Traditional vs Splitail

[Bermie]

Put ONE carabiner on your bridge, there is plenty of room in one biner, clip the eye of your split tail into it, get one that has a tight eye, or make it tight with a couple of zip ties.
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Tie the end of your climb line to the SAME biner with a double fisherman's, this will cinch down and stay put, then once you've got the length right standing on the ground, tie your blake's...This way there is always a bit of weight on the biner, and when you hump up, nothing flops down like when you use a separate biner for the split tail..make sure the end of the climb line is on the side nearest the biner's gate, so you can remove it easily when re-positioning.

I used to use a bowline for the termination of my climb line, but it has too much slack, untying and re-tieing a fisheman's takes very little time...most times the knot will stay intact when you throw it higher and you can just re-clip into the loop again...got to watch it though.

I've moved on from even this setup, gone to the Hitchclimber pulley and a VT hitch...even better, smoother, easier to tend with one hand.

However, knowing how to tie and use the 'no-split tail' system is valuable, someday you'll need it in a tight spot when you don't have any extra gear, just the other end of your climb line, I know I have!

 

[miko0618]

I agree. knowing the standard drt tie in is useful. I often use the tail end of my climbing line as a second line in the tree. use an anchor knot (hitch) to a biner the tail becomes my blakes.

I never use a bowline or figure 8 on my main line as they dont cinch.

 

[joezilla11]

Thanks the one biner fix worked out well today. I even threw on a pulley for slack tending but to me it just causes a gaggle with all that rope. I found it much easier to leave a long bridge and pull myself up and around as I slide the knot up. Ill have to work on technique I guess.

 

[PassionForTrees]

Just strolling onto this thread and thought to add as well, I was so stuck on my comfort level, that I was so not changing unless I saw a significant advantage, well over the years man have we come a long way. I would never ever climb that way again. Eye splice on all my climbing ropes and for some one on each end. For beginners it is good to have more tool in the tool box for say and learn how to do old style traditional if and when needed for secondary tie in point but turning that into a split tail is easy to do and carry a separate climbing knot with ya or 3. I have used the blakes and who can complain of that, works really well, but I do prefer the Shwabish Prusik over most of them which is an eye n eye that you can play with and find your length. I dont like the pulleys much at all. I like to advance a full stride and the pulley just gets in the way, but I can incorporate that system with a long knot back to a shorter one and then use the pulley. alot of guys like it, I am just not one of those guys. The time that is saved by being able to take off your eye and re direct or use a friction saver go down 15 feet and retreive your friction saver by unclipping your eye splice and have the retrieiver ball on the eye and retrieve your friction saver is so safe and so productive and easy! I used to come down on the rigging/pulling rope with a muenter hitch, backed up with a prussik and got away from that now using an adjustable eye n eye friction saver. So as you get more experienced in climbing your will see the many advantages of the eye splice and the split tail system for Sure!!

 

[046]

here's a few lifeline termination knots. split tail (red rope) uses a triple fisherman which cinches down against biner. it's the only lifeline knot that I'd use without a backup knot. triple fisherman is also the knot recommended by rope mfg for Spectra/dyneema.

notice how neat all the knots are tied .. one can tell almost instantly if knot has been tied correctly.