Help with emergency decent during srt ascent

[Shanexv]

I'm sure this has already been addressed about a million times, but I'm having no luck finding anything about it.

I ascend srt to access the canopy, and switch to drt to work.

I have a 1/2" arbormaster and a 7/16" blaze climbing line.

I can srt ascend with the 7/16" blaze using a grigri, a left hand ascender above with a foot loop on the bottom carabiner hole, and a micro pulley with the tail running through in the top carabiner hole. I stand in the foot loop, then advance the line through the grigri with my right hand.

Using the grigri makes an emergency decent easily possible by removing the handled ascender, but the grigri doesn't work on 1/2", causing my problem.

With the 1/2" line I use a distel hitch with 4 wraps, a micropulley underneath as my main attachment, place the left hand ascender above with the same foot loop and put my left foot in, and a pantin on my right foot. This method works the best for me speed-wise, but I'm having problems with the "emergency decent."

To lower myself with the hitch I have to pretty much lift myself up the rope and work the hitch down, after about 15 feet it seizes so tight it's impossible to move.

I'm looking for a cheap solution to ease the decent in my 1/2" setup, or a method of switching over the the 8 while hanging, without having to fork out the cash for a wrench when I'll barely use it!

 

[bonner1040]

You could get a Petzl Rig, or ID... but they arent cheap.

 

[PCTREE]

To keep the hitch from locking up you need to relieve the load on it. I assume as you mentioned the 8 that you already have one. If you rearranged your system so your hitch is further above you you could play with installing the 8 below the hitch and connect it to your harness which should be quick and easy to do since the line will be slack. Then when you release the hitch the majority of the load will be on the 8 hence the hitch should work fine. Never tried this but seems it should work....

 

[CurSedVoyce]

Clip the 8 to your leg loop. A reverse of something Burnam showed me. But in an emergency, all you have to do is rig the eight as your weight is above it, then one hand your prussic. The 8 will add the friction needed to keep the prussic from setting too hard. Almost like an F8 system but upside down with out a tether. I'll see if I can get a pic today.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

Ahhhhh Pete beat me to the post .....

 

[Shanexv]

@PCTree: Yes I have an 8, I figured if I mentioned what other gear I had it would help. I like to go rapelling from the bluffs around here and bought an 8 for a simple and light decender to carry through the woods. I thought of this method earlier while I was trying to build my system, with no luck...I will try raising the hitch like you said and see how that works, it sounds like a great idea.

@CurSedVoyce: That's totally confused the heck out of me but it sounds very interesting, and I'd love to give it a go, if I could see a picture of the setup, never hurts to have new ideas, and seeing how I am new to this scene I want to learn as much as possible.

Thanks for the input guys and sorry I don't know anyone's names yet.

 

[kevin bingham]

fate revolver or Kong Robot

 

[CurSedVoyce]

It's kinda hot outside and I am on standby for the solar eclipse in a few with my boys, so I'll post this. Now all you have to do is put the Fig eight and biner on the leg loop instead of the prussic shown in this pic. Then put the prussic where you would normally have it at your bridge where I have the rack in this pic. Basically reverse of the pic with a fig 8 instead of the rack. I use this method when I choke my safety/climb line if I am just gaffing back down the stem throwing off little chunks. In case of an Emergency, rappel out. Of course you leave the line on the spar, but hey, it's an emergency, who gives a rats whazoo. After the eclipse, If you still need me to, I will set up a pic. This will also work for emergency decent during an SRT ascent. Basically the same thing PCTree was saying. Fig 8 below the hitch.

 

[MasterBlaster]

The eclipse is around 6:30, your time.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

Just started

 

[MasterBlaster]

Don't go blind! The last time I viewed one, I rented a welder's faceshield.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

We are viewing it through some old MRIs I have, like viewing it through a negative or welding glasses. If you double them, all you see is the white disk being encroached by the moon. One disk sliding over the other.

 

[treesmith]

I just looked outside and it's completely dark. Must be a heckuva eclipse!

 

[CurSedVoyce]

It is almost 6:30 now and my room is almost dark.

 

[MasterBlaster]

The sky is falling!!!

 

[Shanexv]

Yeah the figure 8 below the hitch works great, I tried something like that before getting on here but couldn't get it functioning right.
Once I slack up the hitch, it's pretty much all on the 8, I can let go of the hitch and stop, rapelling with an 8 but having a secure brake is nice. Beats the hell out of tying the 8 off everytime you stop. It isn't a very fast transition but I bet it can be done hella quick if you are in the kind of situation where you would need to turn around.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

Pretty easy to have the 8 right there on the leg loop. Then all you do is slip a bight through it and clip it in the biner. Bam, done.

 

[sotc]

For that matter you could clip your leg biner to the large eye of the 8, then there is no need to remove the 8 from the biner, just tuck a bight through the big eye also and slip it over the small eye, wah-lah, ready to decend

 

[SouthSoundTree]

without having to fork out the cash for a wrench when I'll barely use it!

Buy a wrench, or make one out of wood, and work SRT, save time and effort, and make the money that pays for the wrench quickly.

P.S., buy the slic-pin from TreeStuff to make it midline attachable.

P.S.S Thank Kevin for the Rope Wrench.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

Good idea Willie...
Secret weapon also comes to mind ........ Ascend with your Ddrt all set up on your SRT line and work off that.

http://www.treestuff.com/store/catalog.asp?item=1712

 

[Shanexv]

that's crazy, I had heard of the secret weapon before but had never looked into it. A false crotch to hang from your srt line..that's cool and all, but is a little too much for my application. The tallest climb you can get around here is near 80 feet. There's a few older trees that may be somewhat taller but rarely does anyone get to work in them.
I usually climb to as high as I can set my rope from the ground, untie and keep going when I get there, then switching to drt. I don't have to deal with having a pull line set on a bowline to retrieve my tie in, nor do I have to risk putting twice my weight on my tie off or anything smashing a trunk tie off.
I've used a peice of rope to lengthen the hitch distance from my d rings, and leaving a figure 8 on the rings like sotc mentioned. works great, quick and you don't have to risk dropping anything during the transition

 

[CurSedVoyce]

There ya go

 

[Shanexv]

Thanks for the input guys, I'm somewhat new to all of this, trying to get my systems figured out. Reading around this place has taught me alot of valuable info

 

[SouthSoundTree]

Don't underestimate the power of the SRT work system, young jedi.
Check out the Hitch Hiker thread started by PCTree.

While you may have to learn some new tricks, there are some really good advantages with SRT, whether at 20', 80', 150'...

I sorta dread climbing DdRT anymore, but that me. I actully did climb a screwy/ previously topped storm damage alder tree the other day, DdRT. First time climbing DdRT out of at least 10 or 20 climbing days.

Double TIP force on a bomber tie-in may not really matter that much. I'm 195 without gear. I just bounce test my TIPs, after a good visual check, either by my self, or also with my groundman. Been no problem.




Shane, feel free to tell us about yourself, your work, where you work/ self-employed, etc. Good group here, and a lot of cumulative knowledge. I don't know of any other members from Arkansas. What types of trees do you have there?---and feel free to share some pictures.

 

[bonner1040]

Welcome Shane!

I have a question for all you SRTers...

Often times I find myself in the tree doing whatever, and looking up at my TIP. Then for whatever reason I need to go up, 5' ,10' whatever, and I body thrust. I get how SRT ascent, which I am familiar with, is way more efficient; but it requires foot ascenders or foot loops and hand ascenders/prussicks etc to move up. What I dont get is how you move up that 3-5 feet or 8 feet that you need to when there isnt any tree to climb without going into full ascent mode.

Much less all the times I incrementally move up 1-2' just in simple routine positioning. How does this work in SRT?