Diy adjustable personal tether

Ok, diy might be an exaggeration. I'm using standard 8mm cordage and properly rated lockers. Not making my own gear or anything.

Hopefully my image is large enough. I tied an alpine butterfly follow through through both tie-in points. I'd usually go with figure 8 tied with both strands but was practicing the butterfly.

Then on the left side (my left hand), my pear-shaped biner is attached with a barrel knot. And on the other side (my right hand) I a locking biner clove hitched into the rope with a barrel knot at the end to keep the rope from feeding all the way through the clove hitch.

What do you think? Useful? Dangerous? Just dumb? I saw Petzl's dual connect adjust and it looks handy for certain situations but is also one more piece of $60 gear that I'd only use occasionally anyway. This is my solution using gear I already had but I'm still relatively new to all this stuff so let me know if I'm gonna die using this setup!

This is a better solution using the same type of gear.
http://www.bluugnome.com/cyn_how-to/gear/purcell-prusik/purcell-prusik-tether.aspx

Unwieldy. Lots of stuff to get in the way. I'm generally against any dedicated tether. Yours looks like lots of stuff to get caught/hung up as you climb. If you're using that to extend your rappel I'd be extremely concerned about that knot perhaps coming undone on the carabiner. I'm also not a big fan of a fairly thin rope moving up and down on your tie-in points while you move around rappelling.

+1 for the Purcell Prusik. I’ve been using one as a PAS for almost a year, and they’re convenient and out of the way

Cool, thanks for the replies! I like the prusik solution Stephen. It's still bulky but the clove hitched biner on my setup just looks scary with so little rope behind it. And with the prusik solution you don't have that annoying tail flapping about.

And yeah, ClimbingOn, I hadn't thought about the possible wear on the tie in points from the cordage shifting back and forth! That could definitely be an issue over time. I think the barrel knot tied to the biner in my right hand is pretty secure since I've seen them using that setup in quite a few rope access videos. But again, I'm new to this and those guys use a ton of backups so one device failure for them wouldn't be catastrophic the way it would be for me with this setup.

I'm curious what you replace a dedicated tether with? I know in many scenarios using the rope itself works but when that's not possible what do you attach yourself with? 

And careful what you suggest Alec! Soon you might see me with two slings coming from my belay loop going to two bolts while I use my haul loop as the master point to belay between my legs. I am the anchor!!! Haha.

Camdon Kay wrote:

+1 for the Purcell Prusik. I’ve been using one as a PAS for almost a year, and they’re convenient and out of the way

Thanks Camdon! Going to go tie it and start screwing around on the ground.

Jeremy M wrote:

I'm curious what you replace a dedicated tether with? I know in many scenarios using the rope itself works but when that's not possible what do you attach yourself with? 

Usually two alpine draws if I still have them on my harness at the end of the pitch. Or I'll clove in with the rope. Or a double length sling if that's all I have left. I've climbed a whole lot in a whole lot of different places and the only time I've ever used a dedicated tether is when aid climbing (and even then it's not exactly a dedicated tether since it's part of my system). No reason to have extra single-purpose bulk on one's harness, especially when it takes up space and can easily get snagged on things while climbing.

Purcell works... but it is also bulky and annoying to tighten up.

Connect adjust is easy to lengthen before you have even clipped. Easy to tighten or loosen when connected. Not as bulky, slightly.

If bulk is a problem, using a clove with the climbing rope is THE solution.

Convenience to loosen, convenience to tighten, low bulk, price... choose 1.5-2... or something like that.

Purcell = price, convenience to loosen

Connect adjust = convenience to loosen, convenience to tighten

Clove = low bulk, price

During climbing I use the rope and a clove hitch at the anchors. During rappels I use slings which you can double or triple up to get the right length. I never understood why you’d want to carry more gear to complicate things. 

This might be a significant technological advancement.  I like the idea of adjustment at the click of a button, but I’m not clear how the remote interacts in the system?

Why do people use person tethers like this?  Why not just use the stuff on your harness or the rope? 

That looks fine to me. But why complicate things? Just clove hitch and call it a day. Although I prefer to use Metolius PAS for the adjustibility and have it ready when I need to tether my self.

I only use a PAS for multi-pitch rappels.  For the ascent, clove hitching into the rope is simpler and more convenient.  

The only PAS I use is a Purcell Prussik.  On the way up, it's a mini-cordalette I can use for fashioning anchors.  When it's time to go down, it takes about a minute to convert it into a Purcell Prussik PAS.  

Purcell Prussik is multi-use, light, simple.  

All the specialty PAS things are extraneous for the kind of climbing I do.  

Mark Pilate wrote:

This might be a significant technological advancement.  I like the idea of adjustment at the click of a button, but I’m not clear how the remote interacts in the system?

Hahaha. My diy autobelay is a winch at the top of the crag. That's the remote that controls it so don't drop it as you climb!

In case anyone's actually baffled though that's the remote shutter release for my camera....

Kai Larson wrote:

I only use a PAS for multi-pitch rappels.  For the ascent, clove hitching into the rope is simpler and more convenient.  

The only PAS I use is a Purcell Prussik.  On the way up, it's a mini-cordalette I can use for fashioning anchors.  When it's time to go down, it takes about a minute to convert it into a Purcell Prussik PAS.  

Purcell Prussik is multi-use, light, simple.  

All the specialty PAS things are extraneous for the kind of climbing I do.  

Thanks Kai. This sounds like the way to go to me. As others have implied as well, make everything multi use! I like that. Especially since I already carry way too many cordelletes everywhere I go. You know, 'just in case'.

Also, this might not need to be said, but I don't endorse using the system I originally posted! I think it's unlikely bit wholly possible for the clove hitched biner to come out of the system.

Alpine Butterfly follow through?  Is this a common knot for you to tie?  Why?

Todd Jenkins wrote:

Alpine Butterfly follow through?  Is this a common knot for you to tie?  Why?

Nope. But I'd read somewhere that it was a good middle of the rope knot in part because it handled pull in multiple directions well. So I thought it might fit this application and looked up how to tie it as a follow through.

Alpine Butterfly follow through is a nice knot to know if you are rigging a fixed rope to 2 bolt anchors where its rope straight to rap rings, quick links, glue in bolts, or chain. Have the loop of the butterfly to one, and do a fig 8 follow through on the other. You don't need additional carabiners, so its efficient on gear, and more difficult for someone up top to undo, which gives a bit of peace of mind. You could always slightly tension it further down past the edge, then someone at the top really would not be able to untie it, that would give a lot of piece of mind, though they could always just cut it.

This is the Garda or Alpine clutch set up very much like your clove setup only better. Tighten with one hand     also loosen with one but a bit awkward. I also clove my ATC into my tether to extend when rapping. Try it out cheap and functional! 

Scott Wilson wrote:

This is the Garda or Alpine clutch set up very much like your clove setup only better. 

What size of rope and quicklinks are shown?  Is there a trick for extending this under load?

5/16" quicklinks 8mm rope. The system can't be adjusted under load.