Best Friend Loop for Garda Hitch Footloop 

Thank you, John! Something I have found for the cut ends on heat resistant rope, is Gorilla tape. Wrap, and heat, to melt, and it can flame some, then quench under cold water. Have a great day! Steve

That’s a good way to do it , definite improvement

Thanks once again John! Looking forward to trying this now that Turky season is over here in VT. I saw your new product video recently and may consider it if my walking stick DIY version proves impractical. Keep up the outstanding work and excellent demonstrations.

Straightforward and sensible evolution of the system. I like that it helps prevent carabiner contact. The only downsides are consuming more cordage, and harder to untie (e.g. for inspection). I wonder if the hunter's bend could capture a strand of the overall loop to effectively become a "sliding hunter's bend"? That would theoretically be the best of both worlds. But it would require testing to ensure that the hunter's bend is still stable and strong in that configuration.

First of all, an excellent video and excellent concept! While the concept of using two carabiners for progress capture (the method utilized by your Garda foot loop) has been used by alpinists for over a century, I am impressed by your addition of the “best friend” loop. Any climber who takes the time to add redundancy to their climbing system is an intelligent climber. For anyone watching this video who is a beginner, I would strongly encourage you to pay close attention to this technique. Not necessarily this exact technique, but pay attention to how John has added a redundant connection point to his Garda foot loop. Should his primary climbing method fail for any reason, he would be caught by the “best friend.” As a beginner tree climber or saddle hunter, I believe that you should always make your climbing systems redundant until you have become more experienced and confident. Using redundancies will build confidence because you will always know, in the back of your mind that, should shit hit the fan once, you will have a secondary to prevent you from experiencing catastrophic failure and keep you from plummeting to the ground, either injuriously or fatally. Secondly, John, what are you doing with that heat shrink nonsense? Those cannot only make it difficult to pass the ends of your cordage through/out of devices and/or knots, but they may even slip right off during the process. Me, personally? I ***whip*** the ends of ALL of my cordage (whether it be my climbing ropes, my hitch cords, or my accessory cordage) using polyester twine, a sewing needle, and some pliers. I’m pretty confident in saying that every single piece of cordage I own has been whipped, taped, and glued. Before whipping, before I initially cut the cordage, I wrap the cut points tightly with 3M electrical tape, then make the cuts using a box cutter with a fresh razor blade. I will then apply super glue to the ends and allow it to cure overnight, with the cordage hanging so that the ends are pointing directly upwards so it cures evenly. Then I will spend roughly 10-15 minutes sewing each whipping using 1mm, colored polyester thread (sometimes waxed, sometimes regular; the colors can help you organize and more easily identify your cordage/make your ends high visibility, etc.) about one half inch below where I’ve wrapped the tape. When whipping, be sure to not only make wraps, but to create perpendicular cross whippings to secure the core in place. I made an entire video demonstrating this process, but I’m not going to link my content on another creator’s channel because that’s socially unacceptable. But all I can say is that a proper sewn whipping is world’s better than any shrink wrapped end. Especially if you’re working with hitch cordage, which is partially or wholly composed of aramid fibers, which will not melt. A properly sewn whipping will never come undone, will never come off for any reason, regardless of how forcefully you pull them through a tight knot or anything else. They will make it easier to insert the ends of your cordage through devices and knots, help to spot any tails in a knot that might be dangerously feeding through, prevent the core from milking out, prevent the sheath from sliding off, and give everyone around you the impression that you are organized and thorough. Finally, I see you’re using the Ceros carabiner by DMM. I recently bought one and I was immediately irritated when I discovered that the wire gate at the bottom doesn’t allow arborist sized anchor rings to fit inside of them, limiting me to connecting it directly to my bridge, which results in an orientation that I HATE. So, I used some pliers and removed the wire gate and now I love my Ceros and use it with my rope wrench all of the time. I got the triple action gate. Not sure if yours is triple or double action, but mine is a gun metal color with a green gate (the standard color or a DMM triple action gate). Even without the wire gate, due to the tight bevel at the bottom, and the “horn” along the spine, it is impossible to cross load. I wish it had the removable captive bar instead. Great video, John! Sorry for writing a dissertation/essay in your comments section! Much love your way! We’re like two peas in the same tree climbing creativity pod! Keep creating, testing, and discovering new ways to advance the world of tree climbing and arboriculture! I’ll be over at my channel doing the same! =-D

The one thing I have been wondering with the back up is if using static rope for it is dangerous or not? I switched my back up connection to one made out of dynamic lanyard (Petzl-I) because I don't have the equipment to measure drop tests on the back up. For what I understand, the peak impact force is affected by: - how much mass is on the rope - how much the rope will stretch - the relation of the length of fall (slack!) to the length of rope in the system The latter would imply that even on a short fall you could get hurt without proper shock absorption. This is why we never have any slack on the main connection to the semi-static lifeline. With the Garda, your back up is always below your main tie in point, so we are potentially looking at a factor 1 or greater fall depending on where the failure happens. It all of course depends on how your main device fails and if you can react to it with your feet (slipping versus catastrophic failure) but assuming the worst case scenario (a straight drop), what would be the peak impact force of the static "best friend" to a static bridge versus a short dynamic lanyard that is directly connected to your harness? Obviously the dynamic lanyard will be less but the question that is interesting is does it matter in terms of damaging a person?

New saddle hunter here. I was curious if this foot loop setup could work in conjunction with a mechanical hand ascender.