UKC

Hey, I was climbing yesterday up Awesome Walls in Stockport and was told by one of the guys there that they don't allow this particular knot with a karabiner and we must tie in through the harness. We said that's fine and switched to tying in through the harness. I've no problem with this as when we're there we climb by the walls rules however the bloke was busy instructing a couple new to climbing so I didn't get chance to ask why we weren't allowed to use it and if there were any particular safety problems with it? So it is with this I've turned to UKC in the hope to shed a bit of light on the subject! Cheers

In reply to SaulGilsenan: for top roping it's not a major safety concern as the rope should be mostly kept tight so the krab can't get crossloaded and the forces involved with a fall on a top rope wouldn't be so high as to compromise the krab. the major problem is that it is an extra link in a chain that doesn't need to be there. certainly do not attach to the rope in that manner if leading. Hope that helps

In reply to higherclimbingwales: Yeh that's quite helpful cheers. I was leading with it at some point and found that when I was being lowered down, due to the large karabiner I was using, the belay loop was actually resting on top of the screw gate so I used a smaller one and flipped it round so it didn't. I'm going to go for tying in to my harness for leading now just to put me at ease. I thought it would be fine for top roping as it's kept tight most of the time but I see your point and from a climbing walls perspective there's too much room for error. Thanks highclimber.