Friction hitch that can be tied with a bight?

[stihlmadasever]

Nice knot but there's a 'hitch'. See attched. If it's loaded by the climber's weight at A, the bight will pull out and the whole know will unravel. If you cliped into the bight at B, you'd need some sort of dead weight or stopper knot at A to stop the free end pulling through.

 

But in all other respects it is a prussik knot that can be tied without the free end being available.

Yeah stopper knot at A tie in to B.It can be used in a taught line situation ive read.

[daltontrees]

Thanks. I'll give it a whirl next week under body weight and see how it holds up

 

At your own risk, I trust you understand?! On terra firma. Plus see note about securing the free end.

 

I had a real situation like this a few years ago. A frdn peeled off the 4th pitch of a 9 pitch route on Skye, his last runner popped and he landed ona small ledge 2 foot below and about 40 above me. I didn't have a prussik loop with me and he was unconscious (his rucksack saved him death or paralysis, his helmet certainly saved his life) and I had to climb and scramble up to him using his bodyweight as an anchor. All I could think of to use was an italian hitch, which worked (just). The Fairmond would have been perfect. A pretty improbable situation but it shows that there is usually a better knot for every situation.

[skinnerm1]

In the actual situation I encountered the climber wouldn't be weighted at either point A or B but on the strand leading south out of the bottom of the picture, so that shouldn't cause an issue. However, as the friction hitch was required to unweight a muled off atc (becoming a bundle of slack once removed), the redirect featured in both examples wouldn't be possible. Is it crutial?

[daltontrees]

I'm sorry but I don't know what you mean anymore. What's an atc, and why would you be muntered off on a sports climb? You'll need to describe trhe situation better. As I said there'sa better knot for every situation and the Fairmile might be useless or worse for the situation you encountered.

[skinnerm1]

I'll put it to the test next week at any rate. Glad to hear that you survived that horror show of a situation Julian. Thanks everyone for the feedback

[paddyvero]

Bachmann hitch? Requires a biner though.

[agrimog]

it was my belief that a bight was a loop placed in a rope, not around a fixed point, with no ends available

[daltontrees]

Bachmann hitch? Requires a biner though.

 

It requires a prussik loop or some other piece of rope than the climbing line. I think the challenge is to use the climbing line to tie the friction hitch to the climbing line. Easy if you have the end available, a Blake's hitch or one of several other similar knots would do. But if you don't have the end available you have to take a loop out of the climbing line and use that.

[skinnerm1]

I had a much around with both the Farrimond and the Blake's hitch on a bite this eve.

 

Despite holding the weight of the moon once set and dressed, I could not get the Farrimond to perform on a taught line configuration where weight was to be slowly (or quickly) transferred to the knot.

 

The exception seemed to be when it was tied in the configuration it was designed for - the load end is first redirected and then the rest of the knot tied (can't imagine myself holding the weight of a fallen leader and somehow redirecting that weight and tying the knot with one hand/ minus a prussik or alternative).

 

In the configuration where the section of the knot that has to remain loaded is tied off to an anchor or body weight (if you are going to be ascending a rope with a couple of these things) before the leader's weight was transferred, slippage occurred and wouldn't stop until something hit the deck. This happened regardless of the number of wraps, or type of stopper knots employed on the ends used to finish the knot with. If the knot was set and dressed prior to the leader weighting it - no issue.

 

The Blake's on a bite was a beast of a thing that locked up relentlessly. Awesome for a belay escape when the tail isn't available but you are knot going to be doing any ascending on this thing.

 

Might have overlooked some cock up. Anyone with experience with the knot or an eye for something badly tied in general?

[skinnerm1]

Sorry about the sidewise Farrimond action.

 

The first pic is the configuration that worked best but isn't something that is going to get tied for a belay escape.

 

The second, the general rig, belay device tied off, knot tied above the device and anchored below it (if the knot held the stool we gave it the body weight treatment). In this configuration, the knot could be dressed and set so that it held body weight but not whilst or after body weight had been applied.

 

The last is the knot with a mad number of wraps that didn't help at all really.