My rope always tangled until I saw a guy use a bucket

I've been climbing for about 7 years now, and every single time I'd flake my rope it'd turn into a mess halfway up the tree. Last month I watched a younger climber toss his rope into a 5 gallon bucket on his saddle and pull it out clean every time, no kinks at all. Anyone else been doing the whole throw and pray method and missed this simple trick?

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the_amy7d ago

Flip it around and think about where you're storing the rope at home, not just in the field. I used to keep mine coiled in a gear bin and it picked up all sorts of twists from the way I wound it. Tossing it in a bucket only works if the rope is already laying flat and relaxed when you pull it out. So now I store my ropes in a loose figure eight stack on a shelf, and when I get to the site, I just lift the whole bundle into a bucket. The bucket trick is solid, but it's basically a band-aid if your rope is coming out of storage with built up memory. Take that from someone who learned the hard way that the fix starts the day before you climb.