Friction knots for prusiking up a rope

From what I read using a kleimheist is preferred for the upper cord as its easy to pull it up.

I've seen videos that uses the regular prussik or French prusik for the cordelette the leg stands on.  They don't really explain why one is better over another 

After watching them I thought using a klemheist for the leg loop as well  because you also have to pull the cord up.

Any opinions?

Check out the Bachmann hitch

Darren Mabe wrote:

Check out the Bachmann hitch

I've rarely used friction knots. Usually I have ascenders. But I've got a rope stuck and had to climb it and used Bachmann hitches and it worked great. You probably need the correct diameter cord for it to work well.

Also try the auto block and Valdotain Tresse. Play with them all to see what works.
Remember rope and cord diameters can be critical. 

I have a normal prusik on the top that I hang from. It is attached to my harness by a sling. The bottom is a french prusik that is connected to my harness with a 120 cm sling with a knot in it. The knot is clipped to the autoblock biner so that I also get the foot loop from the sling. Step on the fot so that you stand up, adjust the top prusik as far high as possible (but no so high that you can not reach it) and hang on it. Reset the french prusik att the bottom and stand in the foot loop again...

not sure whats a "french prussik" - so this might be irrelevant:  BUT -- a detail too often ignored in using prusiks is tying the hitch "easy-glide" (re Rigging 4 Rescue).  if you're tying a prusik hitch with a loop closed by a bend/knot, the easy-glide variant isolates the bend/knot from the load-carrying loop, allowing one to tie the hitch with a smaller diameter cord with no loss of loop strength. (recall, the knot will reduce the loop's carrying capacity by about 30%, so isolating the knot from the load increases load capacity by about 50%) -- plus, the easy-glide variant places the knot where it functions as a "handle" for moving the hitch up/down the mainline.

that said, I use only one easy-glide prusik to move up or down a mainline.  the prusik is mounted on my harness.  to move up, I lift the below mainline to form a bight, place one foot in that bight to stand, raise the harness prusik to hold me, then shorten the foot-bight & repeat.   why f**k around with two prusiks when you can do the job with one...?

-Haireball

A french prusik is sometimes called an autoblock. The system I described is the most convenient setup that I have used. If I need to use friction knots to climb a rope I really like having two and one that grabs the rope hard. I also back myself up with bights from the rope I ascend unless the rope is under tension and that is impossible. 

Funny enough I actually had to prusik climb this evening. The rope got stuck on rappel. It was some time since I did it...

The buzzards circling above are smart enough to know if you're prusiking a stuck rope they have a good chance of an all you can eat dinner.

Funny shit :D Aslong as you can ascend a rope with cord in a somewhat efficient and safe manner it is all good.

Perhaps this is a departure but if I think there is even a remote chance I'm gonna need to climb the rope on a free climb, I bring up a nanotrax on light carabiner and my grigri. With those two items plus a double length sling I can ascend via a relatively efficient 2:1 [edit: per curt86iroc it's 3:1) system which is a whole lot easier than using cords.

Andy Wiesner wrote:

Perhaps this is a departure but if I think there is even a remote chance I'm gonna need to climb the rope on a free climb, I bring up a nanotrax on light carabiner and my grigri. With those two items plus a double length sling I can ascend via a relatively efficient 2:1 system which is a whole lot easier than using cords.

How do you rig that on two strands? Prusiking the two strands it not that bad. Singelstrand with prusik/trax and grigri is however less work.

Wictor Dahlström wrote:

How do you rig that on two strands? Prusiking the two strands it not that bad. Singelstrand with prusik/trax and grigri is however less work.

I try to avoid having to do it on two strands, but if that’s the situation (like say I rapped past a station) I’d use the ATC in guide mode for progress capture at my waist and an autoblock clipped to a foot loop above that. Same basic setup as grigri/trax but much less efficient. 

Thank you everyone,  

KISS. Klimheist all the way. Easier to "tie" than a prussik. I've used it on both ends of a crevasse rescue. It works.

Andy Wiesner wrote:

I try to avoid having to do it on two strands, but if that’s the situation (like say I rapped past a station) I’d use the ATC in guide mode for progress capture at my waist and an autoblock clipped to a foot loop above that. Same basic setup as grigri/trax but much less efficient. 

I have never manage to get that to work. It is very hard to take rope in with two ropes.

In hundreds of climbs I've only had to climb a stuck rope once so I'm not bringing extra gear for that. The nice thing about a friction hitch is it just uses a biner and cord. I carry 3 cord slings on my self-rescue kit biner (and I have one that stays on my leg loop for a third hand). They can be used as regular slings if I run out. Or to make a bail anchor. Or escape a belay. etc.

Wictor Dahlström wrote:

I have never manage to get that to work. It is very hard to take rope in with two ropes.

Did it once on two grigris which worked great, also works great on the Smart Alpine, have done that too. Guide mode in an ATC does work but yeah it's less fun than the two previous methods I mentioned. 

Glowering wrote:

In hundreds of climbs I've only had to climb a stuck rope once so I'm not bringing extra gear for that. The nice thing about a friction hitch is it just uses a biner and cord. I carry 3 cord slings on my self-rescue kit biner (and I have one that stays on my leg loop for a third hand). They can be used as regular slings if I run out. Or to make a bail anchor. Or escape a belay. etc.

Exactly this. Make sure that you can the skills to solve the problems without lots of specific gear. And always carry some slings, lockers and prusiks.

Certainly one ought to know how to do more with less. That’s fundamental to the climbing ethos, in my mind. For example, it’d be burly but I bet that from a free-hanging position I could ascend a single strand of rope with only a double-length alpine draw on my harness.

It’s also worth knowing how to use modern gear to make life a little bit sweeter.

(Also, you need one less prusik cord on your harness if you use a cord for your chalk bag belt)

Andy Wiesner wrote:

I try to avoid having to do it on two strands, but if that’s the situation (like say I rapped past a station) I’d use the ATC in guide mode for progress capture at my waist and an autoblock clipped to a foot loop above that. Same basic setup as grigri/trax but much less efficient. 

just for clarification, this setup results in a (theoretical) 3:1, not a 2:1 per your previous post

edit: i'm assuming you're redirecting the rope from the atc back up through your auto block. if not, you must be superman...