twisted climbing ropes !?!

robinia

robinia

Participating member
Location
Ontario, Canada
I'm starting to get really annoyed by this. My climbing lines get all bunched up beneath the hitch when I descend. It's been happening as long as I can remember and I've just always lived with it. Now I've had enough.
I've probably tried every hitch, rope, and combination; doesn't seem to matter if I use a rope bag or not; friction saver or no; etc, etc.

Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance,
 
best thing to do is flake your whole rope on the ground before you climb up that way there will be no twisting when you come down. works for me. also i coil my rope loosley in a figure 8 fashion rather then just a circular coil. once i stopped coiling my rope sooo tightley it made such a drastic difference with this issue.
 
Some of this according to one of the manufacturers is related to the rope itself. This can be cause by having a strand that has been braided too tightly in the construction of the rope.
 
When my line starts to hockle i'll lay the line out and holding the line firmly in one hand start flaking it out behind me with the other hand, taking care to not let the line twist in my hand this will cause the line to hockle up then while still holding tight flip the hockels down the line by the time you get to the end you will really start to see the twist coming out of your line . repeat as necessary . i have no idea how the twist gets there but this works for me everytime.
 
I'm finding it especially bad lately using 3/8 tenex tied in a VT on Poison HiVee. Wondering if the double ended splicing is part of the problem...
It's no better on 10 mm beeline or 8 mm Ice.
Arbormaster 1/2" rope does it, same with Lava, Safety Blue, etc.
True Blue is just about the only rope that doesn't seem to hockle too badly on me.
 
This is just my opinion, but I've observed this in hitches and hardware.

A hitch, apparently regardless of type as indicated by Robinia in his openning post, imparts twist to rope. I believe the twist is due to the helical effect of the hitch. The turns of the hitch form a loosely coupled 'thread' which seems to impart twist in the rope below the hitch.

Although I haven't tried this, it would be interesting. Descend on a 'right-hand' hitch and carefully note the direction of twist on the rope. The descend on a 'left-hand' hitch and notice if the rope twists in the opposite direction.

Like Robinia, I have experienced twist with every hitch I've tried. The strange thing is, sometimes it's significantly worse than other times.

As for hardware, I've noticed that Grigris will impart twist although not as bad as a hitch. A rack will not UNLESS you use the hyperbar. When the hyperbar is used, I have seen it twist rope. Looking at the Grigri and rack with a hyperbar, they have one thing in common, they both requre a 180° twist in the rope in the threading process. It's so subtle, you may not have ever noticed it.

Think about an F8. F8s twist rope - because of the twist required in threading the rope through the F8. OTOH a Petzl Stop will NOT twist a rope, nor will a Unicender or ATC because none of these require a twist in the rope to thread the device.
 
I use the shortest rope I can safely work with. Hockling is a hassle every once in a while but usually I'm watching for it.

I also tend to relocate my rope tail a lot and pulling it up lets the twists fall out.

Twists fall out of Velocity easily but PI holds onto'em.
 
[ QUOTE ]
I know the frustration... And my next comment may seem like I'm a broken record, but the Unicender doesn't twist rope.

[/ QUOTE ]

yep, another advantage of SRT
 
This summer at a climbing workshop James Kilpatrick showed us that when using a VT to climb, simply adjusting the rope and orientation through the hitch will virtually stop the twist. When you get set to go, run your line through the hitch slowly and watch it twist the rope, adjust the hitch by spinning the rope a little and slide the hitch again, I know this has helped 95% of my rope twisting.
 
So are you guys saying the VT is largely causing it? I've had the same problem with many other hitches. I only switched back to the VT about a year ago after 4 or 5 on the Knut.
 
With a VT or XT you can use the lower braids to help counteract the twist of the wraps. I was using a VT 4 wrap 3 braid pattern with the braids tied in an over, under, under pattern. I've since switched to an XT with the same lower braid pattern. It also makes a difference if you twist the knot clockwise or counterclockwise a little once it grabs.
 
I have never had this problem with arbor plex or XTC fire with a VT. is it because I always store it flaked loosely in a rope bag? sounds like I am really missing the fun...
wink.gif
 
Arbor plex is 12 strand right? Back when I used true blue it didn't seem to happen as much.
XYC is 16 strand tho. It definitely happens for me with 16 strand ropes.
Arbormaster, safety blue, hi-vee - all of them.
 
Pics of set up? It could be real simple, we just need to see what you're working with. My rope was twisting up real bad for a while so I changed one braid on the xt, problem solved.
 
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