Rope and hitch cord for beginner

[Paul16]

I've been climbing for about 6 months now and am thinking about buying my own rope and hitch cord soon. I climb with a micro pulley and a VT hitch. Any suggestions?

 

[RajElectric]

What are you climbing on now?

 

[Geordie]

I think a lot comes down to preference. The various prusik cords work differently depending on the thickness and slickness of your rope. I bought this:
https://www.treestuff.com/store/catalog.asp?category_id=20&item=11163
Then I experiment and just see what i like the best. Next time I buy Prusik cord I can just select the one I enjoyed the most and get a bunch of it. As far as rope goes, I think there a re a lot of good options out there. I have found that climbing by hand (rather than using an ascender) means I like a thicker rope. Thinner stuff tends to bite in to my hands and become uncomfortable if I have a ways to go.

 

[jtc16]

I've never climbed with a vt and micro pulley. I mainly only do base anchor srt with a hitch hiker now but when I did ddrt I used arborplex 1/2, It's cheap and really abrasion resistant. When I first started I never used a friction saver and the rope never got that bad. Beeline and Ice tail is all I've tried for srt hitches and they are fine.

 

[acer-kid]

My favorite is a 4 wrap 3 braid VT with teufelberger 9.3mm on Samson velocity. Or vortex.. whatever the 11.1mm stuff is. Buttery smooth.

I also like 10mm armor pruss on 11.7mm tachyon with a 4/1 micho. Opens up fast, fast. So... keep that in mind I guess.

 

[Geordie]

What do you mean by opens up?

 

[acer-kid]

The hitch releases really quickly. It grabs fast, but when you touch it, it pays out slack fast.
@Geordie

 

[Geordie]

Gotcha, that makes sense. I find with some VT hitch + rope combinations I have to manually push the knot up for it to grab and hold my weight after I've taken in some slack. Is that normal?

 

[acer-kid]

Gotcha, that makes sense. I find with some VT hitch + rope combinations I have to manually push the knot up for it to grab and hold my weight after I've taken in some slack. Is that normal?

It is. You may be able to alleviate that with an extra wrap before your braids.. or try braiding the legs different. Eg: if you alternate top leg and bottom, don't. If you don't, do. **** like that. Or try an XT instead of a VT.

 

[TheTreeSpyder]

This is something that you try many things and tune to your style, weight and tools.
Different cord type will grip same host line differently; partially dependent on how you personally, tie/dress/set/maintain to your weight.
.
i prefer flat 3/8" tenex, most go for round cord.
Flat gives more contact area to host line.
Also flat is always and all ways less strength loss from the tight turns;
because the flat profile has very little dimension to be leveraged on the tight coil turns around host line.
(if flat line static/not moving/ok if host moves thru coil sleeve)
.
mytreelessons.com/friction%20hitch.htm
mytreelessons.com/rope-n-saw.swf

 

[Geordie]

Thanks, I'll try those. I normally do four wraps and alternate the braid. Hopefully with your suggestions I can trouble shoot it and get the knot to grip on its own.

 

[acer-kid]

Yea... Tenex sucks. Unless you're looking for your hitch to bind rock solid. Also.. if it's spliced.. the flat surface area angle is moot.

Just try screwing with the wraps/braids. Also.. try tying it TIGHT to start. Then loosen/fiddle with wraps/braids until you get the desired effect.

@Geordie