What rope for a blake on poison ivy (bluemoon)?

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B_Turner

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I am going to order some poison ivy rope (well bluemoon actually) and I wondered what specific rope folks are preferring for their single eye split tail for a blake hitch with that particular rope.

I ordered the blake hitch kit from WS, but I am thinking now that the 1/2 line it comes with might be a bit big for the bluemoon.

I confess I am a newbie to climbing so I have a ton to learn.

Luckily for me one of my brothers is an long time arborist (different city, though) and is helping me a bit in getting started.
 
what rope for a blake on poison ivy( blue moon)

If you are going to use a Split tail you can save some $$ be putting a DoubleFishermans Knot in 1 end instade of the Eye Splice, also when one end weras out you can tie the knot into the other end. By tieing this knot you can try alsorts of differnt rope. All in all you may want to try one of Eye to Eye knots, Schwabisch, Distel or VT

Yo Renton i am from Yakima
 
If you are going to use a Split tail you can save some $$ be putting a DoubleFishermans Knot in 1 end instade of the Eye Splice, also when one end weras out you can tie the knot into the other end. By tieing this knot you can try alsorts of differnt rope. All in all you may want to try one of Eye to Eye knots, Schwabisch, Distel or VT

Yo Renton i am from Yakima

For now I am using a blake because it seems straightforward. My brother wants to have me try another knot (can't remember if it's a schwabish, seemed like another weird sounding name) before I try a vt because he says the vt is great but fiddly for begginers.

I went with the WS blake kit because it seemed like a good deal on picking up the micropulley and a couple locking beeners, although now I am wondering if I probably just should have ordered the stuff separately to have more control of the components.

It's all part of the learning experience I figure. But either way I was figuring the 1/2 inch rope that came with the kit was probably too big diameter for the bluemoon which is aroud 11.7 mm.
 
I bought everything separate just for the reason you listed. Plus i heard the blakes isn't preferred on a double line rope climbing, so i opted for the Distel hitch. Seems pretty straight forward to tie also.
 
Hi, I haven't climbed on Blue Moon, but I've used Arbormaster Blue Streak and the same for a split tail with a Blake's hitch. I like it and have had no problems. I sometimes use a natural crotch, sometimes a false crotch and sometimes a pulley set up for a false crotch. The latter two put more weight on the hitch than does a false crotch. The only time I've had and issue is with Buzzz line, it is very slick. I can't get a grip on it with my hands either so I don't climb on it. This doesn't answer your question about the Blue Moon, but does say a Blake's does seem to work for me. I have had very good success talking to the people at Wes Spur. Several of them climb and are very willing to share info. Hope this helps. eljefe
 
Hi, I haven't climbed on Blue Moon, but I've used Arbormaster Blue Streak and the same for a split tail with a Blake's hitch. I like it and have had no problems. I sometimes use a natural crotch, sometimes a false crotch and sometimes a pulley set up for a false crotch. The latter two put more weight on the hitch than does a false crotch. The only time I've had and issue is with Buzzz line, it is very slick. I can't get a grip on it with my hands either so I don't climb on it. This doesn't answer your question about the Blue Moon, but does say a Blake's does seem to work for me. I have had very good success talking to the people at Wes Spur. Several of them climb and are very willing to share info. Hope this helps. eljefe

I tried the WS blake kit rope today on my existing rope and actually it worked pretty well- even the beeners were better than I feared. Hopefully I'll receive the bluemoon rope tomorrow.

I talked to the arborist at WS (very helpful plus he knows my brother because he is also an arborist in the same city) and he personally preferred HRC over bee-line (which is what yale recommends I guess) so I ordered some short length of a few different friction ropes to try out some stuff including both of those ropes.

Once I work out some specifics about what works for me in terms of other friction knots both in terms of rope and lengths I can worry about spliced eyes. In the meantime I'll just do the knot thing.

I also got a right footed pantin today and I really liked how easy it made ascending. I need to figure out how to kick it off, though. For now I have to reach down to detach it.

Part of what got me going on climbing is I happened to watch the arborist climbing competition about a month ago in Seattle and it renewed an old curiousity. Plus I have alot of tree work I want to do on my property so I figured I better try to learn to do it safely.

And I am already a pretty hard core chainsaw nut.

For now I am climbing in a 30 year old rock climbing saddle which is pretty painful. Pretty soon I am going to buy a better saddle, maybe a weaver cougar....

And some spurs..... and........
 
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I bought everything separate just for the reason you listed. Plus i heard the blakes isn't preferred on a double line rope climbing, so i opted for the Distel hitch. Seems pretty straight forward to tie also.

what do u mean by that acesned a doubled rope like secured footlock? I know lots of climbers that still use the blakes hitch and i used to also in DRT

as for the question i dont think using a 1/2 split tail on a 11mm rope is a great idea but it might work i would suggest cutting a couple feet off your bluemoon and using that...gasp yea i said cut the new rope......
 
what do u mean by that acesned a doubled rope like secured footlock? I know lots of climbers that still use the blakes hitch and i used to also in DRT

as for the question i dont think using a 1/2 split tail on a 11mm rope is a great idea but it might work i would suggest cutting a couple feet off your bluemoon and using that...gasp yea i said cut the new rope......

I thought of that but didn't want the bridge to be the same color as the rope.

And actually the bluemoon is 11.7, so a fair bit bigger than 11 mm.

But the plan is now to have several types of rope to try with the new rope, as well as whatever my brother happens to have on hand when I get up there in a bit.

By ascending I actually meant thrusting/cinching up a dynamic double line system with a split tail with a blake. Wrong word, maybe. But where I was hanging away from the tree the pantin made going up a breeze.
 
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what do u mean by that acesned a doubled rope like secured footlock? I know lots of climbers that still use the blakes hitch and i used to also in DRT

as for the question i dont think using a 1/2 split tail on a 11mm rope is a great idea but it might work i would suggest cutting a couple feet off your bluemoon and using that...gasp yea i said cut the new rope......

DON"T CUT THE ROPE!!!!!!

Just wanting to test how the blakes works in DRT? Tie off to the beaner leaving 4 or 5 feet of tail. Then use that to climb on. Not split tail but at least you can test without cutting. Does not work for you? Still have that 120 or 150 footer, right?
 
I thought of that but didn't want the bridge to be the same color as the rope.

And actually the bluemoon is 11.7, so a fair bit bigger than 11 mm.

But the plan is now to have several types of rope to try with the new rope, as well as whatever my brother happens to have on hand when I get up there in a bit.

By ascending I actually meant thrusting/cinching up a dynamic double line system with a split tail with a blake. Wrong word, maybe. But where I was hanging away from the tree the pantin made going up a breeze.

DYNAMIC DOUBLE LINE SYSTEM??????

Dynamic is for lead climbing. Static for arborist work/work positioning...

I thought I was on the "Commercial Tree Care and Climbing/////CRAP, must be the homeowner helper...
 
. The only time I've had and issue is with Buzzz line, it is very slick. eljefe

use the buzzz for lowering line. suuuuucks to climb on. too stretchy. i even left my buzzz line in anchorage. on purpose. lol.

good luck with the climbing turner. that blakes system from WS is a good one to start with.


hrc is a good cord as well. beeline is ok, i have another 100ft of it sitting in the toolbox as we speak. gonna go with ice tail next order i think. switch it up so to speak.

the key though is heat resistance. keep an eye on that splittail as you use it. dont want to burn through it if it is just regular line.

also i want to get that PI on my next rope purchase so tell me what you think of it.
 
DYNAMIC DOUBLE LINE SYSTEM??????

Dynamic is for lead climbing. Static for arborist work/work positioning...

I thought I was on the "Commercial Tree Care and Climbing/////CRAP, must be the homeowner helper...

Sorry. I figured it was a good place to get opinions on what rope to try with bluemoon before I put in an order.

I'll spare future bandwidth.

Btw I meant dynamic in the sense Jepson uses it.
 
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what do u mean by that acesned a doubled rope like secured footlock? I know lots of climbers that still use the blakes hitch and i used to also in DRT

Just something a few people had posted on here not to long ago. All i remember them saying is that "it's a well known fact that the blakes isn't the preferred hitch for ascending climbing ropes" Didn't make much sense to me, but rather than take the chance i opted for a different hitch.
 
Sorry. I figured it was a good place to get opinions on what rope to try with bluemoon before I put in an order.

I'll spare future bandwidth.

Btw I meant dynamic in the sense Jepson uses it.

It's a great place to get opinions on lots of stuff. Just keep your skin thick and keep posting away. I'll even loan you some bandwidth if you want.

When I started I was using 1/2" split tails from WS with a Blakes. When I switched to 11mm rope (not 11.7), I kept using them with no problems whatsoever. I've switched to VT and Distel, but still use the split tails when taking newbies climbing. Or I'll just use the tail of the climb line which always works well too.
 
Climbed on the bluemooon today using WS blake kit rope for a split tail. It worked out really well, even though the WS kit rope was 1/2 and the bluemoon is a bit smaller.
 
I realize that this is a very old post, but I'm curious if you ever came up with a preference for a single eye split tail with a Blake's for PI/BlueMoon? I was considering buying either 10mm EpiCORD or BeeLine but Sherrill Tree is recommending several 1/2" split tails. I thought this was odd since the climb line is smaller than the tail being recommended.

Yes, I know, I know... closed system. I climb with a VT/ micro pulley 8 mil BeeLine eye to eye for my setup, but this is a large purchase of 15 sets for a recreational climb set-ups for youth and I do not have the luxury of testing multiple combos before purchase.
 
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