Rope wrench vs. old school friction hitch, my Tuesday climb proved it

Been using a rope wrench for about a year now after resisting forever. Tuesday I had a gnarly dead oak in a tight backyard in Portland, so I grabbed my old Prusik setup out of habit. I got maybe 20 feet up before I realized I was fighting the rope every single move, taking twice as long to tend slack. Switched over to the wrench halfway through and finished the top in under an hour, versus the hour and a half I spent on the lower half. The control on descent alone was night and day, no more burning through gloves either. Anyone else make the switch late and wonder what took them so long?

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cole_bailey8523d ago

Man, that hits close to home. My buddy Dave fought the wrench for years, swore by his old Blake's hitch. We were on a nasty leaning maple last fall and he was up there cussing, fighting the rope, sweating through his shirt just trying to get a lanyard adjusted. I handed him my spare wrench on a break and he got the rest of the tree done in like twenty minutes. He still grumbles about it, but I caught him ordering one that same week. Takes a while to admit you been doing it the hard way, I guess.