Dividing a rope for glacier travel

There are a few trick ways to divide a rope for glacier climbing so there’s the same length of rope between each climber.  Some of them involve clipping a rope to another person’s harness and walking away, which is not always the safest thing to do on a glacier.  Here is a fast method that should not tax your math skills too much.

1. Count how many arm lengths it takes to flake the rope out.  (A good thing to know to find the middle point for rappels, also!) I’m 5’10”, I take 30 arm spans for a 50 meter rope.
2. Count how many climbers there are in your team.
3. Divide the total arm lengths by (number of climbers – 1).  For example, if your 50 meter rope is 30 arm lengths and you have 4 people, separate each person by 30/3 . . . 10 arm lengths.
4. Start at one end of the rope, reel off 10 arm spans, and tie a butterfly knot for Climber #2 at 1/3 the rope length.  Reel off ten more arm spans, and tie another butterfly knot for climber #3 at 2/3 of the rope length.  Climbers 1 and 4 tie into the ends of the rope, and you are set to go.  With a bit of practice, this should take about 2 minutes to do when roping up for a glacier crossing.

Thanks to Mazama Doug Wilson for submitting this Tip