asmrz wrote:Rick, you always know the best. As a mountain guide, you should never recommend unsafe practice on public forum. What a pitty, you know some of the readers here cannot make up their own mind, so people like you have the responsibility to provide information that is correct and safe. Safety is the most important thing in this activity. Shame on you buddy...
Alois, please do show where I condoned rapping directly off a piece webbing w/o any kind of rap ring/quicklink. I just presented it for discussion and I in fact wanted to make a staunch point as to how so many out there trust their lives to the crap slings that liter the entire Sierra. I simply attempted to "burn" through a piece of brand spanking new 1" tubular webbing with an 8.8mm cord in the manner you posted and I could not.
Pitty on YOU Alois for assuming.
I figure you did not have your glasses on for the second most important point of my post so I will elaborate it just for you Alois as I assume you meant that this is a "
recommended unsafe practice".:
Kahuna wrote:That brings up another point. NEVER trust a fixed piece of webbing that obviously appears to have in place for lengthy amount of time. Always carry a slew of bail runners and some small quicklinks (if you do not trust rapping solely off the webbing) to put in situ after removing the old worthless and dangerous tat. I have more often than not come upon a bundle of crap that folks keep adding to instead of cleaning away and simply adding a new piece or two.
I will reiterate that any fixed gear in situ on any route, regardless of type or location, should ALWAYS be considered suspect and either replaced with
NEW slings/webbing & small quicklink (**
Petzl "GO" is rated at **25kn)
which is Stainless Steel and will last 100 times longer than the SMC Aluminum Rap Ring.
OR,
Construct a whole new anchor built w/quicklink and the older one cleaned up so as not to create any confusion.
MY personal BC Alpine "Bail Kit" consists of a dozen or so "leaver" Stoppers of various sizes, 10ea 24" X 11/16" Tubular Webbing and 5ea 5MM Petzl "GO" SS Quickinks. I also always carry a small Leatherman Knife that I can use to tighten down the nut on the quicklink.
**
Petzl "GO" Tech Notice/SpecsThere are a handful of us "Guides" throughout the Sierra that do our part and have done so for the last 10-20 years, in annually cleaning up and replacing the death trap "Rap" tat that so many build on and leave behind.
Oh yeah, I would NEVER RAP with any cord/s skinnier than a "Twin Line" 7.7 doubled up.... NEVER!
So many factors can totally ruin your day if using anything thinner. #1 being the wind. Just a small 15-30 MPH gust will take that 200 or so feet of super thin cord and rap it around any protruding rock or natural feature thus rendering it completely useless and unretrieveable. Then, you are totally screwed.