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Just wondering if anyone has tried to srt on a blake's hitch and if it works, have not seen or heard anywhere that you can use it, I know you would have to make safety knots on the ascend (most definitely) for the ride back down unless you use a rappel device
I guess it would be worth trying if you use an ascender as back-up

Ya know…

There is actually a write-up on that very subject.

I cant remember if it’s Jeff Jepson’s book or perhaps one of the PDF files that are on Tree Buzz. I’ll dig around and, if I find it I’ll forward it to you.

The short answer is…
When doing DRT the friction necessary to slow you down on descent “without” burning up your Blake’s Hitch is shared by your tree saver and your friction hitch.

When on single line, your descender has to carry the full heat-load of your descent since there is no rope going over a branch through a tree saver to help burn off some of that energy.

I’ve been known to “smoke” a Blake’s Hitch on a fast DRT decent and I’m only 180 pounds. On SRT a husky fellow would surely produce enough heat on a Blake’s Hitch to cause catastrophic failure.

If you try it…
Do it over water, deep water.

When I get down from a 40' rap the eight is pretty warm. The friction given off while you slide down the rope IS very high. Just a question as to why? If you want to stop on the way down get an 8 (with ears) and use it in the extended fashion with a Prusik below it. One handed control and stop when you want. You can also tie off the 8 (with ears is better) and be more secure.

The dynamics of using a the Blakes on DdRT is very different that SRT. It won't let you lower yourself in a controlled manner.

It will be a good lesson in physics to try it out- but make sure you have a separate belay while you do it or you just might get stuck up there!

love
nick

Originally posted by davidmbeasley
Just wondering if anyone has tried to srt on a blake's hitch and if it works

I have tried it. The hitch didn't allow controlled descent like when used with a dynamic rope system, and I was not happy with its performance. "Low and slow" will allow you to try this and other techniques while reducing risk.

Related information can be found in Why is descending w/ Blake's + DRT the exception?.

Bradley Ford,

Thanks for posting that _link_ on the SRT - Blake’s hitch theme. I was stumbling through the TreeBuzz pdf articles when it was right here on TCI all along.

Thanks for the re-direct!
Electrojake