Rigging a Floating Anchor

[@carlwydrzynski3578]

I completely forgot about the floating anchor. This might make practice in the back yard easier.

[@kevinbiggs3753]

You could tie the loop for the anchor without the rappel ring in place (no need to fear dropping it). After your loop is tied to the appropriate length, just pass the loop through he rappel ring like you are making a square knot and pull the ring through. Now your ring is girth hitched to the loop and ready to use.

[@jrbtc]

I had to read that a couple of times before I understood it, but yes I agree and understand. Excellent point.

[@UncleDanBand64]

OK gotcha 👍

[@businessjib]

Would climbing DSRT on a floating anchor like this be a terrible idea? Assuming you were using a 25 kN rappel ring, it doesn't seem like the anchor would drop too much if the paracord broke... Maybe it would just be too unstable side to side?

[@jrbtc]

By my definition, if a floating anchor merely provides the location and rigging for an actual anchor and if it was tied with dental floss and it snapped during a climb, that shouldn't be a problem because we cinch to the tree. This is NOT the case with DSRT. When the floss breaks, that ring will come down and we will take a ride. It might or might not take us all the way to the ground. I tested it.

[@businessjib]

​@jrbtc makes good sense now that you say it, and I suppose it would be different if you were climbing the opposite side of the tree from the ring... overcomplicated probably. I'm thinking of sappy pines with few natural crotches: Maybe a well-maintained false crotch would make more sense there anyway. Thanks for all you do, teach and share!

[@cetyl2626]

How long could one leave this in place? (A steel ring) My concern would be a break down of the rappel ring surface due to rust and weathering making rigging difficult. I suppose though it's no different than bark roughness.... i wonder if this could be accomplished with no rappel ring- that is, all rope?

[@jrbtc]

Rappel ring is aluminum, not steel. Paracord would probably last 10 yrs. And if the ring pr paracord broke, once we were on it, that really wouldn't affect our safety because we are cinched to the tree.

[@HuckFTW]

Any estimates what percentage of the load the floating anchor will be carrying? It sounds good to say the rope and maverick hitch will be carrying all the load, but really that floating anchor will still have SOME load on it, depending on how close we get the maverick hitch to the tree (may be difficult to tell from the ground in the dark). In the event the floating anchor were to fail, we should only fall a few inches until the rope/maverick caught. But that might necessitate a change of pants.

[@jrbtc]

The load can vary widely depending on a number of factors including how tight it is cinched and length and elasticity of the material used for the anchor. But we should assume the anchor could easily absorbing the majority of the load. It's important to set the hitch when standing away from the tree and to rehearse the sequence in normal conditions. The climber has the responsibility to be able to see what they are doing, so darkness will require an appropriate amount of artificial light.

[@HuckFTW]

@@jrbtc Thanks. We’re on the same page. I was gonna suggest that maybe paracord isn’t a good choice for the floating anchor. But I guess paracord’s elasticity helps transfer some of the load to the climbing rope

[@jrbtc]

@@HuckFTW did you watch this video when i took a machete to the paracord while i was on it? I did this a few times in off camera testing and hardly moved. But my hitches (Maverick or Running JRB) were set properly. kzbin.info/www/bejne/i5OxgnyZbLuNeLM