Question: How to pass a knot when belaying from the top??

[cookiecutter]

As some of you know I'm new to canyoneering, and in my constant attempts to lean all I can I have run into a question. It may be a dumb one but bare with me..

Situation:
I have a buddy rapping down a 200 footer when something gets stuck and he is unable to lock off and fix the problem. Now its my job to lower him from the top. We have anchored the rappel with a munter hitch and mule knot to secure it. We have two 200 ft ropes, my stranded buddy is hanging from one and we are using the other as a pull chord to retrieve the rope once we are all on the ground. But now that I have to belay him from above I have to pass the knot tieing the two ropes together through the munter hitch.

My question:

How would you succesfully pass this knot?

and

Is it jus stupid to rap single strand without a long enough rope to lower your buddy with the same rope (no knot passing)?



I have learned alot from this site and appreciate all the knowledgeable help!

Jaden

[theking648]

i'm also new to this and i've thought about the same thing... if i'm the one on the rope and I come to a knot. would it be smart to rig up a munter hitch on another carabiner and then detach the ATC and finish the rap with the munter hitch? probably not smart... could be risky i guess.

[Iceaxe]

I'm still trying to figure out why you would need to pass a knot in this situation?

Why not just raise the pull chord, tie a biner to it, lower it for your buddy, have him clip in, and than you can lower him....

Or am I not understanding the problem.....

[cookiecutter]

Thats a good idea, I'll definitely remember that for a conscious rapper.

But lets say my buddy has been knocked unconscious and is unable to clip in to a lowered biner. In Behunin we had a man on rope when rocks broke free up high, just brushed off his arm cutting him and barely missing his head. He was wearing a helmet but a large enough rock could have rendered him useless in helping himself.

In an unconscious situation I still see the need to pass a knot, which still leaves the standing question

I have thought of rigging a munter Behind the knot to another biner then being a burly man and somehow releasing pressure from the munter being used long enough to detach it, then you would continue lowering him from your new set up, having the knot in front of the munter and not having to pass it. This solution still leaves the problem of having to release pressure..

[moab mark]

I'm still trying to figure out why you would need to pass a knot in this situation?

Why not just raise the pull chord, tie a biner to it, lower it for your buddy, have him clip in, and than you can lower him....

Or am I not understanding the problem.....

If I am following the question. His buddy rappelled down. He gets stuck, they had him on a munter. They do not have enough slack to lower him all the way to the ground. How do they now tie on their extra rope and get the knot thru the munter?

Cookie Cutter there is several ways to do this. I would recommend you buy a book called Self Rescue by David Fasulo. It is for climbing but goes over your question and a million others. Best read you will buy for this sport.
Look into Mariner Hitches or rigging an additional munter hitch with your extra rope. Get the book.

Shane's idea is the easiest if you still have slack on your original rope, and your buddy is able to clip himself to the new rope.

Cookie Cutter I just went back and read your question again. Yes if you can have enough rope at the top to be able to lower that is the best. Sometimes that is not possible. You can tie your two ropes together before you start the rappel with your knot being on the downside of your munter hitch. This would allow you to lower and rappel 400'. Hope that made sense.


Mark

[cookiecutter]

Cool. I've heard many a good thing about that book. I'll order a copy today

[ratagonia]

As some of you know I'm new to canyoneering, and in my constant attempts to lean all I can I have run into a question. It may be a dumb one but bare with me..

Situation:
I have a buddy rapping down a 200 footer when something gets stuck and he is unable to lock off and fix the problem. Now its my job to lower him from the top. We have anchored the rappel with a munter hitch and mule knot to secure it. We have two 200 ft ropes, my stranded buddy is hanging from one and we are using the other as a pull cord to retrieve the rope once we are all on the ground. But now that I have to belay him from above I have to pass the knot tieing the two ropes together through the munter hitch.

My question:
How would you succesfully pass this knot? and

Is it just stupid to rap single strand without a long enough rope to lower your buddy with the same rope (no knot passing)?

I have learned a lot from this site and appreciate all the knowledgeable help!

Jaden

Ah, but you set up a dynamic (or contingency) anchor, because you thought something might go wrong. So let's put it in so that it works well.

Here's a diagram of the set up:

(Anchor)
(Biner with Munter Mule)
(second rope (1 foot))
(Knot bending the two ropes together)
(first rope going down to your buddy).

In other words, you join your two ropes together, and the munter mule goes in just above the knot. Your bud raps below the knot. If you have to lower him, you have the full length of the second rope to work with.

Now, a pet peeve. PLEASE do not take spelling lessons from Shane. A "Chord" is a set of notes. A "Cord" is a small piece of rope, too thin and wimpy to provide life-support.

Tom

[rcwild]

May I tweak your scenario a bit to make it more interesting?

Tom's explanation is perfect when your rope and the rappel are approximately the same. It would be silly to rig a releasable system on a 190 foot rappel with a 200 foot rope. You'd have to pray that any problems occur within 10 feet from the ground. When it's that close, do as Tom suggested; tie the ropes together and rig your releasable system ABOVE the knot (actually a bend).

But what if ... You are setting up a rope on a rappel that you believe is about 95 feet and believe it prudent to rig a releasable system. You feed out 95 feet of rope and rig your releasable system. You believe the 105 feet of rope in your rope bag is sufficient. But your depth perception failed you. The rappel is actually 160 feet. Your buddy gets in trouble just 20 feet below you, so you need to lower him 140 feet (let's assume you don't know how to rig a haul system).

You release your system and start lowering. 105 feet of rope passes through your hand. You're at the end of the rope and your buddy is still not all the way down to the ground. What do you do? For the sake of the scenario, you can assume you have a second rope.

[nonot]

If you have another crab, when you get to the knot, tie a second munter through a second crab on the other side of the knot and clip it to the anchor. You have to haul up enough rope to release the caribiner with the original munter. Then release the haul and transfer the unconscious guy onto the second biner/munter. Continue lowering.

[nonot]

Upon further thought, unless you start off right at the knot, a prussic could be tied between the anchor and the loaded rope before you reach the knot to prevent having to haul anything, as you continue to lower the prussic would move away from the anchor and then absorb the load when it reaches full extension.

[ratagonia]

Upon further thought, unless you start off right at the knot, a prussic could be tied between the anchor and the loaded rope before you reach the knot to prevent having to haul anything, as you continue to lower the prussic would move away from the anchor and then absorb the load when it reaches full extension.

But you will need to shift the load to the second munter hitch, at some point. How you do that?

T

[cilantro13]

Cookie Cutter there is several ways to do this. I would recommend you buy a book called Self Rescue by David Fasulo. It is for climbing but goes over your question and a million others. Best read you will buy for this sport.

Thanks for the book recommend and helping me do my part keeping Amazon in business.

[cookiecutter]

Here's a diagram of the set up:

(Anchor)
(Biner with Munter Mule)
(second rope (1 foot))
(Knot bending the two ropes together)
(first rope going down to your buddy).

In other words, you join your two ropes together, and the munter mule goes in just above the knot. Your bud raps below the knot. If you have to lower him, you have the full length of the second rope to work with.

Avoid the whole knot passing to begin with, i like that! So all would rap down with this set up until the last person who would then undo this set up and rip a regular biner block with the knot connecting the two ropes on the right side of the block so as to allow it to be pulled from the bottom?

[cookiecutter]

Now, a pet peeve. PLEASE do not take spelling lessons from Shane. A "Chord" is a set of notes. A "Cord" is a small piece of rope, too thin and wimpy to provide life-support.

I'll watch my typing, thanks for the advice. Those darn days at the piano still ride with me every now and then.

[nonot]

Upon further thought, unless you start off right at the knot, a prussic could be tied between the anchor and the loaded rope before you reach the knot to prevent having to haul anything, as you continue to lower the prussic would move away from the anchor and then absorb the load when it reaches full extension.

But you will need to shift the load to the second munter hitch, at some point. How you do that?

T

Good point, I might have to break out an ascender, attach it to the load and my harness and lean backwards. Just enough to unload to prussic, would help if the second hitch is a bit snug and locked off .

I've seen people recommend the radium hitch, that would have been smarter if I rigged it that way initially but since I didn't I'm stuck with a little bit of grunt work?

[moab mark]

May I tweak your scenario a bit to make it more interesting?

Tom's explanation is perfect when your rope and the rappel are approximately the same. It would be silly to rig a releasable system on a 190 foot rappel with a 200 foot rope. You'd have to pray that any problems occur within 10 feet from the ground. When it's that close, do as Tom suggested; tie the ropes together and rig your releasable system ABOVE the knot (actually a bend).

But what if ... You believe the rappel is about 95 feet, so you feed out 95 feet of rope and rig your releasable system. You believe the 105 feet of rope in your rope bag is sufficient. But your depth perception failed you. The rappel is actually 130 feet. Your buddy gets in trouble just 20 feet below you, so you need to lower him 110 feet (let's assume you don't know how to rig a haul system). You only have 70 feet of rope left in your bag.

You release your system and start lowering. 70 feet or rope passes through your hand. You're at the end of the rope and your buddy is still not all the way down to the ground. What do you do? For the sake of the scenario, you can assume you have a second rope.

I'll play, whip out your prussic, tibloc, ropeman, attach to your rappel rope. Take either acc. cord or end of your other rope and rig a mariner hitch or add another munter hitch to your rope attachment. For this example lets just use a mariner hitch. Now lower your original rope and load the mariner hitch. If you want to back all of this up tie a figure eight in your original rappel rope and clip it to the anchor. Once the mariner is loaded you can now tie your two rope ends together, now re rig with knot below munter. Release the mariner to load original rope and continue on.

If I followed the scenario right that is what I would do. Or as Shane said if your second rope is long enough you could just lower a carabiner down to him. Have him clip in rig on a munter and then lower him. Your going to have a mess when the other rope goes free but he would get down.



Mark

[ratagonia]

But what if ... You believe the rappel is about 95 feet, so you feed out 95 feet of rope and rig your releasable system. You believe the 105 feet of rope in your rope bag is sufficient. But your depth perception failed you. The rappel is actually 130 feet. Your buddy gets in trouble just 20 feet below you, so you need to lower him 110 feet (let's assume you don't know how to rig a haul system). You only have 70 feet of rope left in your bag.

You release your system and start lowering. 70 feet or rope passes through your hand. You're at the end of the rope and your buddy is still not all the way down to the ground. What do you do? For the sake of the scenario, you can assume you have a second rope.

I'll play, whip out your prussic, tibloc, ropeman, attach to your rappel rope. Take either acc. cord or end of your other rope and rig a mariner hitch or add another munter hitch to your rope attachment. For this example lets just use a mariner hitch. Now lower your original rope and load the mariner hitch. If you want to back all of this up tie a figure eight in your original rappel rope and clip it to the anchor. Once the mariner is loaded you can now tie your two rope ends together, now re rig with knot below munter. Release the mariner to load original rope and continue on.

If I followed the scenario right that is what I would do. Or as Shane said if your second rope is long enough you could just lower a carabiner down to him. Have him clip in rig on a munter and then lower him. Your going to have a mess when the other rope goes free but he would get down.

Mark

I'm in a hurry.

I lower until the knot is close to sticking. Oops, need more rope. Tie off Rope#1 with a mule at the munter hitch. Toss another sling around the tree with a ring and biner, up higher and tighter than the first anchor. Tie Rope #1 to Rope #2. Set up Rope #2 with a munter hitch for lowering, and pull it out snug. Whip out my handy universal-knot-untier and cut the sling on the lower anchor, continue the lower.

Tom

[rcwild]

I bungled the math a bit in my scenario. Fixed it. But I think everyone understood the point of the exercise.

Any other solutions?

[trackrunner]

Thanks for the book recommend and helping me do my part keeping Amazon in business.

cheaper at overstock
LINK

[moab mark]

But what if ... You believe the rappel is about 95 feet, so you feed out 95 feet of rope and rig your releasable system. You believe the 105 feet of rope in your rope bag is sufficient. But your depth perception failed you. The rappel is actually 130 feet. Your buddy gets in trouble just 20 feet below you, so you need to lower him 110 feet (let's assume you don't know how to rig a haul system). You only have 70 feet of rope left in your bag.

You release your system and start lowering. 70 feet or rope passes through your hand. You're at the end of the rope and your buddy is still not all the way down to the ground. What do you do? For the sake of the scenario, you can assume you have a second rope.

I'll play, whip out your prussic, tibloc, ropeman, attach to your rappel rope. Take either acc. cord or end of your other rope and rig a mariner hitch or add another munter hitch to your rope attachment. For this example lets just use a mariner hitch. Now lower your original rope and load the mariner hitch. If you want to back all of this up tie a figure eight in your original rappel rope and clip it to the anchor. Once the mariner is loaded you can now tie your two rope ends together, now re rig with knot below munter. Release the mariner to load original rope and continue on.

If I followed the scenario right that is what I would do. Or as Shane said if your second rope is long enough you could just lower a carabiner down to him. Have him clip in rig on a munter and then lower him. Your going to have a mess when the other rope goes free but he would get down.

Mark

I'm in a hurry.

I lower until the knot is close to sticking. Oops, need more rope. Tie off Rope#1 with a mule at the munter hitch. Toss another sling around the tree with a ring and biner, up higher and tighter than the first anchor. Tie Rope #1 to Rope #2. Set up Rope #2 with a munter hitch for lowering, and pull it out snug. Whip out my handy universal-knot-untier and cut the sling on the lower anchor, continue the lower.

Tom

I like that idea thanks Tom. One question if you have a munter mule on the lower anchor when you cut the webbing do you just leave that munter mule? You can't remove it can you?

Mark