EARNESTO Anchors

Take your anchor building to the next level. Here’s my variation.

I’m sure you’ve heard at least one of the following acronyms to consider key components in anchor building: SRENE, SERENE, NERDSS, LEADSTER, ERNEST, EARNEST. Here’s my favorite variation to take it one step further: EARNESTO.

First, let’s start with a refresher. All of these letters mostly stand for the same thing throughout acronyms, they’re just arranged in different orders.

  • E – Equalized
  • A – Angles
  • R – Redundant
  • NE – No Extension
  • S – Strong
  • T – Timely

Well, so what does the O stand for then? Organized. As you get the key components of anchor building down, you’ll be able to start thinking with a bigger picture in mind. Being organized throughout your climbing is where you’ll start making large gains in efficiency, and this will allow you to go bigger, higher, longer, faster.

How to incorporate the O into your anchor

Another way I think of having an organized anchor could be called anchor management. Seeing a bigger picture of your entire scene is called stance management. Here’s a few key ways to keep things tidy.

  1. When clipping into master points, keep things linear.

Organization will bring everything together in your climbing.