Tie off knots for srt

Adkpk · Mar 29, 2009

What knots are used to anchor the line for srt? Good and bad and where and when they are used. Everyone has a different knot to anchor their lines before starting off on a rope to climb single static rope. It will help us new to srt to see what the pro's use. So far I have had 4 srt climbs and no incidents but have seen and learned that not one knot is always the right knot. So please include your bad tie offs too and why they are bad. Pics of course are very helpful. :camera:

Ghillie · Mar 29, 2009

One method is to sling to the tree as your anchor and run your rope through a portawrap.

Advantage: if you need to come down now, your groundie can lower you out of the tree instead of you having to switch to a descend sytem.

You can also use a grigri or a figure eight descender (but you have to trust your groundie will know how to lock it off correctly)

Disadvantages: more hardware in the equation.

I will have some pics later.

md_tree_dood · Mar 29, 2009

If you mean the tail end of your rope, half hitch and running bowline works fine. The port a wrap method works too but that's a bit overkill. If you mean backing up your ascenders, use a kleimheist or prussic with an extra wrap.

FlyingMonkey · Mar 29, 2009

Double bowline with a double wrap around the tree. Than a biner connecting the knot to the up rope.

moss · Mar 29, 2009

Here are a few...

Here are the three I use most of the time, I've used these types of tie-offs for many SRT climbs.

1. For a skinny enough tree or for tying off on a small tree next to large diameter tree.

2. A wider diameter tree, anchored on the trunk. That's a screwlink capturing the rope. The rope is crossed around the back of the trunk. F8 on a Bight backed with a Double Overhand, overkill I know but it makes me feel better when I'm doing an 80-90 ft. air climb.

3. Running bowline cinched on the TIP (the green Tachyon). The bowline has a Yosemite Backup (more to redirect the tail up than anything else) and backed with a double overhand above the bowline.

-moss

Adkpk · Mar 29, 2009

FlyingMonkey said:
Double bowline with a double wrap around the tree. Than a biner connecting the knot to the up rope.

Welcome to the site FlyingMonkey.

md_tree_dood said:
If you mean backing up your ascenders, use a kleimheist or prussic with an extra wrap.

I mean the tail end of the rope.

I back up the ascenders with a blakes and my split tail. Which was proven. I bailed mid line yesterday from the TTMS. I put my line on an 8, stood on the lower biner and released the upper ascender. Then I just sat in the saddle while hanging on the blakes and released the lower biner.

But thread is about how to anchor the line not myself to the line.

moss said:
and backed with a double overhand above the bowline.

-moss

I understand the knot but tell me it not clear in the pic. Because it looks like after the yosemite the rope just comes over the horizon. The double overhand is out of view?

joesawer · Mar 29, 2009

I mostly use a runing bowline. It is simple and has proven itself to me many times over.
It got a bad rep from the rock climbers becaus in their stiff ropes the half hitch would not stay bound around the bight consistantly. But with arbor lines it has never failed me.
If I was using modern mountianeering ropes I would use a figure eight because it has been proven to work in that situation.

moss · Mar 30, 2009

Adkpk said:
I understand the knot but tell me it not clear in the pic. Because it looks like after the yosemite the rope just comes over the horizon. The double overhand is out of view?

Hi Bob, yep the double overhand is out of view, that was the only photo I had handy at the moment.
-moss

Ghillie · Mar 30, 2009

TreeCo said:
I use a running bowline with a double overhand in the tail of the bowline. I very rarely tie off at the ground and usually opt to tie in to a limb in the top of the tree. This of course means I do have to climb to my tie in point. I hardly ever use a chain saw on the way up, I leave it tied to my srt access line often using it to weight the line. I use the same rope for traditional rope climbing once I reach the top.

So you don't use a kernmantle rope for SRT?

moray · Mar 31, 2009

I also like a separate, very strong sling for the anchor--no knots required. It allows me to install a belay device when showing a newbie the rudiments of SRT. If no belay device is involved, I use a butterfly or figure 8 for the loop on the end of the SRT line (or middle, for that matter) and use a screw link or locking steel biner to connect that to the sling. It sounds like a lot of stuff, but it is really very quick to set up.

Nice to hear you are finally attempting SRT!

Adkpk · Mar 31, 2009

moray said:
Nice to hear you are finally attempting SRT!

Thanks moray. It's a great stress reliever to pick any sturdy branch and go for it. Rather than trying to isolate two ends of the rope and set the friction saver to Ddrt. Not to mention the ease of using the ascenders.

Ghillie · Mar 31, 2009

Here is a picture I took saturday at TreeStuff's climbing class. I thought I had more of the rigging but they did not come out or someone was clocking the shot.

The initial tie-off os a grigri and he has it backed up with a munter on the 'biner.

Adkpk · Apr 1, 2009

Ghillie said:
Here is a picture I took saturday at TreeStuff's climbing class. I thought I had more of the rigging but they did not come out or someone was clocking the shot.

The initial tie-off os a grigri and he has it backed up with a munter on the 'biner.

Well it's frictionless but an expensive looking tie off, no? Don't happen to know what knot that is tying off the tree wrap do you? Looks important and minimal to say the least compared to the costly friction reducing stuff.

Raymond · Apr 1, 2009

I'm pretty old school when it comes to the STL.
Looks like a bunch of monkey motion to me but
I bet it saves on the life of a rope for sure.
What's the other advantages?

Ghillie · Apr 1, 2009

Adkpk said:
Well it's frictionless but an expensive looking tie off, no? Don't happen to know what knot that is tying off the tree wrap do you? Looks important and minimal to say the least compared to the costly friction reducing stuff.

Is this the knot you are talking about?

I believe it is a six wrap prussik.

He is using this as the anchor for an adjustible false crotch in the tree (pin oak in need of pruning). He was showing one option for putting a DdRT into a tree that would take forever to isolate one good branch.

He put the SRT (technically it is SRT) line into the tree and atached a pulley to the terminal end. Then ran the DdRT line through the pulley and pulled the Tie in point up into the tree. Then you can proceed to work the tree from the bottom up.

An adjustable anchor (in this case) is almost a necessity but it also adds more hardware to the system.

This is just another option and after looking at it again, I can see some other options using an adjustible system (referring to the prussik, not the grigri) and a small anchor plate.

Adkpk · Apr 1, 2009

Raymond said:
I'm pretty old school when it comes to the STL.
Looks like a bunch of monkey motion to me but
I bet it saves on the life of a rope for sure.
What's the other advantages?

What is STL?

randyg · Apr 1, 2009

What is STL?

Adkpk said:
What is STL?

A typo perhaps?????

Raymond · Apr 1, 2009

randyg said:
A typo perhaps?????

I Guess! I was working in the shop, playing on the computer
and trying to not let my coffee get cold.
SRT, STL, STP, SNL :dizzy:

Adkpk · Apr 1, 2009

Ghillie said:
Is this the knot you are talking about?

I believe it is a six wrap prussik.

He is using this as the anchor for an adjustible false crotch in the tree (pin oak in need of pruning). He was showing one opyion for putting a DdRT into a tree that would take forever to isolate one good branch.

He put the SRT (technically it is SRT) line into the tree and atached a pulley to the terminal end. Then ran the DdRT line through the pulley and pulled the Tie in point up into the tree. Then you can proceed to work the tree from the bottom up.

An adjustable anchor (in this case) is almost a necessity but it also adds more hardware to the system.

This is just another option and after looking at it again, I can see some other options using an adjustible system (referring to the prussik, not the grigri) and a small anchor plate.

That's a lot-a hardware to wind up with a friction hitch and no stopper knot, don't ya think? Even with a stopper knot if the hitch slipped...

Adkpk · Apr 1, 2009

Raymond said:
I'm pretty old school when it comes to the STL.
Looks like a bunch of monkey motion to me but
I bet it saves on the life of a rope for sure.
What's the other advantages?

The best one for me is not need to isolate two lines. Find a sturdy branch, pull you line over it, tie off and up you go. The ascenders are the other part to making srt easier and more efficent but that's for another thread. I am looking for what climbers are using to tie off the end of the line.

Tie off knots for srt

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