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

gf beranek said:
I much prefer the feel and level of control with a friction hitch.

It's the old-school in me, I guess.
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Friction hitches (with or without a wrench, for either SRS or MRS) are currently still superior in control relative to mechanical devices. I'm 35, so your beliefs still resound as true to this day.

Before someone disagrees with me, please understand that I'm expressing my personal opinion. This is not a matter of fact.
 
As much as I like my Unicender, don't fall on it! Most mechanicals aren't meant as fall arrest, but I've been caught by cord hitches plenty of times. I'm better at minding slack now too lolz.
 
I didn't use that trick much as I got into the distle hitch about then, but it seemed to work well for him.
 
Kaveman said:
As much as I like my Unicender, don't fall on it! Most mechanicals aren't meant as fall arrest, but I've been caught by cord hitches plenty of times. I'm better at minding slack now too lolz.
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there is a video by (i believe) morgan thompson where they do some impressive drop-test‘s with the unicender. i‘d say you can fall on it.
 
They did not mention the stopper knot at the Davey Climbing Classes in1967. Just suggested that you set the knot after each move in the tree. Also left a long tail. I did use the stopper in the end of my pigtail occasionally in later years. It was the friction knot that would untie itself if it got loose. Then using your hands for the friction device got uncomfortable.

In reply to Cursed's inquiry about staying warm. We just had a week and a half below 0 here in Illinois. Otherwise plenty toasty. Really miss the nice climate of ND.
 
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I started on the 'one rope for all system'...16 strand and tie a prussik on one end of your rope, and using your tail as a second system.
Never liked the prussik, I was always adjusting it, and 'mind the loop' was always a pain.
Quite soon after though went to 16 strand with a Blake's on a split tail AND a separate lanyard, thought the sun had risen! Blake's was pretty much set and forget, and no more dangly loop! Heaven.
This was only in 2000 so I don't really qualify as an 'old timer'...and being way out in Bermuda, the Blake's was probably around for a while before we got introduced to it there, but when it came, yes it was cool.
 
That was a similar timeline of discovery to mine.
Bermy said:
I started on the 'one rope for all system'...16 strand and tie a prussik on one end of your rope, and using your tail as a second system.
Never liked the prussik, I was always adjusting it, and 'mind the loop' was always a pain.
Quite soon after though went to 16 strand with a Blake's on a split tail AND a separate lanyard, thought the sun had risen! Blake's was pretty much set and forget, and no more dangly loop! Heaven.
This was only in 2000 so I don't really qualify as an 'old timer'...and being way out in Bermuda, the Blake's was probably around for a while before we got introduced to it there, but when it came, yes it was cool.
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I just found out recently from Don Blair that he actually named the Blake's Hitch for Jason. Apparently, he was talking to Jason Blake when Blake first started climbing on the hitch (which Blake had learned from someone else). He was telling Don how he was going to make a VHS tape of how to tie and climb on the hitch (which you can find online) but couldn't think of a good name.

He suggested something to Don, which was way too long, and Don said that people would forget that name in 5 minutes and he should just call it the Blake's Hitch. Jason took his advice, and the rest is history.

Dr. John Ball took a poll of tree climbers recently, and he said that the majority of tree workers (I believe he said 80 percent) still use the Blake's Hitch, which they consider an advanced way of tying a hitch! So, so much for the Blakes Hitch being old-school!?

I wonder what the "revolutionary" SRT/SRS climbers would think of that, knowing that they are a minority? I do consider myself primary an SRT climber (I hate the SRS acronym), but I did learn on the taut line, before switching to the Blakes and then the VT.
 
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  • #40
I like "SRS" cause it's good companion for "MRS", which I prefer to DdrttDDTwhatever the hell. I like 3 simple letters, non case sensitive that explain what you're talking about. I'm fine with "SRT" also, but it doesn't mate up nice with MRS.
 
Honestly, I think that they should have kept the SRT acronym and just called it Stationary Rope Technique (instead of Single Rope Technique)) and they could have used MRT and called it Moving Rope Technique (instead of MRS). That's the way they refer to them both in Australia and New Zealand and it works great, no need to change.

Every other at height industry still calls it SRT. Too bad the manufacturers had to change it to SRS (in my opinion).
 
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  • #42
I could live with that. In my head I translate them as StaticRopeSystem/Technique and MovingRopeSystem/Technique. I just want 3 letters. The Ds have different meanings depending on how they're arranged/capitalized, and I don't like that. I use arbitrary capitalization cause I want to, and I don't fully understand or care about the letter distinction. Does the rope stay there, or move? That's what's really relevant. The rest is details.
 
I started with Blake, then VT hitch with HC pulley,then Rope Wrench, ZZ, Freexion, ZZ with Chicane, Akimbo, HHFX.
@Mick! I also believed that but some people don't stop makin and changing friction hitches, with the Freexion and the HHFX I learned 2 new ones.
The Catalan and the Catalist, the 2nd works really well
 
Naturarbo said:
I started with Blake, then VT hitch with HC pulley,then Rope Wrench, ZZ, Freexion, ZZ with Chicane, Akimbo, HHFX.
@Mick! I also believed that but some people don't stop makin and changing friction hitches, with the Freexion and the HHFX I learned 2 new ones.
The Catalan and the Catalist, the 2nd works really well
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The correct name for the hitch shown in the HHFX instructions is the Knut H. The Catalan was shown to be the same as the Arbsession Hitch, which came out many years before, and for some reason the Catalan name was transferred to the Knut H by Mumford.
 
I started on Manila with a tautline hitch back in 1974-1975, and tightening it and rolling back the part of your tail as it crept was just part of your day. It wasn’t until about the mid 1980s that we got our first synthetic ropes, settling in 1987 on New England Safety Blue but still on a tautline. A succession of rock climbing techniques and devices (Jumar ascenders) were adapted over time with frog and other style setups used for entering the tree. But working the tree we always went back to the taut line.

The first recreational ‘rendezvous’ I went to was the first time I really used the Blake’s having gone directly from the tautline to prussiks and friction hitches with a pulley.

Just yesterday the fellow who taught me to climb 39/40 years ago was asking about mechanicals. He was still using what we called a Marchand Tresse and a pully as if it were still 1998. I met him at his job site and loaned him a RopeRunner and a Climbing Innovations Unicender (with Richard Mumford’s wear bar and drum add-ons). Gave him a lesson and a brand new 200 ft Yale 11.7 rope, as his fat, fuzzy Tachyon was not going to run well with those devices.
We still have our old butt strap saddles, crusty old Manila rope and a 20” Fanno saw and scabbard, one hanging in his shop and one hanging in my basement… for memories
 
pigwot said:
I started on Manila with a tautline hitch back in 1974-1975, and tightening it and rolling back the part of your tail as it crept was just part of your day.
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This. :dude:
 
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