I finally learned why my climbing rope kept getting stuck after a job on a giant white oak outside Cleveland

So I was working this massive white oak in somebody's backyard near Cleveland last spring. Beautiful tree, but it had this crazy fork about 40 feet up. I set my line and everything seemed fine, but every time I descended or moved around, my rope would just bind up like crazy. Took me like 15 minutes just to get unstuck once. I was cussing up there lol. Anyway, an old timer I know named Ray saw me packing up and asked what happened. He took one look at my throw line setup and said 'you're not leaving enough tail on your friction hitch, that's why it's locking up on you.' I had been doing it the same way for two years. Now I always leave at least 6 inches of tail and it's smooth as butter. Has anyone else had a dumb little adjustment like that totally change their climbing game?

3 comments

3 Comments

casey68228d ago

Ray's right about leaving tail, but friction hitch bind usually means your hitch cord diameter is too close to your rope size.

faith_king28d ago

Kinda off topic but remember when we used to just tie a couple overhand knots and call it good... now we're all measuring cord diameters like we're doing surgery.

tara79327d ago

Shocked the hell out of me reading casey682's comment about the hitch cord diameter being too close to the rope size. That's one of those things you'd never think about until it actually binds up on you in the field. I've seen guys tie off with stuff that was basically the same thickness as their main line and wonder why they couldn't get it undone after a load hit it. Makes total sense though, you need that difference so the hitch can grab and release like it's supposed to. Never crossed my mind that close diameters cause a friction lock, I just thought people were using the wrong knots.