Anchor testing of equalized anchors (cordelettes)

More recent information has been published on cordelettes and alternative equalizing systems (and I'll track those down), but here is some work from 2004-2005 by Beverly et al. on the effectiveness of cordelettes at equalizing loads. (Climbing Nerd Level 1)

Meaty tidbits of knowledge:

• Even with a symmetrical setup, the load is not perfectly distributed among the legs
• Asymmetrical or off-axis setups aren't always worse than a symmetrical setup
• Under load, the system can stretch as much as 10 cm (4 inches)
• The authors didn't discuss it, but it looks like the middle or the shortest leg often had the greatest force
• The force required to break one of the legs was >15.2 kN (pretty high!)
• Going with four pieces instead of three didn't necessarily increase the strength of the anchor (why waste pieces?)
• Even if your anchor spans a total angle of 90 or even 120 degrees, finding the best pro placements is more important to the structural integrity of the anchor
• Avoid short, stiff legs; better to extend the other pieces so the cordelette has more uniform legs

The article also references some previous research that showed...

• the shelf is an appropriate clip in point
• an overhand is sufficient

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Link to source file (Multi_pointpre_equalizedanchors.pdf): http://www.sendmefile.com/00547721