colatownkid wrote:
TonySF wrote:
If you are jugging a vertical rope (no traversing) with biners in the top of both jumars, is it still necessary to tie backup knots for safety? If so, why?
This question came up while jugging to Sickle ledge. I left the bottom of the line I was jugging tied to the bolts so it wouldn't blow away from the bolts (so my partner following me could get the rope). But the tied rope made the slack available for safety knots very short, requiring frequent untieing / re-tieing of the safety knots, which really slowed progress.
Any suggestions? Thanks in advance for any helpful replies.
I'll answer your question with a question:
Why do you tie back-up knots at all?
You tie them so that if your ascender fails, you'll stop on the knot and not just go flying off the end of the rope. If the end of your rope is already anchored to bolts down below, then you're not going to fall off the end of the rope anyway.
However, tying back-up knots frequently means that not only do you not fall off the end of the rope, but you get stopped only a few feet from the point where your ascender failed, and not all the way at the bottom of the rope (which could be hundreds of feet below).
in my personal opinion, two ascenders each attached to my harness with the rope end tied off at the bottom would be enough redundancy for me to not tie back-up knots. but you're free to decide how safe or dangerous you want to be and what exactly that means for you. it's all situational.
