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I believe the conventional way is to use a double (triple) fisherman's bend. This has the advantage of being and relatively compact. The main disadvantage is that it can be hard to undo if you need to. Other options include the figure of 8 bend which is bulkier than the fisherman's but easier to untie. You could also use a (double) sheet bend or even a ...

Pulling down ropes after abseiling in caving is common here in the UK, where a cave has an upper and a lower entrance with one or more pitches in between. We use Static rope and caving descenders are usually designed to only use a single strand of rope. We double the rope and tie a knot with a small loop near the middle of the rope. Then feed one end of the ...

In case of ascending on a rockface it does not really matter which way round you use it. I put the chest-prusik above the foot-prusik, but this is only because of personal taste. By adjusting the lengths of the slings you can do huge steps in this configuration too. Even though this may not be desirable, as shorter steps can be more efficient (also up to ...

As already stated, these are very similar knots regarding their use. So there is not much that differentiates them from each other, or to other friction hitches. The advantage of the prusik is the "clean" design: All strands are neatly position parallel to themselves, so it is easily inspected for correctness. For the Klemheist this is not the main criterion;...

It's what @imsodin said. Bloqueur is the french term for "blocker" in English. So when I talk about a bloqueur, I'm talking about blocking devices. The two that I use for ascending a rope are the Petzl basic and Petzl croll. The use of French terms is a habit that I picked up from canyoning, which is by origin a French sport, so most of the terms used there ...

I am going to approach this question differently. Since the question is marked with the rock-climbing tag the use of a 7.5mm Technora escape rope that AM_Hawk's answer focuses on seems unlikely. Also, the method by which he arrives at a minimum Prusik cord size doesn't address certain issues. Cord diameter All else being equal a smaller cord for a ...

Canyoneering has one major danger that is not (normally) one in mountaineering: water. If you get stuck abseiling along/in a waterfall and end up hanging in the waterfall, you can drown. An "engaged" friction knot can be difficult to loosen, especially when in an averse environment like a waterfall. The only time I did canyoning an experienced party member ...

Canyoneering presents different risks than rock climbing because water is involved This comment on another post shows why water is an important factor (emphasis mine): Canyoneering with an autoblock actually has the potential be fatal. Wet ropes have a lot more rope-on-rope friction, if your autoblock locks up while you're in a waterfall, then you're at ...

To answer your first question, it doesn't matter very much whether you put the prussik on the same strand as your dcd or on the free strand. One reason it might be considered safer is that putting the prussik on the other strand would allow the other rope to prussik to catch you if the line you were repelling on somehow failed. As this event is extremely ...

I can only assume, that it derives from bloquer which is french for blocking. What the "c" is doing in there I have no clue - but then, I am not a native french speaker. In this case there are several devices that are generally used for this: There is Petzls Tibloc, a very light device. But it is also very aggressive and may damage the rope so it has to be ...

Based on the picture the OP presents, the yellow prusik cord weave has each pair of threads (likely not the correct term) passing over 3 or 4 threads rather than two. This doubling of length and corresponding reduction of crossing points seems likely to make the cord more flexible than the orange cord, a feature that will assist in making the tight wraps of ...

EDIT: When the question was posed I misinterpreted it to be asking the diameter of the "Climbing Rope" not "Cord" However my answer for Cord diameter is also listed as "2mm less than cord diameter and not less than 5mm" I would not go any lower than 7.5mm*, it is a common diameter used by rescue technicians.There are several reasons why I recommend 7.5mm, ...

I use the (double) Fisherman's knot for such cases. It's easy to tie and has a clear and concise form (easy to check if done right). As already mentioned in nivag's answer, it can be hard to untie if it was heavily loaded. One of its drawbacks is that it is not applicable for webbing as it is not possible to tighten it there to be stable. Here the waterman ...

Coming from a climbing and industrial rope access background, the double fisherman's is the recommended way to make a loop using rope/cord. Undoing the knot was never part of the question, however under body weight loading even this shouldn't be too difficult. The figure of eight would work equally as well, I'd use it more for joining ropes for long ...

I always ascend the other way around (foot-prusik above the chest prusik). This allows for a bigger movement with your foot and hence a bigger climb during your ascend. Note: I actually use bloqueurs, but basically the methods should remain the same.

How about a Figure 8 Bend? Easy to untie even under heavy load. We use them all the time in rock climbing.

I alternate between the double fisherman's (which everyone has already talked about) and the flat overhand. Lately I've been leaning towards the flat overhand. The benefit of the flat overhand is that it's much easier to tie, inspect, and (most importantly) untie after it's been loaded. When properly tied and dressed, the flat overhand has been shown to be ...

Note: You want to keep the double fisherman's knot close to the opposite end, but offset slightly, this gives you maximum adjustability while being able to use the far end as a prusik as well if necessary. There are two ways I have done this, Tie a normal prusik (described here) around something and then pull the end of the cordelette through. A stick ...

Note: This knot works better in smaller diameter cords, but its easier to demonstrate with larger ones so that is what is in the pictures. To start with you go over the top of the rope and then do 2-3 coils back towards the what will be the closed loop before bring it back over where you started. Then you go underneath the main line, Then you coil again 2-...

Much depends on how frequently you use prusiks. Back in college when i was caving a lot, we used prusiks tied in 1/4" Plymouth Goldline using a 9/16" chunk of goldline as our ascent/descent line. I never had an issue, nor did anyone in our group. For those of you unfamiliar, Goldline was a very hard lay stranded rope. As stranded rope, it was ...

A prusik works in either direction, which is sometimes important. For example, if you were traversing using an old, fixed rope rigged horizontally, you could attach a prusik to it from your harness. If the rope were to break (either to the left or the right of you), the prusik would save you. If you were using a klemheist, you would only be safe falling in ...

Regarding the hauling question, I suggest keeping the descender and prusik on the same strand. Here's my reasoning: It keeps the second strand free in case you need to rap down to the person to administer first aid or other assistance. It allows you to use the second strand for hauling, in case you don't have a second rope around for that purpose. It keeps ...