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Best friction hitch for climbing and set?

Joined
Nov 1, 2021
Messages
97
I am familiar with the prussik but it is hard to break loose once weight has been applied. I plan on using an ATC for rappel descent with a back up below and a friction hitch above on my carabiner/saddle connection, THAT one is a bear to adjust or break loose.
 
have you read this rabbit hole yet? What cord and rope combo do you currently have? endless loop or eye to eye cord? any desire to swap any one of those particulars?
 
Like was said above read through that thread and get familiar with the hitches that tend well and break well under load like Sticht, Cornell, Happy hands, etc. Practice tying them until you are comfortable with the hitch. Then practice with them at ground level before going up. I would also encourage looking at using a munter hitch for rappel. It's easy to learn and easy to use in the field with your preferred friction hitch above it. Would also encourage learning the running JRB hitch for attaching your rope to the tree and easy remote removal.
 
have you read this rabbit hole yet? What cord and rope combo do you currently have? endless loop or eye to eye cord? any desire to swap any one of those particulars?

Wow that is a lot of info. My rope is Sterling HTP 9mm and sewn 6mm loop for the hitch, not sure of the type. I have been considering the Schwabisch hitch also. Looks pretty straight forward/uncomplicated. https://www.netknots.com/rope_knots/schwabisch-hitch I would need to get a length of cord to tie an eye to eye cord.
 
I also run 9mm line w/ 6mm cord… I personally like the michocaon hitch…. It’s great under load and I’ve rappelled using only the hitch a few times just testing it out… however it can’t be tied using a loop so thats something to think about
 
I am familiar with the prussik but it is hard to break loose once weight has been applied. I plan on using an ATC for rappel descent with a back up below and a friction hitch above on my carabiner/saddle connection, THAT one is a bear to adjust or break loose.
It's important we never get stuck in a tree, and so to be able to break a friction hitch under the weight of our full body weight, even with no footing. But this video explains why your question is a good one. And this link has details on how to tie it, with video links.


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It's important we never get stuck in a tree, and so to be able to break a friction hitch under the weight of our full body weight, even with no footing. But this video explains why your question is a good one. And this link has details on how to tie it, with video links.


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JRB Ascender Hitch is the name of the hitch, but there are a couple of variations on how to tie it depending on the results we want

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Wow that is a lot of info. My rope is Sterling HTP 9mm and sewn 6mm loop for the hitch, not sure of the type. I have been considering the Schwabisch hitch also. Looks pretty straight forward/uncomplicated. https://www.netknots.com/rope_knots/schwabisch-hitch I would need to get a length of cord to tie an eye to eye cord.
Get you a 7mm eye to eye hitch cord and learn the Cornell hitch. It’s super reliable, breaks under load, and overall isn’t too fancy to tie.

As stated by BTaylor, the stitch is another great one as well.
 
The Arbsession Hitch is another good one and VERY easy to tie:

Tonight i tied the Knut, Cornell, Catalyst, Swabisch, Klemheist, Hedden, Michoacán, Arbsession, and a few others. I used 6mm Sterling TRC cord on Maxim Canyon Elite Rope, which is advertised as 9mm, but its actually almost 10. I had done the same test 2 years ago... i load em with my full body weight and move it and repeat and then attempt to break under the full load of my body. The easiest to break under load was the JRB Ascender. 2nd place was another hitch I designed but haven't published. Michoacán was 3rd. 4th place had a lot of ties.

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Are you totally against devices? I tried knots when I first started. I am 250+ and my knots locked down. Plus all the extra rope I had to carry into the tree. I am not a minimalist at all, but don't like to have a ton of stuff hanging in a tree. I climb on a Kong and switch to a gri gri at height to rappel. These rappel devices are made to hold a climber making a dynamic fall by the belay guy on the ground. I really have more fear of a knot getting locked down than a device failing.
 
Wow that is a lot of info. My rope is Sterling HTP 9mm and sewn 6mm loop for the hitch, not sure of the type. I have been considering the Schwabisch hitch also. Looks pretty straight forward/uncomplicated. https://www.netknots.com/rope_knots/schwabisch-hitch I would need to get a length of cord to tie an eye to eye cord.
Look for @Brocky pics of his drawings. I’ve been tying everyone lately and really like a few of them

I am using 9mm Sterling HTP and Oplux with 6mm TRC
 
Tonight i tied the Knut, Cornell, Catalyst, Swabisch, Klemheist, Hedden, Michoacán, Arbsession, and a few others. I used 6mm Sterling TRC cord on Maxim Canyon Elite Rope, which is advertised as 9mm, but its actually almost 10. I had done the same test 2 years ago... i load em with my full body weight and move it and repeat and then attempt to break under the full load of my body. The easiest to break under load was the JRB Ascender. 2nd place was another hitch I designed but haven't published. Michoacán was 3rd. 4th place had a lot of ties.

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I would be curious how if any the your thoughts might change comparing those hitches on TRC and 8mm Resctech and 9mm Protac for example. The ascender hitch works very well for me on TRC and Resctech but is a much more complex hitch to tie than say a happy hands or cornell which I have tied and used or tied and semi tested lol. I know you have tied a lot of rope combos just dont remember a head to head comparison if you will.
 
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Tonight i tied the Knut, Cornell, Catalyst, Swabisch, Klemheist, Hedden, Michoacán, Arbsession, and a few others. I used 6mm Sterling TRC cord on Maxim Canyon Elite Rope, which is advertised as 9mm, but its actually almost 10. I had done the same test 2 years ago... i load em with my full body weight and move it and repeat and then attempt to break under the full load of my body. The easiest to break under load was the JRB Ascender. 2nd place was another hitch I designed but haven't published. Michoacán was 3rd. 4th place had a lot of ties.

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The Michoacán doesn’t grab as reliably as the stitch or the Cornell and I’m 235 lbs and have easily broke the 3wrap Cornell under my full body load using 7mm vt cord on 10mm Bluewater protac. @GeoFish @MADhunts @Weldabeast can probably all attest to. So it makes me curious how many wraps did you use in these configurations? Also did you film them?
 
So no, i didn't film anything. That would require more planning and i would want to do a good job of it. One of the problems doing this kind of testing is the number of variables in play. I intentionally chose one rope / cord combination so i could compare apples to apples. But i have at least 10 different cords and 10 different ropes and so if we start to vary things, it gets big fast. We also can typically vary the number of wraps around the rope and increase the hold with the number of wraps. The amount of hold is typically proportional to the amount of surface area contact between the cord and rope and so its normal that small diameters like 6mm cord on 8mm rope require more wraps to get an equivalent hold as 8 on 11, for example. And even if it seems to hold, when it's soaking wet, it might creep. Bottom line is that every combination of rope, cord and load needs to be tested by the person using it.

As for the question about mechanicals, no, I am not anti-mechanical. But i wouldn't use one without a backup friction hitch. And i consider it a rule that we have to be tied in for entire climb. I would never put in a mechanical device when I am already in the tree for example. It's droppable. Anything we need can't be droppable. It's gotta be put on before we start the climb. It's been a long time since i used climbing sticks, but i hated the process of managing my tie in as I climbed and a metal device just made it harder.

I believe we can trust our saddle, the tree and our rope, but everything else should be redundant, if possible. Anything that moves should have a backup. 95% of my hunting climbing is on my stationary doubled rope climbing system, and if a friction hitch were to fail completely or my adjustable bridge failed completely, or a carabiner somehow opened up, i won't fall, and I can recover without assistance, and can do it with nothing under my feet. I am not trying to sell anyone on my climbing method. But i do want ya to borrow the idea that you have the same level of resilience in your own system. Bottom line is that if someone wanted a basic recommendation for a friction Hitch, I would give them the Michoacán.

Once that is mastered, I would consider making it automatically tended by putting a Buffalo Hitch under it.

After that, play with other hitches including JRB Ascender.

Buy a 25 foot length of 7mm Sterling cord and cut a 6ft length and do some experiments. It's the best investment you can make. RockNArbor sells it and they gave us all 10% off with the JRB10 coupon code.


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So no, i didn't film anything. That would require more planning and i would want to do a good job of it. One of the problems doing this kind of testing is the number of variables in play. I intentionally chose one rope / cord combination so i could compare apples to apples. But i have at least 10 different cords and 10 different ropes and so if we start to vary things, it gets big fast. We also can typically vary the number of wraps around the rope and increase the hold with the number of wraps. The amount of hold is typically proportional to the amount of surface area contact between the cord and rope and so its normal that small diameters like 6mm cord on 8mm rope require more wraps to get an equivalent hold as 8 on 11, for example. And even if it seems to hold, when it's soaking wet, it might creep. Bottom line is that every combination of rope, cord and load needs to be tested by the person using it.

As for the question about mechanicals, no, I am not anti-mechanical. But i wouldn't use one without a backup friction hitch. And i consider it a rule that we have to be tied in for entire climb. I would never put in a mechanical device when I am already in the tree for example. It's droppable. Anything we need can't be droppable. It's gotta be put on before we start the climb. It's been a long time since i used climbing sticks, but i hated the process of managing my tie in as I climbed and a metal device just made it harder.

I believe we can trust our saddle, the tree and our rope, but everything else should be redundant, if possible. Anything that moves should have a backup. 95% of my hunting climbing is on my stationary doubled rope climbing system, and if a friction hitch were to fail completely or my adjustable bridge failed completely, or a carabiner somehow opened up, i won't fall, and I can recover without assistance, and can do it with nothing under my feet. I am not trying to sell anyone on my climbing method. But i do want ya to borrow the idea that you have the same level of resilience in your own system. Bottom line is that if someone wanted a basic recommendation for a friction Hitch, I would give them the Michoacán.

Once that is mastered, I would consider making it automatically tended by putting a Buffalo Hitch under it.

After that, play with other hitches including JRB Ascender.

Buy a 25 foot length of 7mm Sterling cord and cut a 6ft length and do some experiments. It's the best investment you can make. RockNArbor sells it and they gave us all 10% off with the JRB10 coupon code.


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That isn’t the proper Michoacán, you need to rotate the hitch 180 degrees. I’ve seen it called the Petroacan and Scaffold Hitch. The Michoacán and Petroacan perform very differently from each other.
 
That isn’t the proper Michoacán, you need to rotate the hitch 180 degrees. I’ve seen it called the Petroacan and Scaffold Hitch. The Michoacán and Petroacan perform very differently from each other.
@Brocky , not sure what ya mean. I am happy to check that out but I need some kind of reference. Do you have a link for me? Are u saying it's tied properly but should be rotated after its complete? Are u saying it performs better on a hitch climber pulley that way?

I see people tying variants of stuff all the time. For example, some consider the Martin and Michoacán to be the same and some say it's different.

Before doing a video, I do a fair amount of research on existing knots as well as my contacts in the IGKT. As far as I know, the way I tied the meech is correct. Besides you, I consider Patrick (the educated climber) to be about as well educated as anyone and he and the majority of resources I have seen all tie it identical to mine.

Here is Patricks most recent:

Here is another source. Interesting that he has a completely different approach to tying it but the result is the same.

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