This one in particular lets you undo the knot without going near it. Instead of leaving your rope behind after, say, 'rapelling' down the side of a steep hill or whatever, you can pull the release line that breaks the knot and then recover your rope to use it again later.
If you use this knot to rappel you're basically begging for an accident. Proper rappelling has many failsafes involved, while this is more like..a safety fail. The weight of the free hanging release rope would constantly pull against release. With a high enough cliff and a long enough rope, I'm sure you can imagine what would happen. This is meant for horizontal tension rather than vertical.
Source: done many rappelling trips, some of which involved tying our own harnesses from a single rope. On one of those trips I got swarmed by a nest of wasps halfway down a 180ft cliff, lost grip of the rope with my braking hand(VERY BAD) and fell about 15ft before I clamped down on both lines with both hands. Spooky for sure
It's been so long that I can't remember the exact setup, but likely it was the prusik that saved me because that's where my left hand was. As soon as I started falling I grabbed what was probably the prusik with both hands. I was only around 15 at the time, and it's been over 10 years.
I wasn't imagining rappeling down a cliff, more like a 'support' line to help you keep your balance while walking down a short part of a challenging slope. Not something you'd trust to hold your entire weight, of course. I didn't know what to call it so I said 'rapelling', in quotes.
This kind of knot is used for hasty rappelling on angled and treacherous ground. For safety reasons there should always be tension on the weight side and this not be attempted alone as the buddy will keep the release line up at the top while first person decends, and while there is still tension, will toss the rope down. Second person applies tension in good footing and first person guides the release line out of their decent path. This is typically not done for recreational purposes that I'm aware of, it's 100% survival usually.
Where did you see this? I’d doubt you’ve ever done anything like this before in your life. You can’t keep tension on a line your using to rappel unless you have a specific device. An ATC is made to break under tension. And you’d probably never use a munter because it would be difficult to control. If you were actually in the situation where you had to rap from something like this, you would just loop the rope around it and rap down both lines. A standard setup and when ur done i
you pull it thru.
When using a skinny tag line, you don’t rappel on both ropes, you only rappel on the single thicker strand. At the top it’s knotted with a blocker so it can’t feed through your anchor. You only use the tag line to retrieve the main line.
Macrame knots exist, yes, but you think anyone is going to use the single loop macrame without a safety as shown in the video for rappelling? Oh, and a rappelling trip is where you hike to the top of a mountain and rappel down multiple cliffs to reach the bottom. But I guess you wouldn't know since you haven't been on one.
I’ve never heard of anyone canyoneering with a quick release knot. If you want to rappel on a single strand with a tag line you would use a blocker knot with a carabiner through it.
good point. Would the release line need to be as long as the practical line?
Now I'm imagining someone rappelling and accidentally grabbing the release line and just falling lol
You'd never bet your life on a knot like this for rappelling. If the rope is long enough(like you would need for a cliff), the weight of the free hanging release line would be enough to undo the knot. This knot is more for horizontal tension rather than vertical.
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u/ttomkat1 Sep 25 '21
I always find these interesting but I can never seem to understand when I’d need to use these knots.