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25 years in and I just learned I was tying my friction saver knots wrong
I've been climbing since 1999, worked jobs up near Bangor and down to Philly, and always thought a cow hitch plus a couple wraps was fine for my rope guide. Last spring a young buck from a crew in Ohio looked at my setup and asked why I wasn't using a Distel hitch on the tail end. He showed me how the load was twisting my whole system and putting sideways pressure on the stem, which explained why I kept getting that weird binding on long descents. Has anyone else had one of those moments where a newer climber points out something basic you've been messing up for decades?
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seth_carr2d ago
Been there with the friction saver stuff, and honestly the humbling part never gets easier (I've got boots older than some of these kids). What helped me was going back to the basics on hitch cord diameter and matching it to the rope, since a Distel or a Michoacan only grabs right if the cord is sized close to the host line. If your old wraps were slipping and twisting, chances are the cord was too fat or you had too many wraps stacked up. Try the Distel with the right cord and watch how much cleaner your descents feel, then go shake that kid's hand for saving your hips and your rope.
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