Weird rant but here it goes…
I’d be interested to hear what everyone describes as self tending hitch… this isn’t to you specifically Btaylor
Do you consider it to be a one handed operation where one pulls on the tag end to release and progress the hitch further up the rope?
Yes, that's what I consider 'self-tending'. Perhaps in ignorance but that's how I understand the term to be used.
Would you agree you still need to take your weight off of the hitch to tend it?
Not sure I understand it... if the hitch is loaded there's nothing to tend. Tend out the slack. Do you mean break, as in rappel? I consider breaking and tending to refer to two distinct operations - tending to ascend, breaking to descend. I'm happy to be corrected if I'm wrong.
If you are in fact needing to take weight off to take up the slack and self tend the hitch could you tell me what your other hand is doing during this time? Is it possible that that other hand is grabbing the tree, above the hitch, or onto the bridge or somewhere else to lift oneself up in order to give your other hand the ability to take up slack out of the hitch? Maybe not everytime but sometimes. Have you ever took the weight off your saddle by standing, pulled the tag end of your rope to self tend the hitch and caused your tether to fall because your self tending hitch wasnt self tending as easily as you thought?
Generally holding on to my stick or the tree. I generally avoid holding my rope itself as I don't want to slip and inadvertently break my hitch. Sometimes I'll pull myself up by my hitch (or the carabiner on the hitch), then grab the trunk or whatever once I'm situated where I want to be. I have had my tether fall but I use a bungee to keep it tight to the tree so that's rarely an issue. Generally, I try to tend out slack as I climb; 'standing up' while pulling myself up with one hand and tending out slack with the other.
My rant is one against self tending. This is a feature that is pointless to me. Wether you use a prusik or any other hitch, it is much easier to grab and pull oneself up at the same time from the tag end and push the hitch up with the free hand. In this way you maintain a tight connection to the tree at all times and have no worry about the tether falling down. In reverse it is easier to pull oneself slightly up to take weight of the hitch and use the free hand to adjust the hitch down as you slowly reweight the hitch controllably with the hand that raised you.
I prefer self-tending hitches as I want to be able to operate them one handed. I haven't been impressed with the few (admittedly DIY) Prussic tenders I've tried. On the ground they were great but at height I needed two hands to tend, which meant I needed to set a LB to hold myself in position while fiddling with my Prussic. Very frustrating and felt unsafe. With one-handed operation I can tend slack out faster. Pushing the Prussic up hasn't worked for me because I generally don't have anything weighting down the tag end of my rope; when I've tried this I needed to step on my rope to hold it in place while I pushed the Prussic up, otherwise I'd just lift the rope up by my Prussic instead of advancing it. I dislike stepping on ropes as I want to avoid grinding grit into the fibers, and I want to avoid getting my feet tangled up.
Glad you've got a technique that works for you. I couldn't make it work for me and went a different route.