skinnerm1

After further testing with several tied off loop variations and several bight variations no luck. I'm placing this in the too-hard basket for me at any rate. What seems promising usually turns into some bundle of deadliness either immediately or in the form of a nasty surprise. Looped knots implemented with a strand of the same rope they are to be applied to (tried taughtline/blakes/knut/knut-mutant/camels variations) seem to fail quicker for some reason or bind up as in the case of the blakes variant or any of the above hitches finished off with a number half hitches - which is the only way I could get some of these to hold at all. Some knots on the bight (taught line, camels, knut) work well for anchor tie off's (albeit assymetically so only one strand of the bight entering the knot can be used for tying off), however, if you attempt to ascend/descend with them, the repetitive loading/deloading will eventually cause the knot to capsize internally. A Bachmann on a bight or loop of the rope & standard single-strand knot of choice tied with the tail, seems to be the least amount of gear you can get away with in a no gear situation where everything has gone to hell. Did you have a crack at it Jules?

Legend! Thanks Jules. Keen to hear the outcome. We have had a good run with the Camels so far. Some of the bight assymetry problem seems to be sorted out by tying the knot with a loop instead of a bight.

After further testing with the Knut Hitch variant we have found that this made-up piece of rubbish tends to allow an internal build up of slack which can cause slippage. This occurs mostly with repetitive descending and tending to the knot in this kind of situation is a pain/ could be straight up deadly if not backed up. We have gone over to a Camel's Hitch on the bight for the one in a million scenario that a friction hitch on a bight will actually be of use.

After not much succsess with the Farrimond, myself and a few friends got busy. I ended up with what is essentially a Knut Hitch tied on the bight with the stopper snugged up to the main knot and a small variation. No problems tying off the rope with the rope and ascending with the tail so far. Was able to ascend/descend (leader tied off with the Knut variation) a 9.5 Petzl Aerial/ and some insitu, stiff as steel 10mm number with the Knut VA and a Blake's on the foot. Once dressed, it slid easily and gripped like you want it to. After bopping up and down the rope on it, we hung over 200kgs of man off it without slippage. It was easy to release afterwards. Care has to be taken to dress the knot properly before adding the stopper knot and snugging it up. You also have to ensure that only the top strand of the bight entering the knot is used for tying off the rope or ascending/descending. The thing can start to slip if the bottom strand of the bight entering the knot is accidentally used for this purpose instead. Satisfied with it's performance so far, but I won't be taking myself off auto-belay for any high ascending quite yet.

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.

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?

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

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?

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

No but thanks for the quick response. This came up in a next to no gear, multi-pitch sport climbing situation where the tail was not readily available for tying (in this instance) the blake's hitch with. To be clearer I am interested as to whether it is possible to tie the friction hitch itself with a bight of rope onto a taught line.

Anyone know of a dependable friction hitch that can be tied on a bight of rope with the hitch being applicable to a rope of the same diameter?