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When setting up belay there are many ways to connect the anchors. One way is called equalette and is supposed to adapt to a certain extent to the direction of pull.

How is such an equalette constructed? If there is not one definite way: What are different ways of setting up an equalette and how do they differ?

There is a question "When to set up a Cordelette and an Equalette?" where an partial image is supplied and a commentary debates whether this even is an equalette, so the topic seems to be debatable.

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imsodin
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1 Answers1

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The equalette is the evolution and combination of the cordalette and sliding-x. It makes up for the short comings of each system, while incorporating their strengths to produce a more SRENE anchor.

One of the criticisms of the cordalette is after you've tied the master knot, you have potentially poor equalization if you deviate from your set direction of pull. The sliding-x anchor offers auto-equalization, but at the expense of adding friction and elongation to your anchor system.

Equalette:

The below image shows an example of an equalette, it looks complicated at fist glance, but the strength of an equalette is that you can tie it with any combination of clove hitches and other knots to meet your needs given the availability of anchors on the rock, it's not necessarily meant to be tied the exact same way every time. For example, if you have four or more placements, then you can tie into them all using clove hitches vs using a figure eight on a bight on the third anchor in the image below. You adapt how you tie your equalette to your given situation.

enter image description here

Image Credit: Freedom of the Hills

The equalette is tied from 6m (20ft) of 7mm or smaller diametre accessory cord tied with a double or triple fishermans knot depending on the material of the cord.

To set it up, first tie of a 25cm (10") section with overhand limiter knots near the middle of the equalette, this is going to be your self-equalizing clip in point. Where exactly you tie it may be offset from centre depending on where your anchors are relative to the direction of pull, but wherever you tie it, you're going to be left with two larger loops on either side. This is where you're left to your own creativity, using any combination of knots, tie the loops to your anchors using one or more elements per side.

Using two locking carabiners is preferable for clipping your rope to the equalette, clipping one biner into each of the loops between the limiter knots. You can still use just one carabiner, as long as you put a half twist in one of the loops to make a sliding-x, but this reintroduces friction into the system.

An equalette may seem complicated at first, but it addresses the shortcomings of other systems, and needn't take any more time to set up than other systems.

Examples:

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Variations:

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The "Triplette":

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ShemSeger
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  • Nice answer. The FOTH figure illustrates what looks like an application to trad climbing, but I've also seen many sport climbers bring a pre-made equalette up with them on a sport climb, and they then just snap it to the bolts. I've never seen anyone actually use one for trad, and it seems like it would be a little awkward for that purpose, or maybe I'm not understanding some details about how it would be applied. Usually If I've just led a pitch, I want to tie myself in, and then I'm going to give my second a direct belay. This requires two tie-ins to my anchor. Once my [...] –  Aug 05 '15 at 22:34
  • [...] second gets up, s/he is going to want to tie in. That makes a total of three tie-ins. With a cordelette, we accomplish that by using three locking carabiners, which can be distributed between the master point and the shelf. Looking at the equalette, I don't see how you do that without doing something really awkward. In general I just don't see the common application where the equalette is really what I need. On a sport climb, I'm usually pretty sure the two redundant bolts are plenty strong enough to hold my static weight. May be worth knowing when you have a trad anchor with bad pro. –  Aug 05 '15 at 22:35
  • The FOTH example also seems heavy and over-engineered to me. It uses 5 lockers, when in fact you could just use three wiregates for the three pieces of pro, and (as you note in your answer) a single locker at the bottom. –  Aug 05 '15 at 22:36
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    @BenCrowell I've always used lockers when I'm anchoring myself to the wall and setting up belay stations, I've only ever used wiregates for intermediate protection. – ShemSeger Aug 06 '15 at 03:27
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    @BenCrowell Why does everyone need a separate tie in point? My standard anchor for large groups (more than two :P ) has always a central point which can be a webbing/cord loop from a knot or a locker. Then everybody else attaches to that point. @ ShemSeger What possible use has a "Triplette"? Why are often two lockers used instead of one in sliding-x configuration? Why is the double-fisherman always on a load bearing part of the cord? Why the figure eight on a bight instead of another clove hitch? Lots of tiny questions, just interested in whether there is a reason. – imsodin Aug 06 '15 at 20:10
  • @imsodin u can always ask these questions and link to this one for context? –  Aug 08 '15 at 08:23
  • @imsodin The triplet eliminates the fisherman's knot and offers an additional tie in point. Two lockers are used because sliding-x adds friction to the system by rubbing the rope on itself. See the images above for more examples of where the fishermans is not bearing load, as well as clove hitches being used instead of figure 8's on a bight. – ShemSeger Aug 08 '15 at 14:41
  • @ShemSeger Thanks for the additional examples. Another thing: I suggest remove the first variation (the one with the red cord): If one point in the secondary equalizations fails there is a lot of loose cord which will slip and thus produce a static fall either into the remaining other point or into the other two points. The secondary equalization has no benefit but introduces this hazard. – imsodin Aug 08 '15 at 15:32
  • Another advantage of the triplette: it eliminates the need for using a sliding-x or additional caribiner. Clip one locker over two strands and the third prevents the biner from passing the limiter knots. – ShemSeger Aug 08 '15 at 18:31
  • @ShemSeger: I've always used lockers when I'm anchoring myself to the wall and setting up belay stations, I've only ever used wiregates for intermediate protection. I guess different people have different habits. I use a locker only where it's a single point of failure. –  Aug 08 '15 at 20:04
  • @imsodin: Why does everyone need a separate tie in point? I didn't claim that every person needed a separate tie-in point. It's just messy and confusing when you have many different things tied in to one place. Using the method illustrated in the FOTH figure for multipitch, you'd have 6 lockers all clustered in the same area: two for the leader, two for the belay device, and two for the follower. But the text of FOTH does say you can also do what I would do, which is to use a single biner per tie-in, with a sliding x. To me the most natural application of the equalette seems like top-roping. –  Aug 08 '15 at 20:13
  • @imsodin The primary equalization only equalizes between two points. With a four point anchor, if you deviate too far from your direction of pull, you will put all of your load onto two points. The secondary equalization maintains consistent equalization across all four points. The potential hazard is no different than any other equalette if one half were to fail. – ShemSeger Aug 09 '15 at 22:07