Finally figured out why my climbing rope kept getting stuck in a redirect

Been climbing on this huge old oak in Portland all week and every time I set a redirect the rope would jam. Tried different hitches, different angles, nothing worked. Then I watched this old timer on a job site and saw he was using a snap gate carabiner for his redirect instead of a locking one. Switched it out on a limb crotch yesterday and the rope ran smooth as butter. Anyone else run into this or am I just late to the party lol.

2 comments

2 Comments

margaretrivera24d ago

My buddy Jake had the same issue last summer on a job in Seattle. He was up in this huge maple tree rigging a line and every single redirect he set would bind up, dude was getting so frustrated he was about to cut the rope. Then his boss came over and swapped out his locking carabiner for a regular snap gate and told him to try again. He said the rope just slid through like magic after that, no jamming at all. Never would have thought something that simple would make such a difference.

leo_carr1324d ago

Yeah my buddy had the SAME exact thing happen with a locking carabiner.