SRT soft noose release

Here's a diagram of something I came up with to solve the problem of a tightly cinched soft noose in SRT climbing. This is tested and works well:
SRT cinched noose release

The prusik improves the mechanical leverage when you take out the noose from the ground. It also allows you to work the noose from the ground when you're installing the static line.

Moss -- how high up have you tested that? 100+ is what I would be interested in.

mateo

It's tested relatively low, around 45 ft. I did my testing on the same rope and crotch that caused the noose to cinch and become unretrievable with a length of slickline attached directly to the noose. I think height will be irrelevant, the improved line of pull should easily overcome the additional weight of the rope at 100 ft.

MOSS-I love the drawing of your setup.

My thoughts are that the highest the attachment should be at almost the top of the anchor limb. So why can't your bend a butterfly hitch about a foot up from the bowline and attach your slick line to the loop? It should pull the setting down just as easy.

See you at the top,
Dan

Originally posted by TreeTramp
So why can't your bend a butterfly hitch about a foot up from the bowline and attach your slick line to the loop? It should pull the setting down just as easy.

Thanks for the nice comment on the drawing. The butterfly knot would work for sure. The accessory prussik allows less knot tying on the static rope and is more adjustable in position on the rope (all minor tweakery). Plus I always have a couple extra on my saddle to carry my conduit sleeves (prusik around the sleeve, small biner clipped to the saddle). So of course I had to find another use for them.

maybe you already answered this question and i just missed it, but why not just tie your slick line around the loop? personally, I have experienced difficulty several times trying to retrieve my rope after tying slick line to the loop, so i'm wondering if your method works better because you can pull from the back of the loop? im intrigued!

Originally posted by Sitka
maybe you already answered this question and i just missed it, but why not just tie your slick line around the loop? personally, I have experienced difficulty several times trying to retrieve my rope after tying slick line to the loop, so i'm wondering if your method works better because you can pull from the back of the loop? im intrigued!

Exactly! I came up with this after I hung my rope. The line tied to the loop would not release the noose.

The problem with tying to the loop is that you're pulling against the opposing force of the hanging rope which is preventing the loop from moving. Combine that with bark friction and the locking effect of rope on rope. To get it started it would be ideal to pull from the side to uncinch it but that is impossible when you're on the ground.

Tying your retrieval line above the loop solves the problem. It does two things at the same moment:
1. It releases the loop down
2. pulls the entire rope up allowing the loop to drop

The result is that the cinched noose is immediately freed. The initial force required to overcome bark friction and the weight of the rope is significantly less than the traditional method. I've it used on angled and horizontal branches with the same result.

The most minimal way to do this would be to tie several wraps of the retrieval line a few inches above the loop. Using a prusik is just an installation and adjustability convenience.

cant wait to try it. thanks for the excellent idea!

Originally posted by mateo
Moss -- how high up have you tested that? 100+ is what I would be interested in.

mateo

It's pretty much impossible for me to get a 100 ft. SRT TIP since I hand throw and can't reach that kind of height. I tried the noose release on a 65 ft. SRT TIP yesterday. It worked well, there was no difference in ease of release compared to some of the lower TIPs that I've climbed on.

Did you draw that? Great illustration!

Originally posted by coonrad
Did you draw that? Great illustration!

Thanks Coonrad, sometimes a quick drawing is clearer than a photo and actually easier to make: draw it small with pencil, scan it, post it.
-moss

Moss, this is a great idea!
This past weekend, we climbed with a group of kids who are on ventilators. We were using a couple of beech trees, and a couple of the anchors were at 75 feet. We climbed SRT to set the other anchors, and I used Dan House's suggestion of a butterfly knot. It was about 12 inches away from the loop at the end of the rope.
It was very easy to pull the SRT rig back down to the ground.

As an added bonus, the slickline that was hanging down from the butterfly knot was easier to keep out of my way than it usually is when I have tied the slickline to the loop.

Patrick

Originally posted by Patrick
...As an added bonus, the slickline that was hanging down from the butterfly knot was easier to keep out of my way than it usually is when I have tied the slickline to the loop.

Patrick

That's awesome Patrick, glad you're finding it useful.

I've found the same to be true, offsetting the tag line away from the loop really helps keep the two lines from tangling. You can also drape the tag line over a low branch or tie it to another tree with a releasable knot so that you can further separate it from the SRT line. You can also use the tag line to remove the SRT TIP from within the tree which comes in handy if you're using the same rope for SRT and DdRT.

Moss , great drawing and idea!!! thanks. i will try it out tommorow after pickig up some extra line.