Tying an adjustable cowstail

[Chads93GT]

Tying a cowstail for a friend of mine, however I am trying to add the adjustable Prusik at the base of the cowstail, unlike mine where the adjustable portion is at the end at the ascender.

I personally dont like how this looks. should I retie it so that the 7mm cord feeds through the top of the figure 8 instead of the bottom as it is now? I just dont like how it "looks".

thoughts?

Obviously some people dont make their's adjustable, but in my opinion its the only way to fly.

[NZcaver]

OR1 sells something like this, but I think it uses a barrel noose to form the bight at each end.

[Chads93GT]

Yeah I have 2 of those but its not really a cows tail. pretty much what I am tying of course, just trying to figure out a better way to have the adjuster at the base of the cowstail and not at the end

[NZcaver]

Oh right, sorry. Haven't done this for a while. One of my cowstails used to be adjustable, but I used a Kong Slyde at the carabiner end instead of a Prusik in the middle.

Untie your figure 8. Tie the Prusik hitch onto the cowstail, then girth hitch the other end of the Prusik loop around the base of where your center attachment bight is going to be (you'll need to form a bight in the cowstail and loop the girth hitch over it). Now tie the figure 8 bight in your cowstail, with the Prusik cord inside the knot (following the same path as the cowstail). If this is a little bulky/awkward, try using an overhand bight instead of a figure 8. Personally I prefer an overhand in the middle of my cowstail because it's more compact.

[Extremeophile]

Obviously some people dont make their's adjustable, but in my opinion its the only way to fly.

I'm curious about the use of a Prusik or Kong Slyde to make one of your cowstails adjustable. In what situations do you use this added functionality? I haven't been in a situation where I thought I needed an adjustment, but maybe it's one of those things that once you try it you can't imagine having done it any other way. Please elaborate.

[Scott McCrea]

Here's another way to adjust the length of a cowstail: LINK

[Chads93GT]

Obviously some people dont make their's adjustable, but in my opinion its the only way to fly.

I'm curious about the use of a Prusik or Kong Slyde to make one of your cowstails adjustable. In what situations do you use this added functionality? I haven't been in a situation where I thought I needed an adjustment, but maybe it's one of those things that once you try it you can't imagine having done it any other way. Please elaborate.

Passing lips it is nice with a ropewalker to shorten it so you can get right under a nasty lip without flipping over, then you can adjust your 2nd qas to full length to reach past the nasty lip and unclip the one you just shortened.

It just makes passing lips easier when you can adjust things on the fly, rather than having dedicated lengths that cant be changed. I like to be able to do different things with my rig and having adjustability helps with that.

[Amazingracer]

Passing lips it is nice with a ropewalker to shorten it so you can get right under a nasty lip without flipping over, then you can adjust your 2nd qas to full length to reach past the nasty lip and unclip the one you just shortened.

Slight derailment, I learned a trick from Buddy Lane to address this, climb with your croll from your frog system attached to your D-Ring.

Back to adjustables, I have never actually tried this. I think have some extra short rope lengths at home, I will have to tie one and experiment. Question though, what happens if heaven forbid you take a fall? Odds are the prussik cord wont break (although still possible), but still makes you go "I wonder... I use dynamic rope on all my attachments, the sheath tends to be much softer than static rope so I'd be curious how it holds up to the prussik know itself.

[Chads93GT]

Passing lips it is nice with a ropewalker to shorten it so you can get right under a nasty lip without flipping over, then you can adjust your 2nd qas to full length to reach past the nasty lip and unclip the one you just shortened.

Slight derailment, I learned a trick from Buddy Lane to address this, climb with your croll from your frog system attached to your D-Ring.

Back to adjustables, I have never actually tried this. I think have some extra short rope lengths at home, I will have to tie one and experiment. Question though, what happens if heaven forbid you take a fall? Odds are the prussik cord wont break (although still possible), but still makes you go "I wonder... I use dynamic rope on all my attachments, the sheath tends to be much softer than static rope so I'd be curious how it holds up to the prussik know itself.

Bill putnam told me the same thing. Frogging croll under your ropewalker. works awesome. others however dont.

The dynamic cord in the photo is the 10.5mm from on rope and 7mm accessory cord. I highly doubt the 7mm would break, or even the 6mm on the static QAS's from on rope. Hmmm

[self-deleted_user]

Okay so my cowstails aren't adjustable but here are photos of the rest of my stuff as my qas, my footloops and jazz, are adjustable with basically what you are doing. It's small and streamline and easy so I like it. Aaron helped me build an awesome system I think it's pretty and elegant and easy to use at least. And a lot of flexibility without being complex or confusing or hard to adjust!

(oh and hey NZCaver, you can see the qas :) hope you don't mind the purple on your ascender! It has orange too so maybe that offsets it ;) I made it all myself! Well ok Aaron untied one of the knots to put on the adjustibit but whatever. ha! I got bored the night before I went over there and decided to make it myself and I did it right we just added that was all. WEEEEEEEEEEEE)

[Amazingracer]

Why are there two sections of cowstail coming from your upper ascender?

[Chads93GT]

I was trying to figure out that myself, but what it looks like is her friend tied the cows tail and the adjustable leg loops alll out of the same rope.

Talk about hellaciously bulkly and the inability to remove the leg loops to use the hand ascender as a qas without clutter. Yeek.

[self-deleted_user]

whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa?
No it's not a cowstail.
It's the footloops and upper ascender strap :P Frog system here. Too lazy to put on the harness so I cliped it to my shirt but here, see? Does that help now? :P I told you I don't have adjustable cowstails they were just ideas for how to do the knots with the adjustybits :P

[Chads93GT]

ten four!

[Amazingracer]

O I C

But as chad said, really bulky and non-removable foot loops of dynamic rope. Eegads all around. The dynamic will stretch as you stand in it, id recommend a switch to PMI Tuff Cord, that stuff is super statis and darn near indestructible. Been using the same foot loop for nearly 4 years.