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Best, lightest, easiest to use climbing stick?

here’s another vote like many have said,
@razorsharptokill if you’re climbing method up is already super easy then what you need is to incorporate rappelling down, not getting noisy, expensive, cumbersome, bulky, annoying sticks.

buy 40-50 foot of 8mm Oplux, rescue tech, or equivalent, a figure eight, and a hollowblock.
 
I use four mini Beast sticks. First one has a three step webbing aider with 16” steps. The next 3 have EWO 16” wire single aiders. I don’t like multi step aiders beyond the first one, it’s too sketchy for me in winter boots. I rappel down

I now use RDA trucker hitch daisy chains. No metallic pieces, I can get them incredibly tight/secure without any sag, so it sets right where I want it with a truckers hitch.

I hated climbing down last year, felt dangerous going down in the dark. I use a Madrock safeguard and a rappel rope as my tether, I can stop on the way down and remove my sticks.
 
I was thinking that the rappel rope could substitute as a tether. It seems like carrying a 30-35' piece of rope AND sticks/steps would be a lot of added weight though.
 
Meh, a pound or two. Way safer coming down in my opinion. And figure it’s only 22-27 feet more of rope than you’d typically carrying instead of a tether. I know saddle, ropes, sticks, and platform I'm still probably carrying around 15-18lbs of gear.
 
razorsharptokill said:
I was thinking that the rappel rope could substitute as a tether. It seems like carrying a 30-35' piece of rope AND sticks/steps would be a lot of added weight though.
Click to expand...

It sure can. Many use their rappel rope as a tether. Just keep the excess in a pouch. And as many have said 40’ of oplux will be minimal. And then your tied in from start to finish no swapping ropes.


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I 5th rappelling. It’s the only way to go.


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What is the lightest, most pliable rappelling rope? Can a prusik and carabiner be used as with a tether but during ascension? Is there another option than a mad rock?
 
razorsharptokill said:
What is the lightest, most pliable rappelling rope? Can a prusik and carabiner be used as with a tether but during ascension? Is there another option than a mad rock?
Click to expand...

A lot of this is very personal. By prusik do you mean a tied hitch, then yes. I wouldn’t probably use the prusik knot. There are much better hitches for ascending and descending. Madrock, grigri, figure 8, munter, etc. so yes lots of options. I think oplux is very light and pliable, but there are many options, and the oplux 8mm is out of spec for the madrock.


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razorsharptokill said:
What is the lightest, most pliable rappelling rope? Can a prusik and carabiner be used as with a tether but during ascension? Is there another option than a mad rock?
Click to expand...
8mm ropes are going to be what you’re going to want for the most pliable and packable. Sterling Oplux and Rescue Tech are very pliable out the gate. Samson Ultratech is another great option but it takes a few uses before it loosens up.

I’m assuming you are asking can a prusik and a carabiner be used on the rappel rope as a tether? The answer is yes but there will be more to it than that. I personally like to have a tether as well as a rappel rope and I like to keep it simple. Tether has a prusik and a carabiner on it, rappel rope has a a WLR or Sticht hitch on it that stays on there at all times. I hook my hitch that lives on my rappel rope to my bridge, add my figure 8, and down I go.

There are many variations and ways to do this but you should learn to tie in A figure 8 and a autoblock to rappel first, and then go from there.
 
By prusik, I mean just like on a prussik and carabiner clipped to my bridge like a conventional tether. I'm using a JX3, probably not as easy to 1 stick with it as compared to a soft saddle? For rappelling I could just use a figure 8 and carabiner.
 
razorsharptokill said:
By prusik, I mean just like on a prussik and carabiner clipped to my bridge like a conventional tether. I'm using a JX3, probably not as easy to 1 stick with it as compared to a soft saddle? For rappelling I could just use a figure 8 and carabiner.
Click to expand...

There are several variations of the prusik. Like was said there is a little more to it than that but yes. You can tie a conventional prusik hitch and hook it to your bridge with a carabiner. A hitch tender would make it easier to adjust with one hand. I would prefer a michoacan hitch or schwabisch hitch.


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razorsharptokill said:
By prusik, I mean just like on a prussik and carabiner clipped to my bridge like a conventional tether. I'm using a JX3, probably not as easy to 1 stick with it as compared to a soft saddle? For rappelling I could just use a figure 8 and carabiner.
Click to expand...
At it's most basic, you can ascend and descend a rope with nothing more than (2) prusik cords and (1) biner. Personally, I'd swap the prusik hitch for a distel but whatever hitch you use, you end up inch-worming your want up and down. The advantage is you've always got a cord ready to catch you if you slip and is by far the lightest and most compact.

Once you add a belay device such as an 8, rack, madrock, etc, you add weight, lose compactness but add speed.
 
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