Am I doing something wrong? I've noticed when I climb DRT on my New England Safety Blue, the nearer I get to the anchor limb, the up and down legs seem to want to cross and twist about one full rotation every 30 feet or so. Sometimes I even get my knot hand pinched between them. Again, am I doing something wrong, or is this normal?

Baker wrote:
Am I doing something wrong? I've noticed when I climb DRT on my New England Safety Blue, the nearer I get to the anchor limb, the up and down legs seem to want to cross and twist about one full rotation every 30 feet or so. Sometimes I even get my knot hand pinched between them. Again, am I doing something wrong, or is this normal?

Ron reported this problem as well on the TCC (Tree Climbers Coalition) message board as well. It confuses me because I think you need to rotate your body 360 in order to put a full twist in the legs of a DRT system, right? If you look up and see that you've put twist into the system you can always rotate your body enough in the opposite direction (if you have contact with a the trunk or a limb) to remove the twist. If you're hanging free away from the tree the twist naturally resolves itself. You can also put a swivel into the system but that introduces some minor negative effects while solving the overall twist problem. Nothing's perfect.
-moss

I think his rope needs to be taken out of the bag completely and remove all the twists that it has and it should work fine after that. Climbers need to do this regularly to their ropes specially if you put the rope in a bag after the climb or if you coil it over your shoulders and tie it together for storage. Somehow you include some twisting into the rope. Also, if the rope was not properly streched out when you got it from the factory it carries a lot of twists but this can be resolved easily according to Nick A.

I do not think that you are doing anything wrong on your climbing!

Thanks OldTimer,

My rope IS new. I have climbed on both ends of it, but I'm guilty of not taking the whole rope out of the bag on shorter climbs. (Another carry-over from rescue) I'll flake my rope out on a tarp and then stretch it out on the grass to see if that's my problem. I'll report back afterward to let you know.

Baker wrote:
...but I'm guilty of not taking the whole rope out of the bag on shorter climbs. (Another carry-over from rescue) I'll flake my rope out on a tarp and then stretch it out on the grass to see if that's my problem. I'll report back afterward to let you know.

I don't think leaving your rope in the bag is the problem, I do that too. When I'm flaking my rope back into the bag I run it through my hands to help remove any twist.

One thing I'm not clear about is whether you're talking about the two legs of a DRT system twisting around each other above you (what I originally thought) or just the rope itself twisting, or both.

Ok, I just reread your original post. I'm mystified. You have to spin around to twist the two ropes across each other above you. Right? So either you are or your not. You can look up as you climb and check to see if you put twist in (two ropes twisting together) and correct by spinning around the opposite direction.
-moss

It's not a really big deal, but to clarify, If I just sit in my harness and hang there for a few seconds, the legs of the system some to rest twisted 1/2 to 1 full rotation, not side by side. As I always seem to do, I'll post some pics next time I'm out.