2016-06-12 - Northeast Mountain Guiding Top-Rope Anchors Course
After riding a 97-mile century Saturday the day before, a top ropes anchoring course was planned on Sunday for my friends and I. Carrie, after picking up Reece in Queens, was supposed to get Ankur and I at 7:45 AM at my house. Due to a series of cascading events stemming from a time zone confusion, Ankur arrived at my house an hour early. We just hung out together until they arrived. We headed west to Allamuchy State Park and met up with our instructor, Chadd Sechler, and the other students.
During the first part of the class, Chadd taught us about the basics of setting up anchors around trees and connecting all the supporting points to a masterpoint. The ideal angle of the rope coming from the tree is about 60 degrees. Cos(60) = 1/2 so 100 pounds pulling at a tree at 60 degrees only puts 50 pounds on each side. We used the overhang knot, figure eight knot, and double clove hitch.
During the first part of the class, Chadd taught us about the basics of setting up anchors around trees and connecting all the supporting points to a masterpoint. The ideal angle of the rope coming from the tree is about 60 degrees. Cos(60) = 1/2 so 100 pounds pulling at a tree at 60 degrees only puts 50 pounds on each side. We used the overhang knot, figure eight knot, and double clove hitch.
After eating the food we brought, we learned about anchoring to rocks using CAMP Tricams, Black Diamond Stoppers and Camalots. These could then be used together with the tree anchors and all secured to the masterpoint. By keeping all the angles at 65 degrees or less, we would minimize the amount of force on the anchors even if one cam failed. The course was a lot of fun and we felt ready to go out and practice setting up anchors in the world.
