BLIZZARD Friction Hitch (by Knotorious) for Arborists & Tree Climbers! 

Awesome! I'm so glad you love it! If you gve it a try, let me know how it goes! =-D

Thanks for your comment! You've made my day! I'm excited to hear that I've managed to convince another person to give one of my best hitch creations a try! I'm even more excited that the superior quality and functionality of the Blizzard hitch has you using it permanently as your "go-to" for all of your lanyards! As soon as you try it out on your climbing ropes/systems, you'll want to use it there all of the time as well! In fact, after doing the testing needed to verify the safeness and quality of the Blizzard hitch, even I made the permanent switch to using it whenever I climb SRS with a rope wrench, after it had always been another friction hitch that I created for almost 2 years (the Calligraphy hitch). The secret to the Blizzard hitch is the two overlapping marls/half hitches below the coil! Very few knots will advance more easily/grab harder, but are so incredibly simple to tie! =-D

Thanks! I definitely like to think I convey a great deal of knowledge and intellect in most of my videos. As you always remind me, I am simply extremely "passionate" about knots, friction hitches, and tree climbing as a whole! You would think that making RU-vid content would get easier over time, but that simply isn't the case (at least for me). It actually keeps becoming more complex and time consuming, but that's only because a) I now put more time, thought, and energy into filming each episode, b) I now put WAY more effort and skill into video editing/audio mixing/wireless recording, and c) I now put a lot more effort and skill into creating video thumbnails. But even though everything is now more complicated, due to my much higher standards and greater abilities, I am also growing, improving, and becoming faster at higher level content creation and, at the end of the day, I absolutely LOVE every aspect of it! And getting feedback through comments from viewers like yourself is easily the most rewarding part of YouTubing! =-D

It's definitely one of my best friction hitch creations! I highly recommend it to everyone and anyone!, whether for a climbing system or for a hauling or pulling system! Be sure to watch my TEST video, where I demo this hitch in action! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-tu7haYgwzTE.html

You bet! Thanks for thanking me! This is definitely one of my favorites! Simple but highly effective! 😊

No, not really. As long as you use a hitch cord that is appropriately sized for your rope, and so long as you tie, dress, and set the hitch correctly, it will work flawlessly with a rated rope of any diameter and of any type. Having said that, it definitely works best on ropes that have at least 16 to 48-strand construction. The greater the strand count, the more the rope will be able to maintain a round shape, which will help the hitch to grab more uniformly. Me, personally? I only use and own 32-strand or 48-strand kernmantle static ropes, and I prefer larger diameters. The thicker the rope, the better the performance because there will be more surface area for the hitch to grab on. My smallest ropes are 11mm diameter and my largest, currently, is 11.8mm diameter. This hitch will work with dynamic ropes as well for those who are rock climbers. Here is a video I just made today demonstrating how well the Blizzard hitch works: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-tu7haYgwzTE.htmlsi=h46qpsNNWNssGmhC

There are A LOT of factors which determine how well any given hitch functions for any given climber, such as the method of climbing (MRS versus SRS), the type/diameter of rope, the type/diameter/length of hitch cord, how worn in your rope/hitch cord are, how well the hitch has been tied/dressed/set, and the skill lever of the climber using a hitch based system...just to name a few! Ultimately, only you can truly know whether or not this is better than the Knut. I personally hate the Knut and never use it, so I honestly cannot offer a comparison! As far as I'm concerned, there are SO MANY better hitches than the Knut. What I can tell you is that the Blizzard is super easy to tie, extremely reliable, and it is one of my all-time favorites. It works equally as well as part of a climbing system as it does on a lanyard or for a hauling system with progress capture! If you do end up trying out the Blizzard hitch, please come back to this comment and leave an update regarding your experience(s), how it compares to the Knut, and any other observations you might have...whether good or bad! Thanks for commenting! I hope my response is helpful!

@@Knot-orious Interesting, the Knut is mr buttersworth for me.

@@Knot-orious Ok, I tried it but couldn't do a fair comparison because the only hitch cord I had that was even long enough was toast. The results for me was that 4 wraps with a knut worked well with the burned out cord and the blizzard with 3 wraps did not work at all. Normally I run 3 wraps with a 24" eye to eye and it not only self tends but locks the second you sit into it without ever having to dress it. I am not sure I want to waste money on a new 28" cord since I much prefer a tight package.

​@@troyerthedestroyer Firstly, thanks for giving my friction hitch a try. Secondly, it's possible that you didn't dress and set the Blizzard hitch tightly enough. I don't own any 24" hitch cords, however, keep an eye out for a second comment from me sometime tomorrow. I'm going to make a quick video showing myself tying the Blizzard hitch with 3 wraps and 4 wraps just to prove that it does work as advertised. I'm a bigger guy, though, so 3 wraps might not be enough, but I'm pretty confident it should be no problem because each marl below the coil amounts to one wrap each. But we'll see. Once the video has been filmed, edited, and uploaded, I'll share it via a private link in a comment in this thread addressed to you. It's not that I think are questioning the efficacy of my hitch, it's more that I just think it would be fun to do, and it would help promote the hitch further, hopefully haha

@@Knot-orious That would be cool to see. Like I said, my only 28" cord was burned out and sappy so not a real good was to demonstrate it. That being said, the knut with the same cord was not bothered so it could be that the blizzard won't work for me personally anyway because I do a lot of big sappy trees and usually just rock my sappy set up for and keep on truckin until the sap burns off which the knut has no issues handling.

The Bifrost is made by Yale Cordage, so it isn't unique to Wesspur (although, Wesspur is the best place to buy it). It is an 11mm diameter kernmantle rope that is super static with a 48-strand cover, which means that it has excellent hand/knot-ability. I, personally, prefer ropes closer to 12mm for climbing because they are less taxing to hold onto (such as the Teufelberger XStatic 11.7mm or Drenaline 11.8mm), but the Bifrost is my favorite rope for my adjustable lanyard!

@@Knot-orious I got the new samson vortex dry hd..beautiful 12.7 thicker the better..I know about the rope was curios its 🖐 hand ..I like fat ropes ..other wise I use bluemoon and yale focus..yale is my favorite ropes always has been

@@Sethhaun78 For me, I find that between 11-12mm to be my sweet spot for my ropes and my devices. I also love Yale. They not only make the best ropes, in my opinion, but they produce the best color patterns for the sheaths!

@@Knot-orious yale focus is beautiful rope I've bought has excellent splice and glows in sun ☀

The new samson dry roped are incredible..5percent water 💦

I disagree. People want to watch that video and see that the new friction hitch I created hasn't just been tied one time, maybe climbed on once or twice, and had a video made about it, and then see me encourage them to use it. I legitimately designed it (I came up with the structure of the friction hitch to serve a specific purpose compared to other friction hitches) and I developed it (this was version #3 of the Blizzard hitch, and the only version I have ever shared, because the other iterations were inferior). "Developed" not only means that I experimented with several iterations, but each iteration underwent a battery of testing to confirm that a) they would function efficiently, b) function consistently, reliably and c) function safely. What I created isn't just "a bit of rope," it's an actual piece of LIFE SUPPORT used in an "at height" vertical climbing system which, if any mistakes are made on my end, peoples lives could legitimately be in danger. So while you may think it's cringe to state that I did my due diligence and that other climbers can trust their lives to my friction hitch, I think most people FULLY appreciate that knowledge. Doing "something different" isn't going to ensure that people stay safe. Anyone can do something different. But unless there is actual testing to back up its performance, it's not even worth discussing or sharing within the climbing world because people could get seriously hurt. There's nothing cringe about putting in as much work as I can to ensure the end user doesn't get killed by my "bits of rope." But thanks for commenting. I hope you understand where I'm coming from!

@@Knot-oriousits a nice hitch, and thats a nice essay you just wrote. But yeah, developed and designed is a pretty pretentious way of describing coming up with a hitch.

​@@ryanv1279 Haha, I'm glad you at least like the hitch. I'm not sure why some people are taking issue with my verbiage. Pretentious is pretty harsh. That implies I chose those two words in an effort to impress people, or because I have an overinflated ego. That "essay" explains, rather exhaustively, why "designed" and "developed" legitimately describe what I did in order to arrive at that this particular hitch and its tying method...as well as for the 85+ other friction hitches I've created; for which all have 1-2 videos you can find on my channel. Some people simply underestimate what I do and I'm not going to lose any sleep over it. I value everyone's opinions, however, so thank you for sharing yours.

I love your passion, design creativity etc. Don't let the knockers get you down.

​@@daveoseas Thanks, Dave! It's all good! I can't make everyone happy 100% of the time, but I always do my best to make most people happy for most of the time! And I always want to hear what my viewers have to say, even if I don't necessarily agree with them! I'd rather let everyone have a voice, and to be aware of everyone's criticisms, than to reject all criticisms and fail to listen to my viewers. Afterall, without my viewers -- without my community --- my channel would be meaningless and worthless, both figuratively and literally (you can't earn monetization revenue if nobody watches your content).