Rams horn anchors

[Ed Heslam]

Why are rams horn anchors not the solution.
I’ve come across two types of rams horn anchor. One is a glue in and essentially a long shaft with a curly end. The other one fixes to a piece of chain or directly to the bolt hanger.

1. They encourage the bad practice of lowering off as opposed to the last climber threading the anchor and abseiling.
2. Lowering down wears out the anchors and wears out ropes.
3. The wear on a rams horn anchor happens in exactly the same place every time you use it. On popular sport routes metal components have been badly worn by excessive lowering off and top-roping directly through the anchors. This wear also happens on staples and in-situ karabiners. The best system appears to be bolts with rings, where the natural spinning of the ring on the hanger distributes the wear.
4. In a situation where there is excessive wear on an in-situ karabiner, the climber always has a choice to leave their own karabiner on the anchor. Whereas if the wear point occurs on a rams horn or a staple or a chain the climber has no choice but to grit their teeth and use it.
5. By its nature (ie the way it protrudes from the rock) the glue in rams horn is less mechanically sound than other anchors.
6. Whereas it is possible to abseil from a rams horn anchor, it is less safe to do so because it is an open system

The best method for getting down from a sport climb is to abseil. The first person climbs the route and places quickdraws on the anchor, lowering down through these. The second person climbs up, clips in direct to the anchor, threads the anchor then abseils. This results in less wear on the rope and on the anchor.
Unfortunately, the widespread use of climbing walls has encouraged the practice of lowering down and of top roping through the anchor. Threading anchors requires a certain amount of skill and organisation (but, lets face it, not a lot of skill). We’ve created a situation where in order to make outdoor climbing as close to indoor climbing as possible, we are doing the wrong thing. Inexperienced climbers need to simply make the effort to acquire the necessary skills to enjoy outdoor sport climbing safely and properly. Bolters of climbing routes should not accommodate bad practice by putting in short-term anchors.

Examples of anchors where it is especially bad to lower off can be found on the right hand side of Bram Crag. Here, sharp edges abound and, when you lower down, your rope rubs over these edges under load.
Examples of anchors where the 8mm bar is significantly worn out can be found at Portland. Oddly enough here, they are replacing the top staples with rams horns, which will admittedly wear at a slower rate, but, personally, I’d rather see hangers with rings.
Example of good practice: Woodcroft Quarry is a crag in the Wye Valley beside Wintours Leap. Here the routes are equipped with two stainless steel expansion bolts and a pair of rings on the anchors. The venue is incredibly popular with large numbers of mostly young climbers. No one appears to have a problem with threading the anchors.

[Steve Hardy]

Hi Ed

I respect the fact we all have our opinions on this and none of us are experts but as you’ve taken the time to post, I’ll respond with my opinio. There is further info on the Whatsapp chat too.

Points 1 and 2 suggest we should all be abseiling off the anchors – this is not the BMC advice, nor Mountain Training teaching for any professional mountain instructor for single pitch sport climbing.

I agree it might cause a little less wear on ropes and fixed gear but these rams horns are 12mm steel so will last a while and also take a minute or two to replace, no grinding off of rings, fixed crabs, stuck maillons or chain links.

Abseiling introduces many additional steps for a climber and increases the risk of an accident, rethreading introduces fewer steps but is still highly consequential if a mistake is made, lowering through a safe open system anchor has the least steps. Of course i agree all climbers should know how to safely abseil and to safely rethread – but not all do!

Expansion bolts cited as good practice at Woodcroft Quarry – no longer seen as best practice, resined in bolts – more time to place but will last much much longer and remove many corrosion scenarios that face expansion bolts.

I am still happy to climb on expansion bolts but am now armed with much better ability to identify dangerous bolts on a route (of which there are many in the Lakes and UK). Many new routers and crag developers in the lakes are moving to resin fixed bolts made by Jim Titt (who posts sometimes on these topics in UKC).

I dont have a problem with rethreading (nor with abseiling but usually this is for multipitch sport or very long routes which I’ve climbed with two ropes e.g. on recent trip to Alps this was needed for single pitch sport cos routes were 45m length) but i do agree with the experts that for the majority of single pitch sport, lowering off is the way forward and lowering off using an open system has fewer error traps.

But it is a good discussion and down to personal opinion and preference and your own custom and practice.

Cheers
Steve

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[Ed Heslam]

Thanks for taking the time to reply Steve,
As you mention, none of us are experts and we’re all still learning. My own crop of new bolted routes is limited to about 50, but for the last 37 years I’ve hung out with people who have put up thousands of bolted routes and many of them are close friends. I’ve have been around the block long enough to see all sorts of good and bad practice. My opinion is based on what I have observed and on discussions with climbers who regularly bolt new routes.
I don’t agree with mountain instructor advice on several issues, so it doesn’t surprise me that I’m at odds on this one. Mountain instructors have got things dangerously wrong in the past with several bad accidents and fatalities. The BMC gives advice on lowering down off a sport anchor, but I’m not aware that they take an opinion on whether or not this is the better method. If you lower down from routes at Bram Crag (especially on the right hand side) you can actually feel the rope grinding over edges. I’m not convinced the BMC would recommend lowering in this situation.
On the matter of wear and tear on the rub points of an anchor, this can happen surprisingly fast. In the distant past when I used one of the old figure of eight descenders I wore deep grooves in it during just one abseil. It was the days before rope mats and I had paid my rope out onto sand at Brean Down. The sand on the rope acted as an abrasive and took quite a layer of metal off. Also, back in the 1990s I bought one of the first Reverso belay plates. It wore down badly over just a couple of seasons at the point where the dead rope comes out, probably from doing lots of climbing on sea cliffs where you abseil a lot. The Reverso design changed to add more metal at this rub point.
I know that opinion on abseiling versus lowering is divided. Most climbers don’t even bother to consider the issues, so its good that you have. When I climbed a lot at Portland it came down to who owned the rope. Mostly, my mates were of the same opinion as me and we abseiled. If I climbed with my mate Frank, and used his rope, we lowered. The anchors at Portland were all marine grade stainless steel staples and now have to be replaced, not because they have corroded but because they have worn down.
On the matter of glue ins versus expansion bolts, I don’t have an opinion. My friends Gordon Jenkin and Francis Haden have done tests on both of these and not found any difference worth reporting. Gordon only uses expansion bolts while Francis uses both, but mostly expansions.

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