Ta Prusik or not ta Prusik?

Prusik… not just for climbing/zdrags
I use a prusik loops all the time in my job. We needed to secure a piece from moving on tight walk wire(yes walking a tight rope). Rig the tight rope (10 ton tension up hill cable). We needed a temporary piece so the actor could mount the line. Slipped the mount under the wire, held it in place with a prusik so it couldn’t slip. The Circus people were very interested in how well it worked.

When camping, I ran a cable 80’ or so over the top of the campsite. Used prusik loops to position the tarp where I wanted it over the cable.



Rigging safety on fly lines in the theater, holding adjustable counter weight bags. Used one to help clear a jammed line on a sailboat winch. It gave us another purchase point to relieve the pressure so we could unwrap the jammed winch. A great knot to use!

I thought you meant Prosit !
Which is the same as skål.



Always polite to prosit.

My take
Whatever you use, practice with it. If you are thinking about using something else, practice with it.

1 Like

Good Thread!
I’m learning some things here!



Thanks to all.

prusic
prusic knots for me, and a Bachman knot at the anchor. to act as a one way ratchet so that the prusics can be reset/moved down the rope as needed - the Bachman holds the taut rope you’ve just pulled the slack out of, so you can move the prusics out again and reset for a second pull - most likely you will only be able to set up the Z for a short pull, unless you have a lot of rope to work with. if you are not using a static/rescue line, you’ll be doing a lot of pulling to get the slack out, and you can lose the mechanical advantage of the Z, so you may need to reset

conditions

– Last Updated: Jun-12-13 9:17 AM EST –

In the cave rescue manual "Life on a Line", the authors say that their experience has been that ascenders are more reliable than Prusiks when the rope is wet & muddy.

http://www.lifeonaline.com/

In my swiftwater rescue training I've used Prusiks on clean wet ropes without a problem.


Other considerations would be the risk of shock loading, and the consequences of the different failure modes.

As with so many things, I suspect the answer is to know how your gear performs in realistic conditions.

IADOTS

– Last Updated: Jun-12-13 1:05 PM EST –

The long version: "It all depends on the situation".

BOB

Prusik
Another vote for a Prusik in the Z-Drag scenario for any type of haul line. With the right size and type of lines, it would likely take somewhere between 1000 to 2000 lbs of force on the Prusik for it to slide or fail. The ascender will start tearing into the rope at some point and could cause a catastrophic failure.



As with anything, do your research, get the gear you think you need, and then go learn to use it to see what happens when you put a few hundred lbs of force on a rope and whatever device you chose. Much better to get the experience on dry land than trying to learn what does and doesn’t work at the river’s edge.