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Rapelling with a munter

Allegheny Tom

Allegheny Tom

Well-Known Member
SH Member
Joined
Feb 4, 2018
Messages
6,044
Location
Western Pennsylvania
Question:
If I'm rapelling with a munter on a carabiner, and I need both hands free to address something (like prune a branch, access something out of my pack, etc etc), what is the best way to "lock" the feed? Am I correct in assuming that I can tie off somehow to temporarily prevent the rope from feeding? Btw, anchored to the tree with a JRB hitch.
 
Best practice is to always have a backup prusik tied on the brake strand below the munter. That way if you accidentally lose grip, the hitch will catch the rope and stop you. Or you can go hands free and since the munter acts as added friction, the hitch on the brake strand doesn't bear your full weight.

There are many friction hitches, but prusik knot and Autoblock are probably most commonly used. Test your backup before you trust your life on it. See that it grabs even after loosened for rappeling.

For tethering you sometimes see a friction hitch above the rappel device / munter. Problem with that is you need a friction hitch that can be released under your full body weight. To find balance with a hitch that will reliably hold full body weight, catch in case you lose control AND release when loaded, is tricky. JRB Ascender is complicated to tie and it's behavior changes when loaded several times. Friction hitch on brake strand is the standard practice in rock climbing and other rope related activities.

There is also option of tying a munter mule, which means blocking the munter hitch with a mule hitch. This ties you off also, but resuming rappel isn't as effortless and there is a risk of losing control of the rope if you slip while tying the mule hitch. If you don't trust the backup prusik alone, tie an overhand bight on the rope below the friction hitch
 
I use a hitch above my fig8/munter. Just sit into it when i need to make a hands free action and break it little by little to continue rappel, keeping at least 8” between hitch and rappel “device”. I also super that munter so my brake strand is in the downward direction instead of upward. That’s a comfort thing. You may already be doing it or you may prefer your brake upwards.
 
I use a 4 wrap Michoacan above the Munter, I run the Mich off of the bridge on my Recon and the Munter off of the Linesman loop. You can break the Mich under full load.
 
I'd like to see/hear some real world pro con of a friction hitch backup above or below. I use the hitch I hang and hunt off of for my backup during rappel above the monster munter. I've never had it bind except once when I had 9mm htp soaking wet from rain and a tradition prusik. Easy enough fix...I made temp foot hold, attached linesman, unloaded, took out the 2nd wrap making it a monster munter, broke the prusik after a short battle, continued the decent.
With the way I have it configured if I let go off the break side I have only couple inches of slack. A shorter length of hitch cord is better in this application....makes for some fun tying the hitch but the shorter the legs/strand of the hitch between the munter and hitch the better. I find the knut hitch with tender to work best for me
 
Allegheny Tom said:
Question:
If I'm rapelling with a munter on a carabiner, and I need both hands free to address something (like prune a branch, access something out of my pack, etc etc), what is the best way to "lock" the feed? Am I correct in assuming that I can tie off somehow to temporarily prevent the rope from feeding? Btw, anchored to the tree with a JRB hitch.
Click to expand...
JRB has a video where he shows exactly that. How to lock it to have both hands free. Not a specific video but he mentions it in one of the repelling videos.
 
Weldabeast said:
I'd like to see/hear some real world pro con of a friction hitch backup above or below. I use the hitch I hang and hunt off of for my backup during rappel above the monster munter. I've never had it bind except once when I had 9mm htp soaking wet from rain and a tradition prusik. Easy enough fix...I made temp foot hold, attached linesman, unloaded, took out the 2nd wrap making it a monster munter, broke the prusik after a short battle, continued the decent.
With the way I have it configured if I let go off the break side I have only couple inches of slack. A shorter length of hitch cord is better in this application....makes for some fun tying the hitch but the shorter the legs/strand of the hitch between the munter and hitch the better. I find the knut hitch with tender to work best for me
Click to expand...
Keeping the backup above makes redoing things easier if the device/hitch below locks up or decides to send you free falling. In the latter case if you have a backup below, it will get jammed into the hitch/device or worse gets pushed down the rope if its a moveable hitch.
 
Last edited:
SNIPERBBB said:
Do all that stuff on the way up... When your coming down, come down.
Click to expand...
Ideally, yeah address as many details as you can on the way up. But stuff happens and there are things that suddenly crop up that may show a needed (or desired) reason for interrupting the rappel. One example that I can think of is when the target buck that that's been on the radar for years suddenly shows up just as the descent has already begun. If if can wait just a few seconds or minutes, he may be past on on his way. But if I keep rappelling, I'm gonna do more than just scare him, I'm gonna educate him to the fact that I'm hunting out of that tree. Some of us are hunting on properties where workable trees are at a premium, hunt-able trees are few and far between. I treat them like they are sacred and I hate being seen and identified as "human" while in the tree. I think I'd rater be winded than have a deer, any deer see me in the tree. Many times I've stood on bolts, half way during my climb down, waiting for deer to move on. I'd like to be able to safely do that during a rappel.
That example is what I'd call optional. But there are sometimes unforeseen issues that just come out of left field. I want to know how to stop the rappel regardless of the reasons why I WANT to or NEED to.
 
With the hitch above the MM if u need to stop u simply let go of the friction hitch and allow whatever small amount of slack there is between the hitch and MM to play out until the hitch takes the load and u can let go of everything...once the hitch grabs u again the MM is irrelevant. Since u controlled the amount of force when applying the load back into the friction hitch with the break hand the hitch doesn't bind up tight at all...the hitch and MM share the load if u do it right
 
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