Asimple anchor is a one-point anchor—a single nut, spring-loaded camming device (SLCD), sling, fixed piton, etc.—as opposed to combining single-point anchors into the solid matrix of a belay anchor. Because the foundation of all anchor matrixes rests with the simple primary placements, the importance of obtaining bombproof simple anchors cannot be overstated.
Appropriate gear, suitable cracks, and adequate rock quality are necessary to obtain a solid anchor. Without all three, we’re hosed. You might think the absence of good cracks would be the most dire, yet I recall a story from my friend and partner Richard Harrison that illustrates what can happen when the gear is lacking.
Richard and the late, great Nick Escrow were high on El Capitan when, moored at a hanging belay, Nick handed Richard a 1-inch nylon runner containing most all of their rack. To their horror, the knot on the sling came untied, and the entire rack dropped into the void. That left them with about eight nuts and assorted pegs filched from the bottom of the haul bag, and the very anchor from which they dangled. They also were able to clean a couple nearby fixed pins, but the last pitches were extremely touch-and-go as they leapfrogged along, sometimes able to climb but 50 feet before having to stop and belay in a weird and perilous spot, sometimes “anchored” and hauling from a single wired nut. Dreadful. By contrast, on Himalayan alpine routes, a team can have exactly the right gear and ample cracks, but owing to poor quality rock, security is but a dream.
To the layman glancing through the following chapters on the various protection devices, the whole lot may seem bewildering and complex. Yet the basic use of protection usually is straightforward and self-evident. Simply put, you select a section of crack, and place in that crack a protection device of corresponding size. The process is not terribly unlike working those wooden puzzles when we were kids and we stuck the big star into the big star-shaped hole. Since the size of the crack dictates what gear can be used, you instantly can eliminate all gear outside a specific size range. If you’re looking at a half-inch crack, you have only to consider options that can possibly fit that crack. Much more on this later.
“Good-Enough” Anchors Require
In the absence of a crack, the rock might offer a suitable protruding or tunneling feature, or a luxuriant tree or bush. In these cases, an anchor may be secured by slinging the natural feature. Of course, an ever-increasing number of face routes have been equipped with bolts, and obtaining anchors on these fixed routes requires only clipping into the bolt hanger, negating the need to place any gear at all. But when the anchor involves hand-placing gear in a crack or rigging slings about natural features, the main goal is to obtain the strongest anchor possible from the given crack or feature.