73 Armin
The only time I saw it done, we had to lower a rope to a guy who had run out of steam while soloing a route. I looked like useful knowledge so I learned it but never had to use it!
The prusik is often difficult to loosen after it’s been tightened - a far better alternative, which is similar to the prusik, but much easier to loosen, is the Klemheist loop:
I’ve used both when needing to ascend a rope when in difficulty, and it’s hands down the Klemheist for me in such a situation, where one needs to alternately tighten, loosen, shift up, and tighten the knot many times in a row to ascend the rope.
Armin, are you sure we need to hang people for transgressing the Sota rules?
Another inefficient way of tying a knot - Its much easier to simply 'swing or ‘twirl’, the end of the loop around the other rope then push it through the loop.
There are other versions, as you probably know and most of them are better than the standard prussik.
I’ve never had that problem. Pulls right off.
It’s a well-enough known problem that many have sought alternatives over the years which are similarly easy to tie, but which are indeed distinctly easier to loosen. As David mentions, there are several versions.
My go-to knot is velcro. After that I suppose the clove hitch comes in second place. I know a lot of knots, I just generally don’t need them.
Okay, well, to me, that’s a solution in search of a problem, but everybody’s mileage will certainly vary.
Enough half hitches will hold anything.
‘If you can’t tie knots, tie lots’?
I made a video with my favorite knots: https://youtu.be/QM1SYsHXZLA
Nice for tying down airplanes, as well! Followed by some half hitches, of course.
While this has never happened to me using this knot for SOTA, I do remember that when I originally starting using a prusik loop as an ascender, it could be made tight enough where this was a problem.
We used prusik loops tied near each person on the safety ropes on Mt. Rainier for glacier travel. The idea was that they could be used if one of us fell into a deep crevasse. Never used it for an actual emergency, only in practice.
73 Eric KG6MZS
Giggity!
Don’t you hate that. You can get a mild steroid cream for it.
Maybe one of the best websites to discover HOW to tie most knots = Animated Knots
Here’s how most people tie the Bowline. Bowline Knot | How to tie a Bowline Knot using Step-by-Step Animations | Animated Knots by Grog
However…No ‘real’ sailor ever ties it this way - which is for boy scouts and climbers and …errrr? and seemingly many amateur and some professional civilian sailors
The best way to tie it - and the way every full time ocean going mariner on ships does it… https://youtu.be/oTLglKIpMNQ?t=33
David
I also use a prusik hitch to tie to my telescoping fiberglass mast. Yes, they can be difficult to loosen in climbing applications when they have held a lot of weight, but I don’t put that much tension on my antennas. One thing I’ve done is to hold the knot in the sling in one hand while wrapping around the mast with the other - that puts the knot (and any hanging tails of rope) where it provides a convenient grip to loosen it. (I wouldn’t do that for climbing, however.)
The best material I’ve found for this is waxed cable lacing twine (from back in the days of valves / tubes / GlowFETs) if you know any old hoarders who still have such a thing around, as the wax gives it a good grip on the smooth surface.
Many other alternatives will work, of course: just a matter of which one you can remember when you need it. That’s true of most knots.
I find that I tend to use an overhand or figure-8 loop more often than a bowline, as they are easier to tie. Except perhaps in stiffer wire.
But for those who haven’t been tying knots for decades, there are a number of alternatives to knots, including some that can be used with gloves on.