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Spectra 24-Nov-2003 At 6:17:26 PM Sticky

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Okay, I know the answer to this may be on forums all over the net, but I haven't found it yet.

So a long and painful question instead:

I know that spectra has a low melting point, so you apparently shouldn't use it for things like prusik knots - it can melt and then you're buggered. Fair enough. But can you use it to girth hitch safely?

The context, for anyone who cares (!):

1) Last time I was at Frog, one of the blokes nearby saw that I was using a girth hitch to safety myself to the belay chains with a spectra runner. Basically told me that maybe that was a bad idea due to spectra's low melting point. The girth hitch was tight, I didn't think it would move anywhere to cause friction, but said thanks and found another safety.

2) Last weekend at Araps, I was setting up an anchor and really wanted to use a girth hitch to tie myself into the anchor system. (It also would have been good to use on the nearby tree as part of the anchor). I didn't have any nylon runners left though, so I clove hitched the rope instead for my safety and used some wires and a cam for the anchor - a little bit more fiddling around and five more minutes. When my second came up she basically said that I should have used the spectra - it was safe to girth hitch and anyone who says different is wrong.

What's the go?

Cheers
Kyle

btw - big thanks to anyone reading who was involved in the Nati Frinj Festival. Really bloody cool event.