Page 89 - Nate Fitch, Ron Funderburke "Climbing Knots"

CHAPTER 8

Managing the Rope

60m or 70m rope can be an unwieldy and
A chaotic mess if it is not properly managed. The
slipknot is almost always the culprit. As a rope unfurls
from its pile or its coils, it is perfectly natural for one
bight of the rope to be pulled through an incidental
loop in the stack or the pile. As one clustered slip-
knot mingles with the rest of the pile, slipknots can
naturally be created within slipknots, and so the mess
begins. Thankfully, the rope can be managed with a
few simple techniques.
In this chapter we will discuss flaking a rope out
for its initial use, techniques for managing a rope
while belaying, and coiling a rope for transport.

Flaking a Rope

The initial treatment of a rope is an important step.
It has a few important purposes. First, a rope that has
been transported in a rope bag or bucket, or even
in a tight single-strand coil, is not guaranteed to pay
out smoothly to a belayer. Flaking a rope prepares it
for use. Second, flaking provides an opportunity for
the climbing team to inspect (visually and physically)
every inch of the rope. Severe abrasion in the sheath,
exposure of core strands, breaks, gaps, and weaknesses
all should be avoided. So flaking a rope is a logical
time to find any signs of rope damage. Lastly, flaking
a rope allows the climbing team to retrieve the rope

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