Glacier travel tip - secure your foot prusik with tape

When roping up for glacier travel, climbers typically attach loops of cord with a prusik knot to the rope to enable self-rescue from a crevasse.  The normal rig uses two loops:  1) a short waist loop prusiked to the rope and clipped to your harness, and 2) a longer foot loop prusiked to the rope and, depending on the rigging, also clipped to the harness or hanging free. 

The problem here is becomes what to do with the 4-5 feet of extra hanging foot loop?  Most books advise you to simply “tuck it into your harness waist belt or leg loop”.  But, if you’ve ever tried this for a day of glacier climbing, you know what a hassle it is.  Think of all the gear you have in front of you on a glacier climb – climbing harness, pack waist belt, biner to clip your waist prusik, biner to clip rope, maybe a daisy chain, maybe a belay device and belay biner, maybe a shoulder sling with rescue gear . . . it’s already a complicated mess down there, and stuffing in a leg prusik loop makes it even worse.

Here’s a tip of what to do with that foot prusik – after you prusik it to the rope, roll the remaining cord into a small bundle and tape it securely with athletic tape.  Rather than a dangling long loop of cord to deal with, you now have a compact bundle that simply rests a few inches below the prusik knot.  The only time you’ll ever need this foot loop is in case of a crevasse fall, which most climbers on moderate routes go their entire lives without experiencing.  If this ever happens, you can easily rip the tape, and then the cord deploys.  You can even tape up your foot loop at home, as long as you leave about 8-10” free so you can make the prusik knot.

And remember, you probably don’t need to even put a foot prusik on the rope for every glacier climb you do.  Check out this tip for an overview of the three levels of risk of glacier travel, and appropriate rigging for each.