It's the fact that you can't tell what's happening on the inside of the ferrule that concerns me. Is it all turning to mush from within?
It's the main abseil off High Tor in Matlock Bath.
Don't DCA publish a list of items they keep under their care? It is not immediately findable on their web site however.
I have....quite a few times(abbed off the anchor in question).i know where mad is coming from and have asked the same question myself. Single ab points,trees ect are regularly accepted as bomber as descents from climbs.i cant think of another in the peak that uses a strop like this.most are bolts or rope/tat/tape.Derbyshire dales are firmly against any form of bolts placed at the location.i had discussions with the ranger a few years back and was met with a frosty reception.
In my local area(Swanage and Portland) the majority of bolts are glue-in staples. There are literally (how many?) hundreds of them. Some of them have been in place for nearly 20 years. I can think of only one occasion when one has failed resulting in a fall(in the early years of bolting before the staples had a 'kink' in them.)So the odds of one of them failing are very very low( at least in my mind!).However I am aware that 5 staples have come out in the last 2 years(as the result of an outward pull from the rope when lowering). Make of that what you will...I NEVER lower off a single staple(always clip into both when threading the rope too). And try to eliminate any outward pull when belaying(by standing as close to the rock as possible)
While searching through my photos, looking for abseiling images, it struck me that four Winter trips to Patagonia was where I’d really learnt how to get down of mountains in one piece (often when I had no pieces left once I was down). This image is of Ian Parnell on the way back down from the first winter ascent of the Parkin route on the East Face of Mermoz, showing the rappel anchor (10mm Troll rappel tape), and the back-up anchor (2 cams) that the last person down would clean. We both used abseil lanyards (daisy chains) and Prusik loops, and although I’d not slept for two days (I thought I was going to die of hypothermia the night before, and had spent the night crouched in a ball), we took most of the night to get down to the glacier, and cross it safely back to our snow hole.I think I once calculated I’d rappelled about 4 kilometres in Patagonia, and so it’s no surprise I really got into SOPs and protocols, understanding that cutting corners, or rolling the dice “just this once”, was eventually going to get me and my partners killed (you need to save those dice for when you’ve only got those dice to roll).
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