Blakes hitch twisting my rope?

I was making about a 50' descent last night with my new gear. Arbormaster rope with a blue streak split tail, and it twisted the heck out of the rope under me. This never happened with other rope I've seen. I've never heard of this happening, but if that's what happens with figure 8's, I can see why it would be annoying.

Carl

That is normal on the new ropes. You need to take the rope out and uncoil it completely and that should go away after a few more uses. The rope coils are \"built\" into the rope during manufacturing and need to be taken out by the user. This will take place a few more times and eventiually it goes away. Also, Are you putting the rope in a rope bag or coiling it for storage?? That process also puts coils/twists into the rope.

You're right Oldtimer. If you look back a ways, I posted a similar complaint, and got the same response. http://www.treeclimbing.com/component/option,com_kunena/Itemid,49/func,view/id,131477/catid,279/limit,6/limitstart,0/
I flaked out my new rope, gave it a good stretch, and it never happened again.

I don't know if this has anything to do with it, but I now try to climb opposite ends of the rope each time I climb. Rather than keep one end of the rope in the bag for short climbs, I flake it out completely, on a tarp, and then pack it reverse of the way it came out of the bag. Don't know if it helps twisting, but I figure it may even out the wear and tear.

I haven't yet climbed high enough to have the whole rope dangling. Hopefully that will fix the problem. It was twisting so much as I descended, that it was kinking together and doubling over on itself, crawling up the rope to the point that I had to push it away to move down the blake's.

I usually climb with both ends pretty equally. I keep the tail tied to the back of my harness on the way up, then use the throwline to set the tail's TIP. I climb with two split tails, and descend down whichever one happens to be convenient.

The rope does seem like it has twist in it from the coil. I keep it flaked into a large drawstring bag. But it seemed like the blake's hitch was seriously twisting it.

Carl

I haven't yet climbed high enough to have the whole rope dangling. Hopefully that will fix the problem. It was twisting so much as I descended, that it was kinking together and doubling over on itself, crawling up the rope to the point that I had to push it away to move down the blake's.

I usually climb with both ends pretty equally. I keep the tail tied to the back of my harness on the way up, then use the throwline to set the tail's TIP. I climb with two split tails, and descend down whichever one happens to be convenient.

The rope does seem like it has twist in it from the coil. I keep it flaked into a large drawstring bag. But it seemed like the blake's hitch was seriously twisting it.

Carl

Perhaps you could try not tying the tail to your saddle. That way, even if you don't climb the full length, the end will be free to spin or unwind. You can always pull the end up to you to set the second pitch.