Prusik length

[treesmith]

I spliced my first prusik prolly 12-15 years ago. Can’t remember the length I was shooting for, or why. Brian (Skwerl) later posted a pic of his setup, and it was somewhat shorter than mine, utilizing only four wraps. I began making mine shorter and shorter, seeking the optimum length. The one I’ve been climbing on has reached the point of retirement, which means it joins the others that are half-hitched to one of the pull handles in my truck. I went to get another out of my stash, only to find one wound up too short to use and two were longer than I am now used to. The one I’m retiring measures right at 18” end-to-end (not eye-to-eye) pulled tight. I orders some more Ice Tail while ago, and plan to make a 19” one. What are y’all using? I like the simplicity of four-wraps and done. No braiding, no weaving. I have another I use when I’m utilizing two climb lines. It’s a bit longer, so I just take five wraps. Just curious as to whether there’s a “general rule” as to prusik length. I see some advertised that are 25”-30” long. I can’t figure out why anyone would want that long a prusik. Thoughts?

 

[Kaveman]

Hmm. I went from a Blake's to a mechanical, so I'm not the best to comment. I will point out that it seems like most people run their hitch systems much further up than I prefer. I don't like reaching over my head to manipulate my system. When I have used a prusik or other hitch, it's been with knots, not splices, which makes things far more adjustable.

 

[treesmith]

While I agree on the adjustability, I like the cleaner/neater look of splices on my carabiner. And with a spliced prusik, I can run it on a standard carabiner instead of a wide one.

 

[Marc-Antoine]

You can have both. One end is spliced, the other one has a knot. It isn't the most clean, but it's still fully adjustable and doesn't need as much space on the carabiner.
I did that when I tried an other knot and didn't know it's useful length in action.