How to Anchor and Tie In When Rock Climbing

Two crucial skills needed in rock and ice climbing are tying-in and anchoring. Tying-in is the knot and process you use to secure your harness to the climbing rope and placed protection. Anchors are built to secure ropes for rappelling and climbing. Before heading out for climbing adventures, get professional instruction to hone skills needed for safe and fun days spent in the vertical world.

Things You'll Need

  • Climbing harness
  • Quick-draws
  • Locking carabiner
  • 1-inch tubular webbing
  • Carabiners
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Instructions

  1. Tying-In

    • 1

      Step into the climbing harness so the waist loop is facing out from the front.

    • 2

      Take the end of the climbing rope and the locking carabiner. Open the carabiner and slide it into the harness waist-loop. Form a bight (loop) on the end of the rope.

    • 3

      Thread the bight through the carabiner and bring it around the main rope. Form a figure eight with the line.

    • 4

      Pull up on the figure-eight side of the rope to tighten the knot. Clean the knot by pushing the knot lines so they rest against each other.

    • 5

      Turn the locking carabiner lock-gate clockwise all the way until it stops and then turn one-quarter turn back (counterclockwise). The counterclockwise turn prevents the gate from getting stuck or freezing.

    • 6

      Begin your climb. As you proceed up, take a quickdraw off your harness (a quickdraw is a set of two carabiners attached with stitched webbing) and clip one end to the protection anchor on the route and the other to the rope.

    Anchors

    • 7

      Look for rocks, trees or solid objects to thread and wind the webbing strands to.

    • 8

      Make closed loops of the 1-inch nylon webbing by tying water knots in the end of the webbing.

    • 9

      Wrap the webbing loops around the anchor points (rocks, trees) and bring the ends to a center focal-point between them. Set a minimum of three webbing loops. This builds in redundancy to the anchor system and ensures safe rappelling or climbing.

    • 10

      Twist the ends of each loop and open a locking carabiner gate. Slide each twisted end of the anchor webbing into the carabiner. Turn the gate closed and one-quarter turn back.

    • 11

      Move the carabiner to test the anchor. Look for equal movement between the three. As you walk to the left, the webbing should slide evenly across the carabiner. Attach your climbing rope or add a pulley to the locking carabiner to use the anchor.