Wedge hitch slipped on a 40 foot oak in Madison, lucky nobody got hurt

I was on a 40 foot oak in Madison last Tuesday when my wedge hitch slipped on the pull line. The rope slid clean out of the knot and whipped back like a snake, it missed my groundie by maybe two feet. I'd tied it the same way I always do, checked the wraps, but the rope had a soft spot hidden under some bark dust. My glove caught it when I ran the line through, but I chalked it up to rough fiber, not damage. I swapped to a different rope and used a port-a-wrap to finish the drop, still got the tree down without issue. The old rope went straight in the bin after, I'm not taking that chance again. Anyone else find a hidden defect this way or am I just the unlucky one this week?

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troy_ross29d ago

Honestly, that glove test is the exact thing that got me once too. I heard a rope inspection seminar guy say if a soft spot feels spongy even a little, that rope is done, no matter how clean the outside looks. Took a climbing line off a job last month that had a core shot hidden under the sheath, it was fine under load but you could feel the mush when you squeezed it. You did the right thing binning it, that's a lesson that only costs you a rope instead of a body.

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