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Comment by planteen | Hacker News Reader

That's why you would never catch me on a rope without at least a pair of loops of smaller diameter rope that I could tie into Prusik knots and self-rescue. Those pieces of rope are almost weightless. There's no reason not to have a pair with you when you get on rope.

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Featured in a James Bond stunt:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FDX6_BSas8

(The clip is from "For Your Eyes Only" but has music from some other bond film dubbed over it)

Wow, apparently you can pull yourself up by your own bootstraps!

Try getting a prusik system set up when your tie in point is in the middle of your back as most construction harnesses are set up. It makes it much harder to self rescue.

Side note, one of my favorite ways to get up a rope when hanging in free space is to walk the rope. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAzXYVdskFE

Also, in those times when you need a prusik, there is a less-than-tiny chance you are hurt. EG: you're trying to place your cam, and instead you take a 40 foot drop before your last cam arrests your fall by sending your body directly into the face. Prusiks are more difficult to tie(and ascend!) when your hands are coated in your own blood, etc.

Yeah for sure, injury changes things. You see rock climbers needing rescue often enough when they could have self-rescued by a pair of Prusiks and ascending the rope. I've heard of a rock climber using an ATC (rappel device) as an ascender, by kicking off the wall and moving the rope up a few inches. They were near complete exhaustion when they got up to the top - Prusiks would have made the job so much easier. Of course a pair of ascenders/Jumars is best, but add some weight.

Most people (outside of cavers) don't plan on climbing up a rope with single rope technique, so it's not something that is practiced very much. I'm not really sure why. I'd be super nervous as a climber if I only could go one way on a rope. I guess alpinists practice it some for self-rescue out of a crevasse.

Cavers use the rope as a nylon highway, so you know how to switch from rappel to climb, climb to rappel, and how to pick-off an injured party from the rope (all of those in space, where you can't take your weight off the rope at all).

I have, thankfully, never had to try to tie a prusik with my hands covered in blood. If you had to do that, it sounds like a brutal fall.

Why not tie an Alpine Butterfly in advance? Isn't that more secure than Prusik or Klemheist? Or does it weaken the main rope too much?

Or are you saying to use a pair of Prusik knots to self rescue, by climbing the rope?

Yeah, the parent comment is talking about using a pair of Prusiks to ascend (or to at least make loops you can use to stand).

An Alpine Butterfly can't be moved, so it's not especially useful in many applications.

Yep exactly. I'm talking about a pair of Prusiks to climb the rope. Of course ascenders/Jumars are even better. :)

Thanks.

So when I was a kid, they made us climb a ~3 cm rope about 20 meters. With no aids, and just a padded mat for protection.

20m? That's a fatal fall...

OK, upon reflection, more like 8-10 meters. The ceiling height in the gymnasium. It was a long time ago, and what I mostly remember is the fear of falling. And the rope burns.

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