have you ever heard of this?

[capecodtree]

A guy called my office the other day and left a message saying he was looking for work as a climber. I called him back and asked him my standard "weeding" out question, "what knot do you climb on?" He told me he climbs on a running bowline. What? climbing knots are all friction hitches, the blake, taught line hitch, etc.
Has anyone ever heard of climbing on a running bowline? If so, how does it work in a climbing capacity? I am always ready to learn something new.
I did knot hire him.

 

[climberjones]

What if he had said blakes hitch?

 

[imagineero]

Sounds like he interpreted it as "what knot do you tie into your saddle with". Don't forget that some guys don't climb on a friction hitch at all

Shaun

 

[capecodtree]

I ask the question to determine if they have a clue. I've never heard of a competent climber climbing on a running bowline, have you? I'm old school and climb on the blake. It seems like all the young guys like the prusik, micro pulley, ascender. One of my guys just broke out an ascender? that looks like two z shaped pieces of metal. as long as your entry method into a tree complies with ANSI z133 standards I don't care. Show me where ANSI approves a running bowline as a climbing knot.

 

[chad556]

I can't think of any way a running bowline could be used as a friction hitch, at least not safely. It would also be a poor choice for a termination knot, yes it would cinch onto a carabiner but it would be unbearably bulky, not to mention unsafe unless he tied an even bulkier stopper knot in the tail.

Perhaps he meant he uses it to set up his climbing line when he climbs SRT? I am not an SRT guy but I believe that is acceptable practice.

Or maybe he really doesn't have a clue and he just blurted out the only knot name he knew

 

[jefflovstrom]

I ask the question to determine if they have a clue. I've never heard of a competent climber climbing on a running bowline, have you? I'm old school and climb on the blake. It seems like all the young guys like the prusik, micro pulley, ascender. One of my guys just broke out an ascender? that looks like two z shaped pieces of metal. as long as your entry method into a tree complies with ANSI z133 standards I don't care. Show me where ANSI approves a running bowline as a climbing knot.

If you call a blake's old school, You never climbed on manilla. Anyway, maybe he is climbing on a set line and SRT. Still, good question to ask to weed out. Now let us wait for Rope to come in brag about his Wraptor. :msp_tongue:
Jeff :msp_ohmy:

 

[capecodtree]

jeff you are right, i never climbed on manilla. i did work with an old timer who occasionally made his climbing saddle out of rope, i think it was a variation of the spanish bowline. I tried it once and it hurt like the heck. The guys that work for me, especially my oldest son, call me old school because I keep my climbing technique simple. I keep a wooden pole saw with me at all times, double crotch alot and swing from tree to tree when conditions permit. I've also noticed that no one complains when i health prune the trees with large sprawling crowns. I guess the old man is still good for something.

 

[tree md]

Yea, my guess would be that he is talking about SRT ascent.

I climbed on manilla one time when my old boss made me climb on it. It sucks to climb on. I have heard of guys climbing on a bowline on a bite before and have seen the diagrams on how to tie one but haven't seen one used first hand.

BTW, that's the first question I ask a potential climber when they call saying they can climb. LOL, some of them tell me they don't climb with a rope at all.

Ever hear back from the guy?

 

[capecodtree]

the sob calls me every day, a little to needy for me. he's left his life history on my answering machine, he was making 16/hr but will take less. i will forward his contact info to you if you would like.

 

[tree md]

LOL, no thanks. Believe me I have got list of people who are wanting to go to work. I put an ad out for a groundy last week and got over 35 responses over the week. Some attaching resumes... That's a lot of people out of work. I've never got that many responses from an ad.

 

[jefflovstrom]

jeff you are right, i never climbed on manilla. i did work with an old timer who occasionally made his climbing saddle out of rope, i think it was a variation of the spanish bowline. I tried it once and it hurt like the heck. The guys that work for me, especially my oldest son, call me old school because I keep my climbing technique simple. I keep a wooden pole saw with me at all times, double crotch alot and swing from tree to tree when conditions permit. I've also noticed that no one complains when i health prune the trees with large sprawling crowns. I guess the old man is still good for something.

Yup, my first saddle was a 'bowline on a bight'. and it did hurt. My first tree was a palm.

Jeff

 

[TreEmergencyB]

Yup, my first saddle was a 'bowline on a bight'. and it did hurt. My first tree was a palm.

Jeff

Was there dinosaurs eating the leaves while you were climbing it?

I feel like a kid reading some of this, ive never climbed on anything with less than 16 strands

 

[imagineero]

my first 'on rope' experience was almost 20 years ago, I was only 14 years old. It was rock climbing and abseiling, we had kernmantle ropes which we thought were very high tech at the time. Couldn't afford proper made harnesses so we tied our own too, used 25mm webbing rather than rope because it cost about the same and was slightly less uncomfortable. Still very uncomfortable though! But quite cheap and safe. Couldn't afford high tech stuff so we used munter hitch belays off the only karabiner we had. How times have changed!

Over the years I've built up, lost, had stolen or given away enough gear to fill a truck just about. My current rack is pretty modest compared with what I've had in years gone past doing rock climbing and rescue work, but still way more than a person has need of. It's hard to go wrong with a rope and a prussik though

Shaun

 

[mckeetree]

If you call a blake's old school, You never climbed on manilla.

I got a laugh out of that myself.

 

[jefflovstrom]

I remember the old Homelite I had, thought it was great.
Jeff

 

[mckeetree]

I remember the old Homelite I had, thought it was great.
Jeff

Those were the days weren't they? Every once in a while I hear someone on here say they are "old school" when they wouldn't know old school if it was up their ass.

 

[tree MDS]

Those were the days weren't they? Every once in a while I hear someone on here say they are "old school" when they wouldn't know old school if it was up their ass.

Lol. Well, there's old school, and then there's geriatric school too I suppose.. lmao.

 

[capecodtree]

I should have been clearer. My guys call me old school because I climb on the blake.