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General Climbing Discussion

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How do you knot the end of a rope on abseil? 27-Oct-2010 At 10:01:38 PM freesolo

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a few points:
1. Prussik is knot/bend of cord. Not an activity. A true Prussik is normally used for going UP, not DOWN (i.e. it is a type of knot/bend which allows a specific activity)

2. Auto block is a method of stopping an abseil. Not a knot/bend of cord. There are various knots/bends that will accomplish this. A Prussik knot/bend is not the best of these options.

3. A belay device extended up and away from the climber has advantages and disadvantages. An auto block method has advantages and disadvantages. Do some research. I have always extended my device from my harness and used a Kleimheist knot below the device for an autoblock (backup). IT HAS SAVED MY LIFE TWICE.

4. Tieing knots in the end of your rope (s) has advantages and disadvantages. I have always tied knots in mine. 95% of the time there has been no problem. 5% of the time there was a moderate, not life threatening problem.

5. Worst case scenario: multipitch rappel. no knots in the rope, no autoblock (backup) knot/bend. Rock falls, breaks your arm, skull. You let go of the rope, as you are unconscious, zip off the ends of the rope, and go splat. I would prefer to fuss about with the knots which, maybe, get stuck somewhere during the rappel, and the extra 60 seconds per rappel breaking down and setting up the autoblock, to prevent the splat portion of this scenario.