People are bad at lots of things. Safety included. Priorities get crooked, and mostly folks just plain aren't educated in how to stay alive. Climbing is a shining example of the "safety third" mentality. The moral of the story is to get out there and find someone who can tell you how to do it all without getting hurt hurt or dying. Also, even if you've done it a thousand times, be careful. A fraction of a second of distraction is all too often fatal. Look at the big picture, and listen to your gut. If it looks icky, it's wrong.

Feed the fire! Photos, comments, questions, or ponderings? Fire 'em off to janketyassanchors@gmail.com

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Monday, January 18, 2010

Well in case it sounded like a good idea, dyneema through nylon rubbing over metal as an un-redundant top rope anchor is a bad idea. First of all, anchors MUST be redundant.  Every time.  All the time.  An exception from this rule is a roll of the dice. Dyneema and nylon aren't buddies.  Carabiners at each side of any flacid, wily loop will generally keep a system in line, but with their evil forces combined, dyneema and nylon, dyneema and dyneema, nyon and nylon are a bad bunch.  Nylon won't melt a carabiner.  Neither will dyneema.  Nylon will melt nylon, though, dyneema will melt nylon, and dyneema on dyneema will impinge and then cut itself.   All could have been solved however by making a redundant anchor with "metal to nylon, and nylon to metal".


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