If I used a rope ladder or rope with knots, how would I secure it to the top bar? I couldn't pull a hitch through to the top.
The etrier would be tossed over the top of the swings, and it would have to have it end
anchored somewhere such that you could climb it.
Use of friction hitches to me implies some sort of harness, or maybe some awkward
manipulation of hitch-to-stirrup arrangement which would require the hands to be
on the rope. A problem with various set-ups in who-knows-what materials is that
friction hitches are tempermental re their gripping enough to too much, et cetera.
Tree climbers have a method of ascending in which they are sort of pulling themselves
up the, by means of a rope run over something and down to their harness: when
they stand on the end of the rope ("footlocking" it), they somewhat hoist themselves
(i.e. pull down on this end, pulls up on harness end); they then recover in the harness
and resume, ascending it little surges. Descent comes by actually sliding the friction
knot down the rope (which suggests concerns for overheating the material within
the hitch), in which the hitch has the additional advantage of the rope running
over something at the top (in contrast to if one where hitched directly to a single
line supporting all weight).
--dl*
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