How to Use Boulders While Top Rope Rock Climbing

Video Transcript

"Hi! I’m Bill with Zoar Outdoor here on behalf of expertvillage.com. We are here today at Chapel Ledges in Ashfield, Massachusetts, the trustees of the reservations property. In this series, we are going to be talking about anchors for top rope rock climbing. Another common possibility for anchors at the top of the cliff is boulders. You often find them there and what do you want to look for? So you want to look for something that is big enough and not is going to move? That is a beautiful big boulder. You want to look for what is it sitting on. Well this is lean back against the cliff and it is really well set here at the base of it so that’s not going anywhere. Things to avoid are boulders on a splint, perched on some gravel right near the edge of the cliff. You want to not anchor to those. This one here; it’s big and it’s solid. It is leaning back against the cliff and it has a great place to tie around it because I can reach behind it here dropping my anchor material and tie off right here. If you notice right about here, you can see where it is hitting the cliff and so anything tied to it is not going to slip off whatsoever. If you are looking at a boulder that is too rounded or conical and doesn’t have any way to hold your material underneath it, then that is going to be difficult to tie to. So big, solid, nice place to tie on to and good boulder anchor too. "