Can a Hennessy ridgeline be "interrupted"?

[Chrisman2013]

I've done this to my HH Hyperlight and it is holding up fine. I did it so that in the winter I could use my sleeping bag like a peapod without the netting interfering. Since the netting is cut smaller than the ripstop, I don't turn my hammock over when i sleep in it this way. I just sleep on top of the netting. It's held up well this way for the past two winters.

[Certain]

I read in a trail journal about a hiker who cut the ridgeline on her HH and tied each end to a carabiner. Then when she wanted the ridgeline--for holding up the bugnet, for hanging the small items inside the hammock during sleeping, etc, she connected the carabiners to each other. But when she wanted to sit in the hammock in the evenings as a camp chair, she was able to disconnect the carabiners, so the ridgeline wasn't sitting on the back of her head.

Is this possible, or did I read something wrong?? I thought the ridgeline was part of the structure, and if you cut it the hammock would burst into flames or something.

Would be nice to be able to sit in the hammock without the ridgeline pushing on the back of my head.

Hey Weaver....it may have been me who you were reading about on trail journals (Certain is my trail name). Yes, it's absolutely possible to do this and in fact I still have my hammock that way. Just cut the ridgeline and use a good knot to tie the biners to the cut ends of the ridgeline. I've never had a problem with it. A few things to be aware of....the ridgeline on a HH is what provides the stability, so if you unhook it, it's much easier to fall out if you're not careful...however I've spent days laying ON TOP of the bugnetting w/the ridgeline unhooked when I wanted to lounge. Again...you just need to be careful.

You also have to mess around w/it to figure out the easiest way to unhook/hook it back as it's MUCH easier to hook/unhook the modified ridgeline if you loosen your suspension a bit so there's some "play".

Bottom line is yup...you can do it. The ridgeline is not load-bearing, so you don't need weight-rated biners either by the way. Oh...the location I cut the ridgeline was where I could easily get to it while standing up....I still have a bottom-loader so it was direction up from the slit. If you've got a side zip, then I'd just think about where you might find the connection point to be the most helpful w/the way you work in camp. Hope this helps!