Taking a group of competent indoor lead climbers out for their first taste of outdoor rock climbing on easy single-pitch routes on Stanage.

An anchor had been setup to top-rope Youth (VDiff). Weather: stable, cloudy with intermittent bursts of sun, 25mph winds at the anchor, 18C without windchill. The anchor comprised a sling around a small thread to the left of the route finish, and two small nuts grouped to the right, one of which threaded into the crack. The anchor was built as a sliding anchor between the thread and the grouped nuts with limiting knots very close to the master point.

The route then saw multiple top-rope ascents by my group, circa 10 ascents with lowers. It is worth noting a second line had also been setup on the neighbouring Icy Crack (VS) where I had used the same thread again to build the anchor, using another sling.

The final ascent saw climber #1 sim-leading, on a top-top belay from climber #2 and lead-belay from climber #3 to learn how to place gear on their first trad ascent. Rockfax comments noted this route a good First-Trad-route with lots of good gear. Indeed climber #1 did a great clean ascent. Upon getting to the top, climber #3 took climber #1 off lead-belay to be lowered on the top rope. Around 1/3rd of the way down, 2-3m, climber #1 and climber #2 stopped, noting they felt a sudden drop of a few inches.

I told them to stay there as I went up the side to inspect the anchor, I found the thread had failed, with the sliding anchor and limit knots transferring load to the two small nuts. I’d placed. They were holding, so I advised climber #2 to continue the lower slowly, after which I pulled up the rope and dismantled the anchor as judged it not safe enough to continue. No injuries, pictures taken.