Today I was supposed to host an informal skills clinic with a climber new to the outdoors, and teach them the basics of anchor cleaning. They ended up rescheduling, so I had some time to waste.
We're usually taught to clip draws with the gate facing away from the direction of the next bolt/pro, but if you're clipping a hanger (as opposed to a glue-in), could the biner rotate, and have the gate opened by the bolt itself?
I tried with an extendable draw I had, and it took some doing, but it was definitely possible. Rope movement can make a draw do funny things, and extendable draws in particular love to flip orientation. Lots of seemingly impossible things have happened to unattended protection!
This doesn't really apply to local crags here since bolts here are glue-ins, with exception of the anchor, but food for thought.
All the same it seems the advice to clip with the gate facing away from direction of travel still seems to supercede this niche edge case.
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