Building top rope anchors is one of the core skills all climbers need to know. Check out this video on how to build different anchor systems for a single pitch climbing scenario.

Anchor Principles (STRADS):

• Strong
  • Your climbing anchor and all components, including the bolts or cams, should inspire confidence with their strength.
• Timely
  • Climbing anchors should be done efficiently. Practice is one of the keys to this priciple.
• Redundant
  • If one component fails, something else should still catch you!
• Angle
  • Smaller angles at the rock climbing anchors masterpoint result in less force at the nodes. (See Video)
• Distribution
  • All components should share the load as much as possible. Also consider the effects of a redistribution of weight if one component fails.
• Simple
  • Keep your rock climbing anchors as simple as possible. This will help you in all other principles for a great climbing anchor!