Joining Two Ropes For Abseil

In this test on rock and ice all three knots tested were weaker with different diameter ropes.

Joining two ropes for abseil.

How many times have you had arguments with your mate when it comes to abseil knots. For normal abseiling if the ropes are dry then i use a well tied neat single overhand knot with ample tails. Rethreaded figure eight there is more than one way of joining two ropes using a figure eight knot. The figure eight overhand double fishersman s are just three methods.

Which knots do i personally use. You can also abseil in the same way using two ropes. Times when you might need to abseil past a knot. So keeping it simple makes sense.

I know of two climbers one british and one french who actually came to blows at the top of an ice climb once neither trusting the others tried and trusted techniques of joining two ropes. The problem is we all know what happens if you get this wrong and abseiling is terrifying enough and if you aren. It is often said that a double fisherman s knot is the best for joining two ropes of different diameters. When descending a single strand fixed rope where a knot has been tied to isolate a damaged section passing a knot joining two ropes during an emergency retreat as always first try to utilize the terrain to make passing the knot easier.

Instead of joining your ropes with a double fisherman s you could also use a bigger knot such as the re threaded figure 8 just make sure the knot is big enough so that it can t be pulled through the chain or carabiner at your main anchor point. There s many reasons why you d want to join two ropes together but perhaps the most obvious one is to allow for a full rope length retrievable abseil.