Artificial gear placement for rock anchors
Posted on Saturday November 19th 2011
For rock instructor certification, students must efficiently and safely create a wide range of belay anchors. Practicing on natural features such as trees and boulders is followed by artificial protection placed in cracks in the cliff face. Devices like spring loaded camming devices, stoppers, and tri cams can be placed and equalized together to create anchors that can support thousands of pounds of force. Rock instructors must be well versed in these techniques and thoroughly understand the advantages and limitations of their equipment. Students learning these skills will need passion and lots of supervised and informal practice time for these skill to become second nature and efficiently applied. Like all things technical, these skills are perishable and need to be reviewed and enhanced regularly. Keep practicing.
