Friction hitches

Gord

Gord

Location
Gibsons BC
Well it seems that we haven't had one of these threads in some time. It's always interesting to see what people are using both as their tress cord and what knot everyone's using. I've recently started using an Icicle hitch and I think it's the first knot that I've seriously considered giving up a VT for.

78541-iciknot.jpg


Please excuse the tenex in the pic, I didn't have a climbing line handy.
 

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it looks sort of like a schwabisch hitch, sounds like it works well for you though?

I am using a distel hitch with four turns up the rope... the smaller bee-line and 1/2" arbormaster line.

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I've recently started using a 4/1 VT with either Icetail or HRC. Was using the Knut. The VT hockles my Dragonfly climbing line something fierce whereas the knut never did. Is there another way to dress/set the VT so it won't twist the rope so much?
 
KS, every other time tie the hitch from the other side. If you usually tie it doing your raps clockwise just switch it counter clockwise your next time. I have noticed the same and after a few climbs the rope can really get twisted up and then when doing a larger tree they end up not going through the micro pulley. Can be a pain but it has been the only way I have found to correct it.
 
The Icicle is just like a Schwab; except right before the finish of tucking the 2 tails through; you make a choke ring from the top tail and feed both tails thru it.

This then buffers the loading to both tails (instead of just the top one like the Schwab); thus giving self tending capability. This is similar to the Sailor Gripping Hitch another self tender. i prefer an alteration of the Sailor Gripping Hitch, that i form a muenter around the bottom 2 turns from the coil with the tail from the top of the coil. Defining coil as 4 uniterupted turns (2 turns being a round turn, and 3 turns a double round turn; as per guru KnudeKnoggin). This alteration gives me the best, longest lasting; self tending capabilities IMLHO.
 
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The Icicle is just like a Schwab; except right before the finish of tucking the 2 tails through; you make a choke ring from the top tail and feed both tails thru it.


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When you say "choke ring," do you mean that you give it a twist to the "bite" that comes down from the top? Thats the only difference I see...just trying to understand this thing (in case I start using it) because recently I started using the blaze with my knut (tied with sta set 8mm) and it seems to need a little more tending to make it bight when transfering load from an ascender or something. Maybe I can make the cord shorter and that would help, because it seems to be a longer hitch on the smaller climbing line.
 
I thought that it looked a lot like the schwab except at the bottom. Does it work as well with a micro pulley as say the VT? Also does it not bind as much as the schwab? That was the first hitch I played around with and had trouble with it binding and then moved to the vt. Plus I don't think that's ice tail that he has there. The icetail is more of a greenish color. That almost looks like true blue there for the hitch. The ice tail is wonderful though. I speak highly of it and it's fairly straight forward to splice.
 
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Gord, is that icetail that you're using for your hitch cord? If so, how do you like it?

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I'm actually not sure what the rope is leon...it's made by yale cordage and it's a hollow braid but that's all i know. i haven't used it yet. It seemed a little flat so i threaded four strands of thin amsteel thru it to firm it up a bit. i was using a icicle hitch with sta-set and it worked well. the icicle seems to not lock up anything like a distel or swabisch. and it really holds hard with just three wraps up top.

Here's spydy's notes on the icicle where i got the knot from:

http://www.mytreelessons.com/user/Icicle-Notes-a.JPG

I think it deserves to be more well known. it's similar to a cavers helical knot in a way.
 
not to date myself as far a new climber and all but im constantly seeing the vt not for the prusik cords and i have no idea what this knot is. im always experiencing my knot binding up on me when i climb with a three wrap prusik as my climbing and have a hard time descending sometimes, is there anyone that can post up a picture of the vt knot? doest the vt do the same binding as the three wrap prusik? id appreciate any help here
 
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Does it work as well with a micro pulley as say the VT? Also does it not bind as much as the schwab?

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I have tied this knot a few times and never had much luck with it. I have played with the number of wraps and never found the sweet spot for myself. I have used it to connect a 5 to 1 MA to a tag line and it worked nice for that application, but not really better than any other friction hitch. I think it acts similar to the schwab.
 
I use the Bloody valdotain a lot of the time, but if I'm footlocking the tail on my bodythrust setup, I prefer to have a Ruddy blakes hitch with a nice long bridge.

Also been trying out the icicle, but can't tie it from memory yet, so I don't use it most of the time. It's nice, but it snags my gloves a bit.
 
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i prefer an alteration of the Sailor Gripping Hitch, that i form a muenter around the bottom 2 turns from the coil with the tail from the top of the coil.

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Hows about a picture Spyder?
 
I used the french prusik a few times but ultimately landed on the schwab for ease of use.

I know I'm not a fancy pants but It works for everything. :)
 
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it looks sort of like a schwabisch hitch

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The Schwabish is related to the prusik. This icicle hitch seems to be the open cord relative of the Klemheist, which is a very old friction knot in the rock climbing community, but with a twist to the choking bight.

Klemheist2.jpg
 
I tried the Icicle today and liked it. Advances and releases very easily. It even made the piece of BeeLine I was using tolerable, which says a lot. I'd like to try it with some tenex next.
 
i prefer Tenex. Lays flat to be leveraged less by both factors of flexibility and size of bent dimension. Also for it's rated 'diameter' gives a larger footprint of grab on the host line than some larger 'cords'/tails. My favorite lifeline/ friction hitch (shown last) works much better in this flat device/cord than round cord (as well as Icicle, Sailor's Gripping Hitch IMLHO).

i see a doubled over coil in Klem, but not Icicle??

My Slyder is mostly only tested by my flyweight(for a few years); but follows the same form as the rest. Please all ways be care full!
 

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