Climbers Often Rig This Anchor Wrong. Here’s How to Avoid a Deadly Mistake.

I walked around the corner and happened to look up. “Hey, would you mind lowering your climber very slowly?” I quietly asked the belayer standing there. After some confusion and irritation, the belayer safely lowered the climber to the ground. “Why?” the belayer asked me. I answered by wiggling their toprope. A quickdraw fell off the ram’s horns anchor and slid down the rope. The second draw remained, barely secured.

A few years earlier, I had the same experience when a friend rigged two draws for me to toprope. I arrived at the ram’s horns anchor to discover completely unsecured quickdraws. One rough fall, abrupt slack intake, or bounce on the rope, and I’d deck.

Ram’s horns anchors aren’t all that new, but their use is not often taught. While they may look confusing, with a bit of attention to detail and understanding, they are easy to use and very safe.

To put it simply, ram’s horns are designed to make cleaning and lowering easy—loop all four horns, clean the anchor, and lower. What these four “ram’s horn” loops are not intended for is building a toprope anchor.

But there are intricacies beyond the basics that you should understand to make these anchors faster, safer, and more enjoyable to use. So, as a prolific route developer in a coastal area where ram’s horns anchors are common, I’m sharing everything you need to know about this often misunderstood fixed anchor, including what they are, why they’re used, and of course, how to use them correctly. Before we get into brass—or titanium—tacks, I offer a few important pieces of context about these open anchor systems.

What are ram’s horns anchors?

Also called “pigtails” anchors, ram’s horns anchors are open-style lower-offs created from a single bent bar of titanium or stainless steel with no moving parts. As “open anchors,” they do not require untying to thread the rope and lower. The main drawback of ram’s horns is the extra effort it can take to “clip” them compared to a carabiner or mussy hook. But the pros may outweigh the cons in many situations. Statistically, the American Safe Climbing Association (ASCA) has found that open anchors lead to fewer accidents than closed anchors (i.e., rings and chains that require untying from the rope to thread). In my experience, open anchors are also faster, easier, and more enjoyable to use.

Various open anchor designs exist and go by different names. Ram’s horns or pigtails tend to have a slightly larger bend radius on the loops than other varieties. A few accident reports like this one document other designs with even larger turn radii that have led to the rope leaving the anchor. As a result, I prefer the newer designs with the tightest loops possible.

Like making an error with a closed system, misuse of ram’s horns can lead to catastrophe, which is why a deep dive is merited.

But why do ram’s horns exist when we have mussy hooks?

Mussy hooks are superior to nearly every type of fixed anchor. They are easier to clip and can be used on chains, while ram’s horns are safer when installed directly to the bolt (ideally, a glue-in bolt). Mussies are very thick and can withstand a lot of wear and tear—and everyone already knows how to use them. So why on earth should we introduce a complicated squiggly piece of metal into the mix?

There are a few reasons why route developers might choose a ram’s horns anchor over a mussy hook. The first and biggest is titanium. For fixed anchors near the coast, titanium is the only acceptable metal choice. Even “marine grade” stainless steel corrodes on the coast, leading to a neverending cycle of rebolting and rock damage.

As of right now, due to manufacturing limitations with titanium, no other open-style lower-off anchors besides ram’s horns are available in titanium. Many of us coastal developers have begged manufacturers for a titanium mussy hook, but it’s simply not commercially viable at this time. Nothing available now would meet necessary safety standards, nor would it be available at a reasonable price point.

So why do stainless steel ram’s horns even exist? Cost. They are easy to manufacture and cost less, especially when considering that you don’t need to install a quicklink on each bolt like you would with a mussy hook.

If you really want to get into the weeds about the best place for various anchors, refer to the flowchart at the end of this article. In the meantime, let’s talk about how to use ram’s horns correctly.

The chain of safety

When a climbing accident occurs, it can often be attributed to a series of compounding errors. Most of our rope systems involve a series of redundant steps to keep us safe. This is the chain of safety. Many weak links decrease safety, but one missing link and you’re in danger.  When it comes to ram’s horns—and most anchors—the most often neglected links in the chain of safety are attention to detail, caution, and attentive self-preservationism.

Dozens of times, I have heard climbers say they weren’t sure if they rigged the ram’s horns correctly, but lowered off them anyway. It’s not uncommon that I’ve noticed someone trusting their life to incorrectly rigged anchors—and get away with it.

Before I can talk about the specifics of how to use ram’s horns (the far more entertaining link in the chain of safety), I must first insist that if we are ever not 100% confident in a piece of gear, it would be wise to make it redundant. In this case, that might mean leaving a sacrificial draw. Lower-offs and “probably good enough” do not go well together.

How to rig a toprope ram’s horns anchor

While there are many ways to rig a toprope, to keep things simple, we will just show two non-locking quickdraws. What’s important here is where to clip the top carabiners of your anchor to the ram’s horns—not which anchor setup you prefer (e.g., two draws, locker draws, quad, etc.).

First, it’s important to remember that the ram’s horns part of the anchors constitute the lower-off portion of the anchor. Lower-offs are perfectly named—they are only for lowering off a route, not for toproping. We want to minimize wear and tear, so we don’t have to beg route developers and local climbing organizations to replace hardware for us.

Whether you toprope with a quad, quickdraws, or some other method, there are four ways you could technically attach to a ram’s horns anchor. Below, I list these four possibilities from best to worst, along with the pros and cons of each.

Ram’s horns anchor configuration #1

Clipped to the bolts underneath the ram’s horns.

Pros:

• Safest method
• Uses the full-strength bolt
• Easy access to horns for cleaning
• Carabiners are tensioned safely

Cons:

• Slightly harder to clip under the horn, rather than over the horn.
• A tensioned rope through the ram’s horns pinches the draws, requiring knowledge of the correct sequence and method to clean the draws.

Ram’s horns anchor configuration #2:

Clipped to the bolts over the ram’s horns.

Pros:

• Easy to quickly clip in when arriving on lead
• Uses the full-strength bolt

Cons:

• Carabiners are severely torqued, which can permanently damage the carabiners
• Gates often become levered open, which can temporarily reduce their strength and make them prone to unclipping.
• Draws block access to the ram’s horns, making it difficult to clean the anchor

Ram’s horn anchor configuration #3

Clipped directly through all four of the ram’s horns.

Pros:

• None

Cons:

• Difficult to clip
• Not all carabiners will fit through both horns
• Fairly common to accidentally just clip one horn
• Ram’s horns become the weak link at 15kN each
• Poor loading force on the carabiner
• Blocks ram’s horns, making cleaning challenging
• Carabiners can become bound upward at dangerous angles
• Usually requires a personal anchor system (PAS) to clean

Ram’s horns anchor configuration #4:

Clipped to just one horn on each ram.

Pros:

• None

Cons:

• Draws easily flop off the anchor
• Extremely weak
• Nightmares, if not certain death

The Malaysian Bolting Fund shared this photo of the result of someone clipping a draw to just one side of a single pigtail anchor. The single loop of the pigtail was not strong enough to hold a small fall and fully opened up.

How to lower off ram’s horns anchors

In a ram’s horns anchor, I like to view each bolt as having one ram. Each ram has two horns. This means that the ideal ram’s horns anchor has four horns. When passing anything through the horns, you must utilize all four horns. The draw fell off the anchor in the story at the beginning of this article because the climber clipped each quickdraw to only one horn on each ram. The anchor was not “locked,” leaving the door wide open for disaster.

In Europe, it’s common for an anchor to have only “one ram” (as I call it) to lower off. This is generally plenty secure, especially if the rope maintains tension. However, each “ram” is only rated to 15 kN. Documented cases of the rope leaving the horns do exist. Several factors can lead to this fate:

1. A larger turn radius on the horns, which exists on some designs. This results in a very loose hold on the rope.
2. Bouncing, flicking, or slacking (e.g., to move a rope over a ledge or toprope a section) while lowering. You must maintain consistent tension on the rope at all times.
3. In the single ram’s horns orientation, the ram’s horns can also flip upside down, which can partially release the rope.

When used side-by-side, the four horns tension together, making it far less likely for a horn to get pinned upside down.

From my experimentation with ram’s horns anchors in my local coastal California crags, where these anchors are very common, a single ram with a tight turn radius on the horns is generally very secure. But a single ram is nowhere near as secure as two rams side-by-side (four horns total).

Several manufacturers recommend two ram’s horns, but not all route developers feel convinced that the redundancy is necessary. So I decided to test the ram’s horns hold on the rope with various configurations.

• One horn (half a ram) looped: Just seconds of rope flicking caused the rope to dislodge from the horn.
• Both horns of one ram looped: I vigorously shook the rope. Eventually, the rope left one of the horns. After that, the rope easily came off the second horn.

While this kind of shaking is unrealistic, rare outlier cases have caused accidents. I personally prefer the greater safety margin found in styles with a tighter turn radius and horizontal bolt orientation. With this anchor style and all four horns looped, I was unable to get the rope to leave the anchor.

Transitioning from toprope to lowering on ram’s horns

To keep things simple, we’ll show cleaning a two-quickdraw anchor. Regardless of the anchor style you choose, the techniques to clean remain the same. They all revolve around the carabiner clipped to the bolt, not what is clipped to that carabiner.

When cleaning the anchor after toproping, you won’t have any lead protection clipped below. That makes it even more important to ensure you are fully redundant on both bolts at the anchor. Additionally, always, always, stay on belay while rigging to lower through ram’s horns. There are no exceptions to this rule.

Cleaning a TR ram’s horns anchor can take a few forms based on how the anchor is rigged, the terrain, and the climber’s remaining energy. As far as the anchor rigging, we will discuss a toprope with carabiners (draws or quad) clipped to the bolts underneath the ram’s horns (configuration #1 above). This is by far the safest method, but also, unfortunately, the least intuitive to clean. With experience, however, cleaning can take less than five seconds. Even in the most problematic terrain, it’ll often take less than 30 seconds. Don’t try to race the clock, though. Take your time and make sure you’ve got it right.

The basic principle of lowering off ram’s horns is to thread the rope through all four horns without untying, then clean the draws. You can grab the rope anywhere to loop the horns, but the easiest and safest method to avoid dropping gear is to pull up rope from the belayer’s side of the anchor. That way, when you unclip the draws from the bolts, they’ll conveniently slide down the rope to your tie-in knot. If you pull rope from the climber’s side of the anchor, and drop the draw after unclipping from the bolt, it will fall down the rope all the way to the belayer. If you unclip the rope from the draw first, then remove the draw from the bolt and drop it, it will freefall. Less than ideal.

The biggest objection I’ve seen to clipping carabiners to the bolt below the ram’s horns is that they are too hard to remove. If the rope is tensioned in the ram’s horns, it will be incredibly difficult to remove anything clipped to the bolt below them. Thankfully, this is easily avoided with a different order of operations. Most importantly, remove anything clipped to the bolts below the ram’s horns before calling “take.” (Watch the video earlier in this story for a demonstration.)

Because you’ll always be on belay through the draws or ram’s horns, when going in direct to the anchor, you don’t need to clip in with a locker—meaning, you don’t need a PAS. A sling or “dog-draw” will work just fine. It’s almost always better to clip into one side of the anchor, and not weight both bolts. With longer personal tethers (a PAS or a sling), my favorite spot to clip on a ram’s horns anchor is the top carabiner of an anchor draw; this will save you a step later.

If the bolt is large enough, you can go direct into the bolt, though sometimes that will pin the carabiner below. If you don’t have a PAS, you can attach yourself with a “dog-draw” clipped to the lowest carabiner of just one anchor draw. Tensioning both bolts doesn’t add more safety and can create more work in more challenging terrain.

There are five main methods that I recommend for this cleaning sequence, listed below in order of increasing complexity, from fastest and most muscular to slowest and least muscular.

Cleaning method 1

If it’s easy terrain, just hold onto the wall and loop the horns. After double-checking that you looped the ram’s horns correctly, remove any carabiners from below the ram’s horns and call “take.”

Cleaning method 2

When you arrive at the anchor, start by going direct into ONE side of the toprope material with either a PAS, sling, or “dog-draw.” For this method, don’t clip into the bolt. Now that you’re direct, you can loop the rope through both ram’s horns. Double-check that you’ve looped the horns correctly. Then fully remove the draw from the slacked side of the anchor.

Now you need to clean the tensioned draw from under the ram’s horns. This is where many people gum it up. Don’t call take yet! First, pull onto the rock and remove the remaining draw, which will have your PAS or dog-draw attached. Then call “take.” If you’d like, you can prep your belayer with a “ready?” before calling take.

Cleaning method 3

If you’re too tired to pull on the rock—or holds are limited—you can use a draw as a handhold. After you clean the first (slacked) side of the anchor, re-clip the draw to the bolt above the ram’s horns. Then grab that slacked draw and transfer your PAS or dog-draw to that new draw. Continue to clean from there.

This method requires a quick burst of muscle to transfer the PAS, but compared to method #4, it minimizes the need for pestering the belayer with extra commands that could be misunderstood. It does, however, risk the equivalent of a slacked toprope fall if you slip up the transition, so proceed with caution.

Cleaning method 4

If you’re too tired to pull up on the draw in method three or would like to avoid a potential slacked fall, you can call “take” to transition your PAS or dog draw. If you’re using a dog-draw, it may not be long enough, and you may need to add a second. Call “slack” to remove the draw from the second bolt, then call “take” to remove your PAS/dog-draw. This method requires the least muscle and has the lowest risk of a small fall. But it requires calling “take” three times, “slack” twice, and “lower” once. This may cause your belayer to curse the ram’s horns.

Cleaning method 5

A final method is to use a dog-draw on the first bolt and a PAS on the second bolt. It’s best to use the adjustable PAS on the second bolt so you can easily tension it as you slack your dog-draw. This method is the “least muscular,” as it involves less hassle for the belayer, but it can be a bit of a cluster your first few times. It also requires a bit of extra gear and time.

Still here? Let’s get nerdy.

Everything we’ve been talking about has been with “horizontal anchors” with bolts at equal elevations. The alternative is a “vertical anchor” configuration, wherein one bolt sits above the other. These are becoming popular, and for good reason. But here, I will explain why I do not believe vertical anchors should be used with ram’s horns (gasp!).

A few common forms of vertical anchors exist with ram’s horns.

1. Two offset bolts each with ram’s horns
2. Two offset bolts with one chain and one ram’s horns setup
3. Ram’s horns on the top bolt and mussy hook on the bottom bolt.

I am personally not a fan of any of these styles, because I do not believe the safety sacrifices are worth any of the potential gains. If you come across these in the wild, don’t fret. Just know their limitations and lower slow and smooth. Definitely do not toprope through it! If it’s a single, large turn radius ram’s horns, I personally would probably leave a sacrificial draw.

Pre-rigging vertical ram’s horns anchors

Vertical anchors are great for “pre-rigging” an anchor for lowering, where the first person threads the anchor, then hangs the rope from the top bolt with a locker to prevent wear on the lower-off. The last climber can just unclip the draw and lower without any knowledge of how to properly clean an anchor.

While rare, a history of ram’s horns coming undone does exist (but never in the horizontal orientation, where both horns are equally weighted). If the last climber is not qualified to clean the anchor, how are they qualified to inspect that the pre-rigged ram’s horns are still rigged correctly before they unclip the toprope locker and trust them?

Vertical ram’s horns anchor redundancy

Why equalize two 35kN bolts (~70kN) or two 24kN draws (~48kN) just to trust your life to a single 15kN lower-off? Even if 15kN is comfortable enough for lowering for many, that rating will diminish over time as the lower-off experiences more wear. I still have significant concerns about how locked in the rope is with just one ram’s horns from both accident reports, as well as personal testing. Double horizontal ram’s horns are the way to go.

Wear and tear issues

Vertical ram’s horns anchors are also popular due to the idea that as the anchor experiences wear, you only have to replace one ram instead of two. This saves $8 or $15 when the lower-off must be replaced (the cost of stainless steel and titanium, respectively). Though installation cost is similar because one must factor in the cost of the chain.

I have questioned this idea, and did some research as well as a few days of experimentation to test if two ram’s horns would wear down at the same rate as a single ram’s horn. Specifically, my hypothesis was that with double the surface area for the rope to rub over, the wear and tear occurs at half the rate. This would mean that if a single ram’s horn wore out in, say, five years, instead of replacing one ram’s horn every five years, you would replace both ram’s horns every 10 years. It would be great if this is true, as I would much rather lower-offs wear out less often. It’s hard enough to keep current on crag maintenance.

The results from my backyard science were very surprising. While proper testing should be conducted with stainless steel and titanium and a much larger sample size, my results were enough to convince me that it’s highly likely that two ram’s horns wear down much slower than single ram’s horns. If proper testing does not show results as conclusive as what I found, then I can still rest knowing that placing double ram’s horns anchors is still much safer. At worst, that safety will just cost a few extra bucks when it comes time to replacement.

For this experiment, I couldn’t sit around for 10 years while minimizing all other variables, so I needed to simulate significantly faster wear and tear. My goal was not to test the material, but rather to compare how the orientation of the lower-off material affects wear and tear (i.e., one ram’s horn under tension vs. two).

I made a rig with two sets of fake ram’s horns with a 3/8-inch wooden dowel, which is the same diameter as real ram’s horns. Then I pulled a 70m rope through the horns 20 times for a total of 4,600 feet (1,400 meters) of rope. I repeated the test with a simulated single ram’s horn setup, using calipers (accuracy of ± 0.001-inch) to measure the wear on the rods. I found that the single ram’s horn anchor wore down 2.76 times faster than the two ram’s horns anchor. This difference was immediately noticeable through both feel and visual inspection.

I then did a second experiment with tightly packed cardboard dowels. In this test, I lifted and lowered an eight-pound weight up seven feet, then counted the lifts until any one of the dowels broke. I repeated the test with the other anchor style. After 447 pulls, both dowels in the simulated single ram’s horn broke simultaneously.

Here’s what really blows me away, though: The simulated double ram’s horns took 2,420 pulls before a dowel broke. That’s 5.4 times as much rope rub before wearing out! Of course, different materials will react differently to these tests. But so far, my online research seems to indicate that generally, if you add anchor material, that material wears down more slowly. Hopefully, this will lay to rest the installation of vertical single ram’s horn lower-offs. It’s just not worth it.

Rope twisting concerns

Horizontally placed rings can cause the rope to twist, as John Godino of AlpineSavvy demonstrates. Naturally, many would assume that horizontally placed ram’s horns will do the same. Over 10 years of heavy ram’s horns use, I have yet to see a correctly rigged ram’s horns anchor twist the rope.

You must install ram’s horns directly to the bolt. If the ram’s horns hang from a chain, they are free to twist and will act more like rings that “flop” over, causing the rope to twist.

If you come across a single ram’s horns anchor lower off, whether horizontal or vertical, don’t worry. Just know it’s important to lower smoothly and avoid slacking, bouncing, or flicking the rope while lowering.

In conclusion: Ram’s horns anchors fast facts

Since this is a lengthy read with many details, guidelines, and experimentation notes, here are a few quick facts to remember the next time you come face-to-face with a ram’s horns anchor:

• The ram’s horns part of the anchor is for lowering only, not for setting up a toprope anchor!
• When lowering, always thread the rope through all four horns.
• When setting up a toprope, always clip your top anchor carabiners through the bolts (not the ram’s horns), underneath the ram’s horns.
• If you encounter a single ram’s horn or vertical ram’s horn, proceed with caution and avoid flicking, bouncing, or slacking the rope. Lower steady and smooth, with the rope weighted the entire time.

Evan Wisheropp is a prolific route developer based in California. He has spent the past 10 years bolting 640 routes. Since he lives near coastal crags where titanium fixed anchors and equipment are important for safety and longevity, he often establishes and encounters ram’s horns anchors. 

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