Any rope climbers in the house?

missblondi2u
missblondi2u Posts: 851 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
This might be crazy, but there's this really big, nice tree in my backyard that I'm thinking of using to start rope climbing. My very basic idea is that I'd just get a large rope, hang it from up high, tie some knots, and start climbing. But like most things, I'm sure there's more to it than I'm imagining.

Anybody have any beginner rope climbing tips they'd like to share with the class?

Replies

  • sgt1372
    sgt1372 Posts: 3,977 Member
    Loved rope climbing since I 1st started doing in gym class in jr high on a 30 ft rope bc I was good at it.

    Few places where I can still to do it now, even tho at 70 I can still climb a rope.

    Was thinking about setting up a rope climb in my backyard but it just got too involved.

    If you are using a tree, all I can suggest is to make sure the tree and limb you hang the rope on and the method of attachment are verifiably secure.

  • NorthCascades
    NorthCascades Posts: 10,970 Member
    Get a good harness and use the Texas prusik. 🙂
  • missblondi2u
    missblondi2u Posts: 851 Member
    NorthCascades wrote: »
    Get a good harness and use the Texas prusik. 🙂

    Thanks! This looks really neat.
  • sgt1372
    sgt1372 Posts: 3,977 Member
    edited December 2020
    BTW, if you haven't climbed ropes much before, your strength and stability comes from your legs and core NOT your arms.

    You will get tired very quickly if you try to pull yourself up a rope w/o using your legs to lock you in position.

    The movement (which is repeated on the way up) is to reach up and hold the rope w/your hands and then raise you legs up as far as you can in kind of a hanging crunch and then lock the rope in w/your legs (there are various ways to do this) to that you can reach father up the rope and then repeat til you get to the top. This can be done very quickly when you get the hang of it.

    Some people can climb a rope only using their hands, arms & shoulders but they have extraordinary upper body strength. I use to be able to do that when I was younger and lighter but no more.

    Personally, I don't see the point in wearing a harness or a prusik while doing the kind of rope climbing I thought we were talking about wc involved hanging a 1-1.5" rope from a tree no more than 20-30 ft high.

    You're not rock climbing and no one is belaying you but if that's the kind of rope clmbing you're condidering using 3/8" nylon rope up while climbing up cliff faces then a harness snd prusij would make sense.

    However, for standard 1-1.5" gym rope climbs, if you don't have the strength and agility to hang onto an rope w/your hands while locking yourself in w/your legs (wc is easily learned) you really have no business climbing a rope in the 1st place.

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