Descending a Taut Climbing Rope: Moving Down on Friction Hitches
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In some ways, it’s been nice that climbing materials have evolved away from using nylon for just about everything. We have materials that are lighter and stronger, like Dyneema, and even more cut resistant, like Aramid. But now that there are so many new materials in our climbing soft goods, it seems like we need to be much more knowledgeable about the properties and use-cases for those materials. Like I said, it used to be just nylon. And while nylon - like any material - has its strengths and weaknesses, at least it was the same strengths and weaknesses for every piece of technical gear that had nylon as a major component of it (slings, quickdraws, tent fabric, etc.).
Take something like Dyneema. Very strong. Stronger per gram of weight than just about anything else we use in climbing. Also very cut resistant and abrasion resistant. But it is cut and abrasion resistant because it is slippery. It it slides over stuff more easily, that stuff can’t dig into it and rough it up or cut it. That means it’s less able to grab the rope when used as a friction hitch. And Dyneema also has a very low-temperature melting point. It can head up and melt just from the repeated use (without much break) of having the material slide over a climbing rope. Another reason we don’t typically prefer to use Dyneema as a friction hitch.
So, you’ll notice in the video that I call out two specific pieces of equipment:
As I call out in the video, I want materials with excellent tensile strength and good bite on the rope for descending the rope on prusik cords. It’s already precarious enough to have two sliding hitches as our life-maintaining system. I want to make sure I can reduce the likelihood of both of them either sliding or breaking to a practical minimum.
In self-rescue situations, there are often increased risks no matter what method we choose. I don’t want to add risks to the equation that are coming from my materials. So, a good, diverse set of materials now seems warranted.
We are past the days where we had nylon for everything ;)