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How To Get Knots Out Of Climbing Rope

6 min read

(Although someone would probably be very happy to come along and find a free rope.) The first step to ensuring you can retrieve a rappelling rope actually starts before you even descend. I am a retired Physical Education Teacher/ Athletiic Coach/ Strength Coach and utilized climbing ropes my whole career. The rope by Rogue is the best for overall strength and conditioning for all ages. I throw it over a strong tree branch and my 7, 5, and 3 yr. The crucial equation in alpine climbing—efficiency equals speed, which equals safety—means that every second saved at a belay transition is another second spent getting to the top. One simple time saver is tying two often-used hitches—the Munter and the clove—with one hand.

Pull one side of the towel at a time to raise and lower yourself. I tie a 1/4″ rope to a trailer hitch ball and toss it over a branch. The only time I put a rope into a tree is if it looks like it doesn’t want to fall where I want it to. Strange as it may sound, I found that the best rubber to use to make the sling shot was several linked large rubber bands. The surgical rubber that you can buy for “proper” slingshots was too strong and did not allow the accuracy that was achievable with the lighter rubber bands. This knot should be small enough to go through the BIG ring but too big to go through the SMALL ring.

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In the USA I recommend you use an arborist who is a member of the International Society of Arborists or the local national body – in New Zealand, NZAA, in Australia, ISAAC etc. We have also grouped knots that are common to various applications such as Arborist Knots, Boating Knots, Climbing Knots and Knots useful in Search and Rescue. You can also use the Search box above to search the site for any specific knot name that you are looking for. % of people told us that this article helped them. If the knot is too tight, consider slicing through it with scissors or a blade.

Since I mentioned falling rocks, make sure you’re wearing a high-quality climbing helmet. I wrote a complete guide about climbing helmets, and you can check that out as well if you need some guidance. Keeping your head down is also a good idea, but you also need to watch the rope carefully, so this can be tricky. Assuming you’ve reached the ground or your next rappel station safely, you can now proceed to recover your ropes from the top.

For knots in a medium-gauge cord or rope, bite the knot between your teeth. The pressure from your clenched teeth should loosen the knot enough that you can untie it with ease. You might even be able to feel it expanding between your teeth. Extending from any knot are two “arms.” Grab one of these arms and start turning it.

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It may take a while though, and that’s where climbers tend to lose it, and start hammering, or stomping, or doing other things that you really don’t want to do to your life line. The greatest twisting should be in the part that is not in the bundle as that part did not pass through the Munter. When you pull the rope what twisting remains will hopefully come out well enough.

For more tips on how to choose the best climbing rope, see our must-read article to find out. To prep for climbing, there’s a wide variety of exercises you can do on a rope, like the Row and Switch, or off rope like a Farmer Carry. Once you feel strong enough to climb, start with the gym class lock and go from there. You’ll be at an acute angle with the wall but if you take your time and go slowly, you’ll be able to strike a good balance with the weight on your upper body to be able to keep climbing.

1.Start the same way as the clove hitch, with your rope coming up through the biner and away from the wall. 4.Pull on each strand to tighten it up, and you’ve got a clove hitch. 2.Reach across your rope and grab the bottom strand. Pull it up slightly and create a small loop, with the bottom part of the rope on top. Using the Trace Eight to connect the rope to the climbing harness.

The prusik is a useful friction hitch that slides freely when not weighted, but bites down on the rope when you do weight it. Many variations on the prusik exist, including the autoblock and klemheist, but for simplicity we’ll stick with the prusik. You can learn the other hitches down the road. The most common use for the prusik is to back up your rappel device by tying a prusik on the rope below the device, or above it depending on your preference.

Consider this a small price to pay for security. Practice this knot until you can tie it, rain or shine, in the dark. The best way to get the twist out of your rope after rappelling on a munter, is to let the rope hang free.

However, it will kink your rope much more than a standard belay device. This hitch is used most often as a way to connect yourself to the anchor. Not only is the clove hitch easy to tie (one- or two-handed), but the beauty of it is that you can adjust the length of the rope on either side of the hitch without untying it. Two prusiks placed on a rope and clipped to your harness with long runners let you climb the rope by alternately weighting and unweighting the prusiks, inchworm style. This technique is a lifesaver when you fall on an overhanging route and are stranded in space, unable to get onto the rock.

Push one end of the rope through the ATC in the way you’d use it to belay . Another option is to do an old-fashioned mountaineers coil and just make sure you are twisting the rope in the correct direction.

I prefer it below the rappel device so I can push it down with my brake hand as I rappel. Being able to properly tie climbing knots is an essential skill every climber regardless of experience or ability must not only learn but master. There are hundreds of types of knots you can use for climbing—entire books have been written on knots—so taking the step to learn them can be daunting. Still, don’t tie yourself in knots with worry. When I started climbing in 1973 climbers used four basic knots, the Double Bowline, Ring Bend, Prusik, and Clove Hitch, and those got me by for over a decade.

No matter how careful you are with your climbing rope, twists and kinks are bound to happen. A rope can become twisted for any number of reasons, but there are four extremely common instances that will cause issues. Remember to always check your knots, make sure they tight, and dressed neatly. Don’t try any knew methods with out trying them in a climbing gym or consulting with an experienced instructor or guide.

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