VT Prusik - versatile tool for ropework

hi this is rich carlson welcome to another episode of the art of rope work here at canyons and crags I'm excited to share with you a cool piece of gear with a myriad of uses for rope work the VT prusik so grab your gear in a rope and follow along in today's video we're going to et prusik the VT prusik is a special made product designed by yours truly manufactured by blue eye ropes that's available in both black and tan and the VT is a made with a technology that resistant fiber it doesn't melt it starts to charred about 950 degrees Fahrenheit so we've got a technology that a nylon core the strength I 2i is about 4,400 pounds which works out to about 20 kilonewtons when we fold it over in a basket configuration like this it's got a strength of about 6,500 pounds which works out to about 29 point 5 kilonewtons because it's an eye to eye prusik instead of a loop there's quite a few unique kinds of hitches that we can tie with it the first an explanation how pressings work process and basically all of our friction hitches work a lot like Chinese finger traps we played around with these when we were kids you put your fingers in them they stretch out and bind down on your fingers you compress them and they open up so with a friction hitch when I install it on the rope when it stretches out it tightens up and holds on the rope when it compresses it opens up and I can move it so one of the challenges with a normal press ik loop is most of what I do on the rope ends up having to be symmetrical so if you take the standard three rustic for example we all know that it's going to bind up nice and secure for us when we tie it but if you've ever ascended with a prusik you know that it's got some kind of nuisance qualities to it it holds nice and tight but it binds up and when I'm ready to move it to climb up higher on the rope it can be a bear to move up so with the VT because it is an eye-to-eye prusik I don't have to tie symmetric classics I can tie asymmetric prices so one common one is a three over one plus ik so what I'm doing is just wrapping one time around the bottom strand the upper strand I'm going to wrap three times now when I cinch it down I have the same three wraps on top that are going to stretch out and give me the holding power that I want when I go to move it up it slides up a lot more easily that's one of the hitch as we can tie another one is called The Velvet Empress and that's where the V T and V T press it came from The Velvet Empress start with three spiral wraps after those three spiral wraps that I make nice and snug I'm going to even up the ends and start making Criss crosses so I'm going to do is bring this one across that one across in the back I'll come across in the front across in the back across in the front and I keep wrapping until I run out of material once I'm out of material I clipping with the carabiner it bites just like a prusik would but this has kind of a unique quality to it in that even when it's fully loaded I can reach up to the top compress it and I can get it to move that works nicely for things like self belays passing knots on rappel setting up a load releasing kitchen so there are quite a few other hitching that we could tie with our VT prusik there are climb ice there are Bachmann's so on and so on but really if we know these two we have something that we can use in just about any situation the way I kind of look at it is when I do the asymmetric prusik that works best for up operations that's what I use for ascending that's what I use as part of a progress capture device in a haul system anything that involves going up or hauling up I use an asymmetric sick four down operations like backing myself up on rappel for setting up a hands-free lower switching from hauling to lowering that kind of thing I prefer the Velvet Empress so I could use the Velvet and Trust for everything including ascending but one of the downsides to it is let's say I can take an 18 each step I would push the velvet in dress up 18 inches and then when I go to load it it stretches out a little bit before it holds my weight so I'll be going up 18 inches down maybe three so I'm losing some efficiency whereas an asymmetric prusik I push it up 18 inches and it stays in place one use that I had not anticipated for the VT prusik that a lot of users have gravitated towards is using them as lanyards so in this case I've set up by my black VT prusik full length using a 10 millimeter stainless steel quick link on my harness and a carabiner on one end on the 10 VT prusik I ran it through my Italian point on my harness set it up as a basket to clip the carabiner into the two eyes so this line here is half length another thing users have been doing with their BT products is setting up emergency quick draws I get set it up as a full length 33 inch quick-draw in this case I fold it in half I can also fold it in thirds or fourths to create a quick draw of any length that I need now let's talk about self belays on rappel what a lot of people refer to as rigging an auto block when we rig out a box quite often what we're doing is bringing a friction hitch either above or below rappelling device and there's pros and cons to each first if I rig a self belay down below my rappelling device it comes with an advantage that advantage is it's only going to hold my weight that's left over after the friction the repelling device so I can wrap with a norm pressing more common as what's called a French press ik where you're just wrapping the the cord around the break strand and quite often people will clip that to a leg loop on their harness the reason they're clipping low is because again friction hitches work like Chinese finger traps they need to stretch out to lock down on the rope if I connect this too close to my rappelling device and it's not allowed to stretch out before it encounters my rappelling device it will mind itself and not do its job the reason people have always argued against putting their self belay above the repelling device is if it locks up is holding 100 percent of your body weight if that's a normal project and it holds all on my weight it can be very difficult to break it to continue rappelling I overcome that problem if I'm using a velvet and press because again when it locks up I can reach up to the top compress and continue my rappel so the way I'm set up now I'm set up with a device that I can just clip into the end this is still within reach so I can operate my break hand with my right hand and I can operate my self belay with my left hand if I knew I was going to do something like pass a knot I wouldn't want to clip into this device because my ultimate goal is going to be to get this device off in a case like that I would rather connect this separately with the lanyard to my harness one thing that has made very simple with the VT prusik is passing knots we might have a knot that was used to connect two shorter ropes for a long rappel or it might have been say a butterfly knot that was used to I say tack or shot in the rope with a VT if I know I'm going to be passing and not and we'll go ahead and rig it at the top just like I was doing itself belay I'll rig my rappelling device below that and clip it directly to my harness for this technique it's pretty important that I extend my VT as far as I can but still have it in reach and you'll see why here in a moment so what I've done is I've rappelled down to just above the knot I've let the VT take my weight once it's taken my weight I can disconnect from the rappelling device now I'm supported entirely by the VT prusik I'm going to remove my rappelling device and reinstall it immediately below the knot that I'm passing I want it to be right up against that knot and I want my tie off to be nice and secure and tight once I've tied off I can reach up to the top of the VT prusik and pull down on it gently until I find that sweet spot to myself just the right speed that I want and I'm going to lower myself until all of my weight is on the repelling device so here's the reason that I need the extension if I didn't extend there's a possibility that when I go to load my repelling device things settle the knots tighten down and if the VT comes out on top of the knot before i've loaded my repelling device i haven't accomplished anything so in this case locked off got my extension reach up to the top of the VT pull it down gently I've loaded my repelling device I can now disconnect the VT once I've disconnected the VT i unlock my repelling device and I'm back on repel pattern with some practice I can use the VT pressing Titus of L detent rats to descend tension ropes why would I want to do that close an example somebody rigged on a double stranded rope to repel they're on the rope I need to get down to help them and I don't have another rope in reserve you can't get a normal repelling device onto a tension rope so by tying the VT on to the rope and hanging on it with an extension I can use this to descend the rope and render aid another use of the VT project is for setting up running belays if I set up a tensioned horizontal safety rope it's enough for me to just clip around that rope with a carabiner if there's any kind of an angle to the rope whether I'm moving up or down it's advantageous to be able to tie in with the velvet end tress if I'm moving up the rope what I suggest people do is grab the VT from the bottom push up on it and compress it as you go if you slip and a safety rope needs to catch you your hands will automatically come down with the fall and the VT will lock up if you're coming down the rope what I suggest people do is down climb a couple of steps move their VT down climb a couple steps move their VT the reason for that is you don't want to be holding it from the top releasing it slipping and falling your instincts are going to tell you to grab tighter and it won't be able to do its job the VT also excels as a rope grab and a progress capture device for hauling systems unlike skinnier projects that tend to suck up into pulleys the VT mind itself well even on pulleys that were not meant to be project mining pulleys in this case I've done an asymmetric prusik with six reps on the grabbing end and one at the top just for easy release ability when I set it up I've got a 3:1 mechanical advantage I lift it mines itself and holds the load while I do my resets the V T's actually become so popular with some rescue teams that they're even using in place of the normal candle of tandem prusik belay systems normal nylon projects are a concern because they may melt through as the rope is traveling through it but because of the VT s tech-noir sheath that's not an issue next I'm going to demonstrate out of you a BT prusik tight Isabel detent trust as a load releasing hitch it'll come in handy for doing things like passing knots and hauling or lowering systems or in my demonstration I'm going to show you how to convert a static rigging to a lowering system once I've rigged I'm also going to have the advantage of a built-in safety backup using the velvet 10 tress so to transfer the load what I've set up is a hauling system in this case I'm using a pencil jag this could also be an Aztec kid Purcell prusik or any kind of small or mechanical advantage system so VT prusik is on the loaded rope titers of L detent rest I'm going to slide that down and set it lift with my mechanical advantage system that is taking the load off of my static rigging which I can now convert to a lower now for my demonstration I'm just going to switch it over to a Munter hitch I don't need to change anything else I can lower the load with a VT prusik once the load is on the Munter I don't need to take this off I'm going to leave it on as a hands-free backup so when I lower if something happens to me and my hands come off it catches the lobe one of the questions that comes up a lot about the VT prusik it's an eight millimeter piece of material so a lot of people assume they can only use it on thicker ropes and that's not true because of the design of the VT prusik it actually flattens out when you wrap it around the rope when it flattens out it creates more surface contact with the host rope so you can use that 8 millimeter prusik on thicker ropes 11 12 whatever but you can use it all the way down a nine millimeter and even eight millimeter ropes the only either watch for is a number of apps so on this one I've tied in a three over one wrap with an asymmetric classic if I'm tying it on a skinnier rope like an email I might want to go to four wraps up on the top and one on the bottom one of the things I get feedback about is when people are using the VT project to tie a velvet entrance so people will contact me and tell me they have a hard time releasing the VT while they're hanging their weight on it others will tell me they tie it but it doesn't hold as snugly as they want where that's coming from is how well you tie the VT prusik some people throw their spirals on and immediately start doing Criss crosses and they clip into it and then they wonder when they hang on it why is it not holding you need to be very purposeful when you do your reps so when I do my first reps I'm tying them nice and snug and even setting them a little bit once I've set them I make sure my ends are even and I try to come up with a pattern when I'm doing my reps and it doesn't matter if you go left over right or right over left just try to make some kind of a pattern so you're getting even Criss crosses and I'm going to wrap them all nice and tight and close together and I want to actually have to work a little bit to get this last wrap around before I clip it with a carabiner if I do that when I pull on it it's going to stretch out and lock up just like those Chinese finger traps if I'm using it on a skinnier rope and I find that it's not holding down as tight as I want it to go ahead and try adding a fourth wrap up on the top if you're a smaller person and you're doing three wraps and you're finding a little hard to release try dropping down to two try with your weight the ropes that you're using and practice in a safe environment a little angled slab until you get it right so I'm going to show you two different ways that I can tie an asymmetric prusik the simplest way for a lot of people is to start with a simple girth hitch we'd also call that a 1 / 1 + ik the next thing I want to do is decide where I want the the holding power to be if my holding power is going to be down I want the greater number of spirals to be on top if I'm going to be lifting up and with the greater number of spirals to be on the bottom let's say I'm using this for ascending a rope I've got one on the bottom and I want to make 2 more on the top just a simple matter of passing more wrap through even up the ends and then setting the press ik depending on your weight and the diameter of the rope you might want to use the 3 wraps that works for me you might want to add a fourth wrap on a skinny rope another way we can tie the asymmetric prusik is by stitching it when I do that what I like to do you start wrapping in the direction that I need the holding power in this case I'm going to use it for ascending so I'm going to wrap up with the longer of the two strands and I want three wraps which I've got now I'm going to take the upper piece and come over the crop over the top of this one to create that bridge that you see in press X and then this end is going to come through into that space so these two pieces come out together when I do that the asymmetric prusik that I'm tying is also known as a schwäbisch there's another variation of an asymmetric prusik though and the only difference is instead of this last piece coming around this direction it comes around this direction and finishes here when you set it and look at the bottom it looks like a lot like a clove hitch both of them work fine some people have a preference for one over the other and there's some applications where one actually works a little better than the other just practice both and see which one you like if you found this video helpful please give it a thumbs up if you think it will benefit others please share it on your favorite social media the best way to keep this old man motivated to produce more videos like this one while I still can will be to subscribe to my channel thanks [Music]

Channel: Canyons & Crags

Views: 153,942

Rating: 4.9192772 out of 5

Keywords: ascending, rope rescue, rigging, rappelling, self belay, autoblock, valdotain tresse

Id: Z-xjqI1WOY8

Length: 20min 31sec (1231 seconds)

Published: Fri May 12 2017