Using sling in climbing hitch

I want to place my climbing hitch (DMM hitch climber pulley system) about 24" above the fixed tie-in point on my saddle (New Tribe Yellow Jacket). What should I use to connect between the carabiner on my saddle and the carabiner on the hitch climber pulley that will give me the 24"? I would prefer it to be knotless.

Any reason why I should not just use a 48" nylon sling doubled over as a connection between the two biners? It's a DMM 1" nylon sling rated at 30kN.

Are you trying to make the hc set up work like a split tail?
Why knot girth hitch a 24" sling to your bridge ring? Way less clunky
One of the benefits of the hitch climber set up is being able to take in rope hand over hand, takes a bit of practice but you'll get much more out of the system attaching it directly to your bridge.

Practice low and slow

Adrian

Another thing you can try is to set it up as an O-rig. This way, you can push your climbing system away from you, or pull it in close, depending on what you're doing. I posted this somewhere else on the forum. I'll find it for you.

I posted some pictures under tree climbing technique, Hitch Climber O-rig set up. Instead of tying your line into to your main connection on the saddle, you loop it through, and then attach to the carabiner under the Hitch Climber pulley. I used a dog snap on a prussic from the standing part of the line to the pulley, thus making it possible to move the pulley away from you, or pull it in close.

What are the benefits of a O rig?

I will look for those photos. It sounds like exactly what I want to do.

I keep the system well above me for ascent - that way I can pull directly out of the pulley with both hands and slack is immediately and automatically tended as I'm pulling.

Then I do have to pull the rig in closer for descent so that I can reach the prusik to release it.

Thanks.

So you are body thrusting, using mainly your arms to ascend?
Do you use your legs to ascend?

No legs. Although with the o-rig and the ability to get the pulley completely up out of the way, I may try a prusik below the pulley, attached to a foot loop.

It works out well to have the HC further away if you're body thrusting, or returning from a limb walk, because you can pull slack out of the bottom of the system, rather than having to reach above it. Generally, it's good to use a spliced eye termination on the end of the climbing line when you have the HC set up in a standard configuration, as they recommend. That's because a termination knot is in such close proximity to the hitch that it could actuate the hitch, and that certainly is not desirable. That's why I began to use the O-Rig.

Here is a link to the Hitch Climber's guide to the canopy. Where better to get info than from the horse's mouth!

The "O" rig in explained on page 19.

http://treemagineers.com/pdf/hitch_climbers_guide.pdf

Tony