I’m not confident I have a good grasp on transitioning from hunting to rappelling down. I use a swasbitch on my tether and have a grivel master mono belay to descend. Can someone explain or point me to a good resource about how to transition safely? And how to use a backup? Thank you in advance for your help.
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One sticking without Madrock
- Thread starter one-eyed-jack
- Start date
I think he’s asking if you hunt from your tether or from you rappel rope. That’s a good starting point for instruction. I would encourage you to use a separate tether and here is why. When hooking up your rappel rope you want to weight your rappel side before you just hang from it free handed to make everything is holding. Once you’re weighted on your rappel rope you can remove the tether and rappel down.
If you are adamant on hunting from your rappel rope there are fewer options with the belay device that we can talk about. The safest is likely also going to be the bulkiest, which would be keeping the belay and friction hitch on at all times.
I tried a prussic and hated it. It was doable but not fun. I ran a figure 8 to rappel when I was done and moved the prussic to my lineman’s loop. I was going to try a swabisch with a tender but got surprised with a madrock for Christmas and never looked back.
If you’re open to it then that’s what I would recommend.
You’re hanging from your normal length tether.
1. Attach rappel rope to tree
2. Attach rappel pull down line to the link or before link your preference
3. Pull out carabiner and belay device and attach your bridge to the rappel rope.
4. Attach your hitch to the rappel rope on the tag end side of the rope (end that goes to the ground) and fasten to your right or left lineman’s belt loop.
5. Take out slack in the belay device and the hitch.
6. Weight the rappel rope and confirm everything is connected properly and holding your weight.
7. Disconnect your tether.
8. Rappel down
some of us are using an ATC, guide ATC, or Mammut Smart 2.0 (a type of ATC) in conjunction with a friction hitch above such as michochoan or swabisCh. No transition needed…it’s a slow, jerky, but safe rappel. Check out posts from @Brocky and a few others, and practice practice practice at ground level, then at 8 ft until it’s mastered. Hitches tend to be rope and cord specific, as well as 3, 4, or.5 turns. I’m using a 4 turn mich on sterling 6mm hitch cord, working well for 9 mm CIV rope. My 4 or 5 turn swabisch was very tough to break if stopping my rappel, some guys that use an ATC and hitch integrated spread the load on an autoblock as well, super safe, and the hitches share the load. Next season, i might try to just put a second large carabiner with a Munters hitch on my bridge, and lose the device completeley like @JRB does, but I’m done tweaking my climbing method until i fill the freezer.
Yea, if you’re rappelling and aren’t going to load your friction hitch at all and just use it as a back up then above the belay device can be ok. The issue is it’ll be a little more difficult to break once you load it. Obviously, the heavier you are the harder it will be to break.
Like tommy said, try both from the ground and see which will work better for your application.
Last season I climb with a separate tether and a basic prussic. Then once I'm at height, I attach my rappel line + GriGri + catastrophe knot. Basically using a double tethers system. This year, I'm going to use the rappel as my only tether + a ATC sandwiched between the Michoacán. I found that it work great for me as the Michoacan stay in place and the ATC act as a tender for easy positioning. Rappelling with it is pretty smooth too.
I climb on my rappel rope but hang on my tether. Two bridges, 1 long, 1 short. Michoacan on rap rope on short bridge, tether on long bridge. At height I transfer to tether and introduce a bit of slack to my rap rope, then install a figure-8 above my Michoacan, and clip it to my long bridge; I'm ready to descend if things get weird and I need to bail fast I just transfer from tether to rap rope and go. Rap rope gets stuffed in a water bottle pouch and clipped to my LB loop. While descending the space between descender on the long bridge and Michoacan on the short bridge gives enough space for the Michoacan to serve as an emergency 'third hand'.
I climb on my rappel rope and Kong. I switch over to a Figure 8 at height, so I am always ready to rappel if need be. I have rappelled more than once and cut a deer off that was skirting the situation. I do backup with an alpine butterfly clipped back into the carabineer while hunting. I do not run a back up when actually rappelling.
You "sandwich" the ATC between the Meech and what?
Got a picture for us?
So, your hooked up to the Kong AND the 8 while huntin'?
No I use the Kong to capture as I one stick, remove the Kong and height and hunt off the figure 8. I double wrap the figure 8 like in your video. That way when it is time to rappel there is no fooling around. Deer on the move or in the dark. I can rappel right now.
Do you use a gear tie or something to make sure the wraps stay wrapped?
I stand up occasionally and it's possible when my weight is not on the 8 it could come undone.
I stand up occasionally and it's possible when my weight is not on the 8 it could come undone.
