Old Timers - Was The Blakes Hitch Pretty Cool When Released?

lxskllr

lxskllr

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I'm sitting here playing with my new accessory cord, and screwing around with hitches. My blue/white cord will not work with a tautline at all. I can snug it up and get it to work once, but as soon as I slide it, it loosens and won't grab. It works in the black cord. The blue/white is a little too stiff and slippery. The blakes works great in both cords. The question is did the blakes solve a common problem at the time of release, or was it just a variation on theme, and a matter of personal choice?
 
I like using a Blake’s on a split tail every now and again in smallish ornamentals, mostly work positioning not ascending.
 
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  • #5
I still haven't climbed using a hitch on my tail. I always mean to try it, but when I get the chance, I end up using what I'm familiar with. I started this stuff with the concept of using a separate cord as a hitch cause that's what I previously did, and my first rope wouldn't work hitched to itself cause of the way it was constructed. Using a cord just got more firmly set in place, and I haven't deviated from that.
 
To me a hitch just feels more secure than a mechanical. And I started using mechanicals in rock climbing before tree work.
 
I learned how to climb on a Blake's hitch. I use it for random stuff, and it's good to know. All that said, in our trees, I find mechanicals to be a bit easier to use, with the way our heavy pitch binds a hitch up.
 
Never used it, went from taut line ( which was pretty good ) to split tail with distal hitch to schwabish (sp?) to Knut to zig zag.
 
I went from tautline tied in the tail to blakes on a split tail. Changed ropes as well...I might need to think on it a bit to recall what the Blakes was on, but the tautline was on "gasp" manilla, then goldline.

Blakes was on a Blue Streak split tail, not sure right now what the climb line was. Will think on it.

In either case, I liked the split tail a lot, the Blakes was good too. Better than the tautline? Yes, but not by much.
 
Still use a Blake’s or prussik, found a zigzag a pita because it self tends when you don’t want it to.

When you guys say ‘tautline’ could you confirm you meaning please? I think I’m familiar with it, using the other end of your line with a loop a metre or so from the end with the rest as a friction hitch
 
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  • #14
How-to-Tie-a-Taut-Line-Hitch.jpg

I was specifically thinking of hitching a rope to itself with the blakes and tautline, not using a split tail.
 
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  • #16
That always struck me a peculiar requirement. If you want easy to tie, it doesn't get much easier than a prusik loop. Doesn't take much room on the saddle, and would be available for emergencies. I climbed on a prusik loop for awhile, and very reluctantly gave it up. It has a lot going for it. Easy to tie, and once the length is set, it's good forever. The problems are it's tricky to adapt to every climbing system, and when it bites in, it doesn't always want to release. Performance is highly cord dependent. Too stiff, and it won't reliably engage untended.

Still, for emergency use, or quick midline attachments, a prusik loop is great. I always have some extra cord with me, though it usually isn't preformed as a loop. Easy enough to make a loop as needed.
 
I don't feel like an old timer, but I did start climbing over 40 years ago using a taut-line hitch on 3-strand "vanilla" rope. I tried the Blakes and a few of those other German-sounding hitches over the years but always stubbornly went back to the taut-line. (That's probably the only thing Butch and I ever agreed on.) Oh, and I never trusted those newfangled mechanical devices.
 
Our very own @theTreeSpyder, Kenny, has a fantabulous website clearly laying out each hitch mentioned here, and other great hitches.

I just searched for MyTreeLessons.com but it didn't come up. I learned a ton from that site, prior to mechanicals.
 
Jerry and I were on the same wavelength evidently. I stuck with the taut line for many years partly because it could be tied with one hand behind your back if you got in a particularly weird situation. I did generally use it with one loop on top as it did not tighten up so bad if I hung my weight on it for a while. It did slip some, but a quick jerk on the tail would usually stop that. I later went to the French prussic also, especially for recreational climbing as it did not slip as much when I was just fooling around and trying long swings across the tree and dropping down to a lower landing. Climbed the first 15 years on manila hemp, last 35 on synthetics. Still have a chunk of 3 strand tree line I use for my occasional fun climb. LIke the way the old tautline works on it.
I did show my students the Bailey and others and let them decide.
 
flushcut said:
The Blake’s didn’t creep like the taught line did, so that was a big plus for the Blake’s. And you can fine tune a Blake’s better, adjusting the friction plus or minus.
Click to expand...
The tautline would creep if you worked very long without a load on it. It would loosen up and then when you loaded it, it would "unroll" a little bit. IF you did this enough without tightening it, it could slide off the end of your tail and "oops".
 
True. It was something one just accepted. But then I had a climber who put a simple overhand stopper in the tail next to the tautline, seemed to solve the problem quite well
 
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