UKC

In this series on UKClimbing, we have teamed up with Plas-y-Brenin, the National Mountain Sports Centre, to cover a wide range of basic climbing techniques.. We will be explaining everything from putting on harnesses and tying figure of eights, to building belays and leading.

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In reply to UKC Articles:

Is it just me or isn't it best practice to always have a knot in the end of the abseil rope? At least he should mention making sure you can see the rope is long enough...

In reply to UKC Articles:

Being a three directional knot i use the Alpine Butterfly as opposed to an overhand on the bite. It's possible to make an AB with a large bite to clip into the other anchor point. Tones easier to untie after it's been tensioned too !

Interested to know your thoughts !

In reply to Ben@Sheffield:

I have tested this. For normal use (rather than leaving it on a big wall for a week and everyone and his dog jugging on it) the overhand is fine, easier to teach and still unties fine.

In reply to fraserbarrett:


Totally agree - major omission by those who should know better IMHO - also no checking of the edge where the rope was going over

In reply to fraserbarrett:

If you know your rope is on the ground there is no need for a knot on the end of the rope.

In reply to Aigen:

Did you read my post?

In reply to Aigen:

Shouldn't you do it regardless, so it becomes a safe habit?

In reply to Dell:


No, you don't. As anyone who has ever tried to pull the rop through with the knot still tere will tell you, or anyone who has ever had the knot caught in a tree branch.

Safety comes by assesing EVERY abseil and reacting accordingly, not just by going through the numbers.

In reply to GrahamD:

But if tying it becomes a habit, then untying should become a habit too. Drills work.

In reply to UKC Articles: For an instructional video, I must say I thought it quite remiss to not safeguard himself until well into the setting up process. The rope "twanging" over a notch as he stepped down was also less than best practice. As a fixed abseil he might also have mentioned rock protectors. Not trying to be pedantic but I did my SPA with PYB and believe I would have been pulled up about those issues, especially not safeguarding myself when setting up.

In reply to Dell:

Personally I abseil maybe a dozen times in a year and I don't suppose I'm particularly unusual in that. So I try to treat every abseil as if it were the first, analyse every aspect of it and don't rely on autopilot. Other people obviously would rather do it by rote and if it works for them...

In reply to UKC Articles:

I thought that we had moved on from having the French prusik on the leg loop these days.

In reply to nz Cragrat:

How do we do it nowadays?

In reply to GrahamD:

Have to agree about wandering around unattached at the top, was firmly advised about this during SPA training.
Similarly, was advised to have prusik not attached to leg loop but to belay loop, and to extend the belay device upwards.

In reply to dereke12000:



Yes, I was a bit surprised to see that, I would have thought PyB would have been using the currently fashionable method! The leg-loop method is less of a faff though, and most harnesses have a little loop on the leg-loop for the purpose. They say your body can be turned so that the prussic can foul the device and fail to lock. Never seen it happen so can't comment.

When I'm abseiling on serious sea cliffs I use an industrial abseiler, copious rope protectors ("spirolls" are brilliant), and the rope in a stuff-bag so that it pays out automatically as you go down.