haul back line on speedline- tips and tricks

[SouthSoundTree]

Wondering what others do to get an overhead speedline back to the climber. I was speedlining a 100'+ cedar full of limbs about 50' laterally to prep for a crane on the trunk.

I had the groundmen flicking a wave into the rope to get it back to me at times, as I had to strip out the front, then the sides, then the back, to a degree, so at times the speedline was set 10'-20' above me.

We needed a 3:1 with a porty to tension, and pull some cut limbs loose from the intact limbs at times, so simply drooping the rope was a little more work , and I would rather do more as the climber than less, to move production along. I hate watching ground guys work with nothing to do. I was really working with one groundman (new guy, Dylan) while Erik was running a rental lift doing a bunch of work.

My concern about the haulback line is that it would tangle with the limbs, and I already had a lot going on, trying to clip the rope into many slings down the bole, in order to keep tension up to clear a fence. If I let too much slack in the rope by not clipping the rope into limbs just above where I was working, we wouldn't have made the horizontal distance needed.

Any random speedline thoughts and tips and trick for the general discussion are fine, too. No worries about hijacking or anything. Just something on my mind that I suspect others have had to deal with, and have possibly come up with something ingenious.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

I natural crotch the retrieval line on stubs I leave or branches not cut if I need the control of speed. You can land in a tighter LZ with your groundie on the Z rig helping as you ease it down the line. I also have a mini porty in case, but it takes more time.. Depends on the load and pitch of the line. I just let the retrieval line go straight down and flake to clean ground if possible.. Or loop it over a limb.. so long as it can play out. I always carry a throw bag to help weight the line if necessary to the ground.
On this one I just used the stump as a bollard or let it free run as required.....




Here I used NC on stubs or branches with the tail straight down the tree.

 

[Evan Sussman]

Could you use a short like 30'rope with a clip or biner and connect to the speedline between where its tied off and your cut. Let it slack while you're cutting so groundie and your rigging point take the load. Then dylan lets enough slack while you haul with your short line. Does that make sense? It could even be throw line for what its worth, except that would be hard on your hands to haul.

may have missed a reason this wouldn't work, like that you wanted the extra lift or that it would take too much time, but a redirect that you move with you?

 

[CurSedVoyce]

Yes...
As a haul back and quick redirect

 

[Merle Nelson]

Sean you mention concern about tangles so this may not be useful in that situation but when things are out of reach of my 2 ft. to 9ft, extendable grabber or 7 ft. to 13 ft. extendable pole hook I have used a small tag line. This has happened often enough that when I saw a thread about putting throw line on a self-rewinding fly fishing reel, or on a hand wind up chalk line reel it got my attention.

I haven’t put them together yet but 50 to 75 ft. of line that I could pull on up to 100 lbs. or so should solve a lot of similar problems for me. Bought a few extra sizes of nylon thimbles to try so I can set it up to let a rigging line that is well out of reach run through it and pull back over to me once line is slack.

 

[SouthSoundTree]

I think that fly reel that will pay out as its pulled would work well. This would help to avoid tangles. Perhaps, I should adjust my end of the line by running it over a crotch up high and tensioning with a foot ascender (full body weight), and if need be, use a 2:1, and incorporate a releaseable, progress-capture friction hitch.

 

[SouthSoundTree]

I could just use a speedline with a control line that mostly is for hauling back slings and then use a trolley pulley, making the speedline run faster/ more efficiently. I'd have the weight of the control line to reduce the work hauling back the haul line/ pulley (minor). I wouldn't have to connect slings to the pulley each time, but would be easy for hauling slings back up at least, while being able to use it to pull the speedline back into reach.

When I was at the bottom of the bole, they were having to reach over the barb wire fence with a branch to reach my climbline that I was using to pull up sling. As I got higher up the bole, i could flick my climbline over the fence.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

 

[bonner1040]

What about just using a biner and your climbing line... A slip knot 20' below you with the biner, clipped onto the speedline above the rigged piece....You want to make sure it doesnt all get tangled I guess... Or a 30' piece of throwline with biners on both ends?? Choke it around the stem, clip it to the SL above the rigged piece... If it gets tangled and snaps its no biggie.

Anyway, I posted this elsewhere obviously but since its speedline related:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/HMkbOD40CTw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[SouthSoundTree]

My concern is about personally getting tangled in the fast moving cordage. Recently, I got a moving throwline half-hitched around my ring finger on my left hand when I was throwing with my right. Fluke, but happened. Sprained my finger joint from the sudden jolt of a 12 oz hand thrown weight when the ligaments got impact loaded, as the throw weight and line stopped in a fraction of a second. My arm got jerked upward.

If I use a control rope up the other side of the trunk, running over a crotch, it will have more weight, and probably less snarl-ability, than a throwline, while having the haulback advantage.

In order to haul back slings, I could also send down the tail of my climbline periodically with a limb.