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The standard mountaineering textbook Freedom of the Hills has a long discussion of fixed lines, and they state simply that you use a mechanical ascender on them. This seems odd to me, since for mos...
#2: Attribution notice added
by
System
·
2020-04-17T23:57:08Z (about 4 years ago)
Source: https://outdoors.stackexchange.com/q/8226 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#1: Initial revision
by
Ben Crowell
·
2020-04-17T23:57:08Z (about 4 years ago)
<p>The standard mountaineering textbook Freedom of the Hills has a long discussion of fixed lines, and they state simply that you use a mechanical ascender on them. This seems odd to me, since for most mountaineering I would be carrying a pretty light rack, and it probably wouldn't include a heavy mechanical ascender. I would just have a Prusik loop handy.</p> <p>What would be the pros and cons of one versus the other? Is a Prusik any less likely to hold if the rope has snow or ice on it? Is it an issue of speed on siege-style climbs, where you're ferrying loads? They seem to have in mind some kind of massive expedition, where you bring a special-purpose 100-meter static line just for this purpose.</p>