (aka bail) anchors need to be strong enough for a rappel, use a minimum of gear and cordage, and be simple to rig so you can do it under potential stress. You also get to bend the normal anchor building rules a bit. Learn where you can maybe cut a few corners and see lots of examples here.
Note - This post discusses techniques and methods used in vertical rope work. If you do them wrong, you could die. Always practice vertical rope techniques under the supervision of a qualified instructor, and ideally in a progression: from flat ground, to staircase, to vertical close to the ground before you ever try them in a real climbing situation.
Be it challenging weather, poor route conditions, route finding errors, or just general loss of mojo, there can be lots of valid reasons to turn around on an alpine route. It may not be something you actively planned for, but it needs to be handled with the same level of focus and detail as any other part of your climb.
When you retreat / bail (and yes, it’s “when, and not “if”), be it a one pitch sport climb or a major alpine adventure, the objectives should be similar: get to the ground in one piece, with each anchor point simple to build and strong enough to rappel on, and leave a minimum of gear behind.
Let's be clear on one thing: this is no time to be a cheapskate. Yes, we hate to leave gear behind, but if you HAVE to leave your beloved #3 Camalot for a rappel anchor, then do it without hesitation. The simple question is, what's your life worth? At the same time, you don't want to over build your anchors, and leave behind gear that you might need lower down if multiple rappels are required.
Alpinist Steve House has a terrific video on “Failing Well”. “Success on a climb is going up, making good decisions, and coming back. That's the outcome we should be attached to. To me, that’s what ‘fail well’ means.”
Six minute YouTube video, highly recommended. Takeaways:
Strategic retreat is an inherent part of alpine climbing. It’s a skill that improves with practice.
Having solid retreat technique can give you the confidence to try harder routes, knowing that you can retreat from just about anywhere.
Maintain awareness when ascending. The way up might also be the (unplanned) way down. Remember potential anchor points, problem areas and the right way to go.
Retreat is often done under stress, tiredness, darkness, bad weather, etc. All the more reason to turn up your focus and awareness to counter these compounding factors.
Some general guidelines for retreat anchors . . .
Use two equalized pieces whenever possible. Sure, the classic climbing books are full of epic stories of rapping off of a single stopper or piton. One that’s perfectly placed should be sufficiently strong, but that shouldn’t be your first choice unless things are really desperate.
This anchor is only for rappelling, so the “rules” change a bit. The belay anchor general principle of striving for “three good pieces“ doesn’t necessarily apply to a rappel anchor. If you rappel smoothly on a dynamic rope, the anchor will only see about 1-2 kN, and the direction of force will always be down. So good news, your anchor doesn’t need to be multi-directional or tremendously strong. However, we're still aiming for some other core anchor principles of strong (enough), redundant, load distribution, and no extension.
The examples below don’t use carabiners on the gear. You’d never make a proper belay anchor like this as regular practice, but it's acceptable for an emergency rappel anchor. It's fine to run cord or webbing through stopper wires for a rappel anchor; it holds 8+ kN. (See previous point, the rules change a bit.)
To minimize forces on your anchor, rappel smoothly and don't jump / bounce around.
Keep your rigging simple. You should really only need one or two variations on the basic theme, so no need to get overly fancy. You're probably going to be doing this under a bit of stress, and bailing on marginal anchors is not something most people practice very often. Keeping your rigging clean and simple makes it easier to check and to remember.
You're going to need a fair amount cordage (and maybe a few slings) so plan ahead. 5 mm cord (rated to about 5.5 kN) is light and easy to carry, so consider that if you anticipate making a lot of anchors. Tying those pesky knots always seems to take up more cord than you think! Plan on about 2 meters of cord per anchor. You can get away with a bit less if the gear placements are right next to each other, or if you use some clever knots like maybe a fisherman’s.
What about webbing? Tubular webbing can work as a retreat anchor, but it has a few downsides compared to cord. 1) Webbing strength drops off quickly if it gets damaged, unlike cord that has more of a protective sheath. 2) Webbing is more easily degraded by ultraviolet light. 3) Webbing usually requires tying a water knot, which can be a little finicky and a hassle to tie if you have gloves and/or cold fingers. For these reasons, cord is usually a better choice. (See an example below of how to use a sewn sling.)
Use your cordelette. Six meters or so of cord (7mm is the standard) makes a cordelette for the way up; you can think of that is equal to about three potential anchors if you need them for the way down. If you and your partner each carry a cordelette, together that should be good for about 5-6 anchors.
Carry a knife, so you can cut up your cordage (or maybe even an end off your climbing rope) to make an anchor. Also, a knife is useful for cleaning up any rat nest of old sun-crusted cord and webbing you often find at alpine anchors. Good rule of thumb, if you add cord to improve an existing anchor, remove the oldest piece(s) and take it with you.
Don't have a knife? It’s remarkably easy to cut through rope or webbing with a small length of 2 or 3 mm cord. Tie a bight knot in each end, clip the loops to a pair of carabiners for handles, and then rapidly saw back-and-forth through the material that's under some tension. You’ll cut it through in a few seconds.
Look first for a tree or rock horn. Give it a good kick first to assess its strength. You can drape a sling or tied loop around this and use it for a rappel, with no gear left behind. Note: use caution with putting the rope directly around/over a tree or rock horn; the friction could make pulling the rope difficult or impossible.
Stoppers and maybe a knife blade piton or two are good choices for retreat anchors. Stoppers are inexpensive, strong, easy to check if you have a good placement (well, the bigger ones, anyway) , easy to bounce test, and can be set in rock that’s dry, wet, icy, or muddy. If you happen to have a hammer, such as on an ice tool, feel free to use it to smack on the piton as well as the stopper. To weld in a stopper placement, you can beat on it Neanderthal-style with a fist size rock (and maybe your nut tool). But a hammer is always going to be better. No one's going to be cleaning it, so don't be shy. If you find a fixed piton, see if there’s a nearby stopper placement you can use to equalize the two pieces.
Time for a Tricam? Tricams sometimes don't get a lot of love, but they can be pretty sweet for retreat anchors. They can fit in parallel cracks, you can use them as a stopper, and they are inexpensive.
If you anticipate doing many rappels, you may want to take a few older carabiners with about 3 inches / 5 cm of athletic tape already wrapped onto the spine. This lets you make a “cheapskate locker”, which adds extra security to your rappel with zero extra cost. You can use the carabiners when climbing, and also have them as a convenient and secure anchor point when rappelling. Always good to get double duty out of your gear. (Thanks to IFMGA Guide Jeff Ward for this crafty “pre-wrap tape on a carabiner” tip.)
It's good practice to backup the rappel anchor with another solid piece or two when possible. Then, bounce test the anchor, and send the heaviest person down with the biggest pack first. If primary anchor holds fine for them, it should also hold for the lighter person going down second. The second cleans the backup gear and descends on the primary anchor. (This climbing axiom seems to have been made by large, heavy people . . . =^)
Add a metal connection to the master point, or not? If you carry quicklinks (5mm is a good size for a bail anchor) or rappel rings, this is a fine time to use them. Quicklinks have the advantage of having a very small opening, so it's impossible for a knot to pass through, which makes setting up a double rope rappel a bit easier. This is also a good time to donate your least favorite carabiner.
It's also okay to run the rope directly through the cord. Just know you're going to have some extra friction (and potentially damage the anchor cord) when you pull your rope. Normally you wouldn’t do this because it's best practice to leave the cord in good condition for someone else, but if you’re retreating, hopefully no one else is going to be using that anchor for a long time, if ever.
Be wary of the “bail trail”. Don't be tempted to depart from your route to go towards a retreat anchor that someone else has left. If your route description says “belay from the ledge”, and you see some sketchy looking stoppers equalized with a shoelace on terrain that looks clearly off route, that probably means it's a bail anchor and not a belay anchor intended for ascending.
Leave a cam if you have to. Yes, your life is worth it. If you have a perfect placement for a larger cam, versus fiddling around trying to equalize several different stoppers, go for the one cam and get the hell down, especially if you have multiple pitches to go and it's starting to rain, getting dark, etc.
There are some approaches to building retreat anchors that can be definitely strong enough for rappelling, yet require a minimum amount of gear - and maybe no carabiners at all.
Let's look at a few.
Place two good stoppers. Thread some cord through both of them, and tie a flat overhand bend to make a loop.
Pull down the cord, making a “U” shape.
Girth hitch a carabiner (here another cheapskate locker) or a quick link.
This approach is fast, requires minimal fiddling with knots, and uses a small amount of cord.
Potential downside, you need to leave behind some hardware to make the girth hitch. (If you had another foot or so of cord, you could tie an overhand on a bight here rather than the girth hitch.)
If you're new to the girth hitch master point, yes, it's legit and yes, it’s redundant. Read a more on the girth hitch anchor here.
A note on stopper placement: In these examples, the gear is placed close to the outside of the crack, because that's where they fit. But feel free to bury them deeper if you think it gives you a stronger or more secure placement. No one is probably ever going to clean these, so don't let that be a concern.
Below left: girth hitch around a “cheapskate locker”; below right: around a quick link. (If you had another foot or two of cord, you could tie an overhand on a bight instead.)
Next: instead of a girth hitch we have an overhand knot tied in both strands. This takes up another foot or so cord than the girth hitch, but gives a redundant two strand loop at the master point.
Want the ultra-minimalist approach? Run the rope directly through the cord. Yep, an anchor with zero carabiners! =^) The rope pull may be slightly more difficult because of the extra friction, but it should pull just fine.
Note, don’t make a regular habit had a building rappel anchors like this, especially if they're going to be used by anybody else, because pulling the rope will likely damage the anchor cord. But here it's an emergency retreat anchor, so it's acceptable.
How about a sewn sling? Yes, you can girth hitch a Dyneema sling directly to a stopper wire like in the top placement. Believe it or not, that’s been tested to about 8 kN! (Again, don't get into the habit of making regular anchors like this, always use a carabiner if you have one. Remember, this is for a rappel anchor.) The connection point once again is a cheapskate locker with a girth hitch.
Here's another way to use a sewn sling. Girth hitch each strand through your gear, tie an overhand knot to roughly equalize the load (aka SWAMP anchor), and add a cheapskate locker.
(Extra credit if you use fun skull & crossbones hockey tape like this. =^)
I think you get the idea. To summarize:
Distribute the load to two good placements whenever possible.
The anchor only needs to hold 2-3 kN maximum; strength is not the top priority.
Choose a rigging method that allows for “no extension” if one piece fails.
You’ll need about 2 meters of cord for each anchor. Bring extra cord if you anticipate multiple rappels.
Keep rigging consistent and simple.
Back up the anchor when possible for the first person down.
Bring a knife.
Pre-tape a few cheapskate lockers to leave behind.
PRACTICE on the ground before you have to do it for real!