Rappel Anchors on Snow Without Snow Pickets: the Snow Bollard and T-Slot Options

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Things can go wrong in the mountains. In fact, they almost always go wrong. Sure, most of the time, the things that go wrong are just little things: dropping a cap from your lip balm. And, yes, sometimes things go terribly wrong: a climbing partner getting severe altitude sickness or an edema. But, there are plenty of times when things go wrong in a way that is fine if we can employ the right alternative techniques but which can become very serious if we don’t have the knowledge. Think of dropping your device while setting up for a rappel.

Well, not having a snow picket on a snow climb, and then needing to build a snow anchor can be one of those later situations. There might be any number or reasons why you don’t have a snow picket. Maybe you’ve used them up on previous rappels. Maybe you never brought any because the snow conditions were “supposed to be” more like alpine ice, but you found it to be to airy or two soft for ice screws. Whatever the reason, being able to build an anchor that is sturdy enough for a rappel, even when you don’t have your go-to gear (a snow picket, in this case), is a pretty important skill to have.

We can say the same thing about rock: out of nuts or cams? Can we make a terrain anchor?

Basically, once you go up a mountain, you have to know how to get back down. In regular circumstances, that isn’t too big of a deal. But what about the irregular circumstances? Can you manage without that rappel device you dropped? Can you make an anchor with “what you’ve got”?

Well, that’s what this video is about. We’ve got snow, and we’ve likely got at least one of a few different types of common mountaineering or alpine climbing equipment. How can we make do?

It’s fun to head up into the heights, but coming back down is always the measure of success.