Munter hitch brake strand - does it need to be parallel?

bonus 4
Written By John Godino
 
 
 

There is a bit of a myth about belaying, lowering, or rappelling with a Munter hitch - “You need to keep the brake strand up and parallel with the load strand all the time.”

Turns out: this isn't really true.

  • Yes, you do get maximum braking with the brake strand held out in front of you parallel with the load strand.

  • However, with the brake strand 180° opposite the load strand, friction is reduced by about 25%. In most cases, this is still an adequate amount of friction to control your load.

  • The hitch doesn't somehow magically fail if you decide to hold your brake strand in a more comfortable position, like down by your hip.

Of course, the amount of friction depends on lots of variables, like the amount of weight you need to hold, shape of your carabiner, rope diameter, age of the rope, etc.

There's a lot of well-meaning instruction I've heard over the years that implies your Munter hitch will somehow malfunction if you don't always hold both rope strands parallel.

That’s not true.

 

image : https://www.vdiffclimbing.com/ shared with permission

 
 
John Godino
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