"line: 2) descend on a Munter hitch tied to a pear-shaped locking carabiner attached to the saddle at a point below the friction hitch (a leg strap works well). Both methods are effective "


If you are using a flipflop 2tailed symmetrical lanyard (both ends of the rope used as separate Ddrt rigs), using a munter hitch will accumulate serious twistage in the system between your two ends.

Sawmill1,

I've been using my figure-8 descending device positioned as a belay stitch plate in the Spider Rappel. The benefit is less twisting of the rope, which is commonly found with the standard figure-8 connection. In this altered configuration, a bight of rope is pulled through the figure-8 device. Then a carabiner is clipped through the bight. The carabiner is attached to the working side of the dDRT.

I'd like to propose that you start a new topic on this and post your pic above. Clearly I made this thread lengthy because I felt the need to clarify details on an unpublished application. I saw the need for caution.

Because it's the start of the climbing season, I believe your brief entry and photo would capture the interest of others to give it a try. More importantly, it would be good to gain their feedback.

Regards,
JimK

Since I work off an SRT system my friction issues are doubled. I'm in the process of working on a hitch configuration that will work for SRT in the tree.

When I am ready to come out of the tree, I realized tonight, that I've been using the spider rap. I take my webbing sling and double it through the sliding d on my saddle. Then I clip in an ISC Mongoose biner. This puts the 'goose a few inches above my hitch fof the descent from the ground. The heat is in the biner not the hitch.

Tom

All of this discussion on reducing rope burn with the Blakes hitch leaves me scratching my aging head. I have never experienced excessive wear while using the blakes hitch except in one instance when I was in a dead pine when a sudden gust of wind hit the tree and I bailed out real quick. This is with 26 years daily climbing experience as an arborist and over 10,000 first time climbers under my belt as well at TCI school. Am I missing someting here? Am I just a snail descender? Should I change my eye glasses pre_script_ion and maybe shave my hand callouses down a bit so I can feel a little bit better?

Treeman,

At the end of the day, your experience best describes the situation - more than mine. I can honestly say that I'm here to learn, not to direct. Though my first job out of High School was as a tree climber, I took a different path. Looking at the details of a climbing system and viewing it differently isn't a criticism of design flaws. For me it's the opposite; I have a deep sense of what the Blake's Hitch represents in terms of accimplishments for the tree climbing industry. My first climb was in '79, yet I don't have your level of experience or commitment. However, I'm truly amazed at the advancement that has been accomplished since that time. I'm astounded!! Because of your years doing this, you can recognize the same. I would never discount the voice of the experienced climber - especially in this period where equipment and practices are at a high performance level. For every entry that I read these days, I recount with disbelief the lack of procedures, techniques, and technology that we utilized in '79. In those days to be a man meant you took risks like free climb or no use of a lanyard while using a chain saw. In these days, it's all about understanding the climbing system and continuing a spiral of risk minimization, which calls for a review and discussion of details. As a result, I have a deep sense of gratitude that this forum is available for the purpose of tapping into the voice of the experienced climber.

However, all materials wear, and I really like the Spider Rappel applied in the dDrt for the purpose of minimizing wear. I submit that as a proposal only, not in the voice of the experienced climber.

In the final analysis, it's good to hear that the Blake's Hitch alone works just fine.

Your reply to this thread now has me very curious. In approximate terms, how often do you replace your personal climbing rope?

Regards,
JimK