Remove rope twists with an ATC
This tip and video come from AMGA Certified Rock Guide Cody Bradford.
While sadly Cody is no longer with us, his Instagram continues to stay up and is a great source of tips like this, check it out.
Did you unwrap a new rope in a hurry? Lowered off an anchor with quicklinks lying flat against the rock? Munter hitch rappel? Or just have some random rope weirdness? Twists (aka pigtails) in your rope can come from a lot of different sources, but no matter how they got there, they’re a hassle and you need to get them out.
Here's a simple and fast way to decluster your spaghetti pile.
Clip a carabiner and a tube style belay device (here the DMM Pivot, my fave) to a bolt, some rock pro, tree branch, whatever, about head high.
Flake the rope onto the ground.
When you get to the tangled part, feed the rope through the belay device and carabiner, and pull the rope through. Give the twisted side of the rope a few shakes and shimmies as needed.
As the rope is forced through the small diameter of the belay device, the twists move to the end of the rope and should work themselves out. If your rope is REALLY messed up, you might need to repeat this.
Pigtails in your robe can be more than a minor annoyance. It’s especially important to remove them when you're pulling a rappel rope. If you don't, the strands can twist together or other weirdness, making your rope very difficult to pull, or maybe even impossible. Check out this description and photo from @aledallo91.
“. . . a crunch created during the recovery of a rope on a broken descent on two anchors that forced me to abandon it, as it was impossible to recover from the intermediate stop. Then I went back up to save my baby. ❤️
This ball was formed by itself in recovering the rope, due to the twisting of the last meters of the same.
Experience that teaches the importance of checking that the rope is always well stretched and free of slots and twists before attempting the retrieve.”
Like most climbing techniques, it’s a better show than a tell. Here’s a short video from Cody showing how it’s done.
