I'm probably a couple years behind the times, but I've been scratching my head over the Equalette, and frankly don't like it. So I did some thinking, and came up with an alternate idea I like better that I think is slightly less dorky. I figure using SRENE is a valid point for looking at any anchor.
BTW, SRENE is an oxymoron. You can't really have equalization without any extension. SRELE ("surreal", Strong, Redundant, Equalized, Little Extension) better describes what we really want/need in a climbing anchor. Redundancy is not just multiple pieces, but also that no single point failure exists (i.e. you should be able to cut any one point in the system, and not have a complete anchor failure, a single sling in a sliding X is not redundant for example).
Cordalette: Cordalettes don't equalize except for one direction (straight down if that's how they are tied), but are redundant, and usually have little extension. Also most cordalettes are too short for 4 pieces of gear unless they are very closely spaced, or you do some additional tricks (i.e. 2 pieces of gear into one leg). I particularly hate what a cordalette does for a fixed line on a wall if the last move was a traversing piece (i.e. the angle of pull changes 90 degrees when the cleaner gets to the anchor, leaving the cordellete looking FUBAR'ed either while jugging or once at the anchor). I've used the cordalette on walls, but hated the lack of equalization for anything but vertical loads.
Equallete: Largo's contribution is a decent one, but I'm just not a fan. It is redundant, equalized, and has little extension, which is great. It works with 3 or 4 piece anchors, is sort of equalized (dynamic sliding equalization between two statically equalized V's), also for 3 piece anchors the odd man out gets 50% of the load no matter what, with the remaining 2 statically equalized for the remaining 50%. However in the case of purely horizonal pull in my jugging scenario the sliding region quickly maxes out and again you have only one piece taking the load. Also it calls for two lockers to create the powerpoint, and has two big fat knots that are fixed in place. On paper the Equalette sounds pretty good, but it just doesn't float my boat. A few variations exist that get rid of the 2 locking biner requirement, but those result in bigger knots, generally it just isn't as flexible a system as I want and still doesn't solve the horizontal fixed line scenario.
Triple/Quad sliding X: A single sling/cordalette loop can be looped through 2, 3, 4, or even more pieces to get a equalized anchor, but does not have redundancy, has lots of extension, and Largo argued that it didn't really equalize well due to friction at the master point. More horrifying is that it is hard to inspect if the looping was done right, in which case the results can be quite bad if one piece pops. Lastly, clipping biners into a loaded power point is really obnoxious for the 3 and 4 piece cases. On the plus side it does actually do some equalization in the horizontal load case.
Alpine Equalizer: Trango's wiz-bang toy is NOT redundant, has a lot of extension, but is equalized (and spiffy looking). At $40 a shot, it's also a lot more expensive and specialized than folks like me like. Mal from Trango says (right in the instructions
http://trango.com/pdfs/EqualizerWebInstructions.pdf) you can either A) tie an overhand knot in the center strand to limit extension or B) tie three cloves in the protection biners. Option A confuses the hell out of me because the main loop is a single strand, and is not sewn to the little loop with the metal rings (they share a rash guard, but that's it), so in the case of either of the two outer pieces popping, there is no improvement in redundancy or extension, WTF? Option B is relatively brilliant. You create 3 V's of webbing that cradle your biner. Voila, redundancy, limited extension, but there is no longer full equalization. Equalization is down to 50/50 between 2 pieces, with the third sitting there doing nothing (unless one of the two loaded pieces pops). I like this a lot, as it's as close to SRENE as I think you can get without lots of complicated limiter knots. However it is limited to 3 pieces, and costs $40 a pop.
Well Shit. Lots of options, none perfect, and only the dorky Equallete and cloved alpine equalizer meeting the SRENE/SRELE (and again, only 50/50 load sharing guaranteed), and even the equalette fails the SRENE/SRELE criteria for horizontal loads (depends on exact gear location of course). So either $40 a shot, nerdy equalette, or find something new.
So I played with a bunch of crap (making lots of needlessly complex setups) and came up with a simple variation that comes close without being complex, or requiring anything special. It's just combining Mal's clove hitch fix to the Tripled sliding X to come up with something with all the benefits, without being a specialized piece of gear or costing $40 a pop.
3 Piece Anchor:
1. Start like with a cordalette, looping through all three biners.
2. Pull the strands down and overlap the loops to create your master point and wiggle to get the strands even them out (clip a biner in to keep it open).
3. Clove-hitch the loops to the 3 protection biners, and tug on the master point to cinch them up.
SRENE'ish: Redundant, check. Equalized, sort of (statically equalized for downward pull, but off center pull loads 2 pieces 50% each), Little Extension, check. Horizontal fixed line case, check (a little ugly, but maintains 50/50 equalization). Essentially this is the same underlying physics as the alpine equalizer done with clove hitches, but using $15 of cord instead of a $40 specialized piece of gear, and most folks are already have a chunk of cord for this exact purpose.
Note: Full redundancy requires the cloves hitches don't slip, so probably best to use 7mm nylon, or nylon webbing for your material. A standard 20' cordalette works for this thing, but is pretty long, a ~16-18' one would probably be better if you like the length you get from a normal cordalette.
4 piece anchor:
1. Put a half twist in the middle of the cordalette loop to create a big "8", clipping one loop through the leftmost two pieces, and the second loop through the rightmost two pieces.
2. Pull the strands down similar to a cordalette and clip a biner into the loops to create a master point.
3. Clove-hitch the loops to the 4 protection biners and tug on the master point biner to cinch things down.
The half twist in the middle changes how the thing extends if a piece pops, but it makes little difference except in the case of the it being pulled far from the nominal position, like a horizontal fixed line in the case that the upper right piece popped.
Why I like this approach:
1. Fairly easy to add biners to the master point even when loaded.
2. No piece takes more than 50% of the load, and you have static equalization in the vertical case.
3. Clove hitches are easy to untie, and there are no extra fixed knots like with the Equallete.
4. There is still at worst 50/50 load sharing for a 90 degree change in load angle.
5. No specialized gear beyond the cordalette you likely already have, and even a 6' or 8' sling will work (if a clove won't slip, so probably a bad idea with those mammut slings).
Stupid? Comments?
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