Lanyard Innovations

bonner1040

Nick from Ohio
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Pics!! Lanyard Innovations

Does anyone out there have any innovative lanyard/buckstrap setups? I have never been satisfied with the DEDA deal with a prussik and a pulley, the idea of one of the snaps being able to "run" the prussik in the event of being weighted never appealed to me.

Always a fan of mechanical aids and and cams i really like the simplicity of a gibb-like adjuster on a lanyard. I used to use a home-made Petzl Grillion, basically a grigri and a length of old rope when i worked on the towers but it just doesnt cut it in the tree. I tend to use an alternate lanyard climbing technique alot in the tree and often like to switch from one lanyard to another interchangably with a climbing line. The idea of using two lanyards each with a mech adjustuster just doesnt appeal to me because of the clunkiness etc.

Currently I use a petzl shunt ( http://www.treestuff.com/news.asp?news_id=55 ) with about 12' of 11mm rope doubled through it and a snaphook on each end. With a blue and a red snaphook i know that the blue hook is the rope coming out of the top of the device as it is oriented to me in the tree and the red is the bottom one. it is really easy to tighten and loosen both under load and not. I like that one end can be lengthened or shortened without changing the other side, this does involve releasing the load but it is as simple as lifting your hips while standing on a branch or your hooks or whatnot. I attached the device to my right d ring with one of those nifty twisted shackle deals to get it to orient so the ropes exit the device perpendicular to my body standing up straight.

If both ends of the lanyard are pulled out all the way it causes the "belly" of the rope system which comes out the back of the shunt to get pulled in pretty tight to the device so i just hooked a quick link on there which gives me something to grab/loosen with and keeps the soft side of the rope away from the workings at the back of the device.

I saw an old thread about this somewhere once after i did some searching on my idea, maybe the buzz?, but the guy got blasted pretty good. Seems like he was using it more in a rec setting with over 30' of rope or something.

In any event, i have been using it for the last 3 months or so without any complications or worries and i like it alot and thought i would share it with you guys.

Let me know what you guys use or any thoughts you have!

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46 views and no replies? nobody thinks its a good/bad idea?

no one does anything different than a DEDA or a micrograb on single lanyard?
 
Mine is a very common style lanyard. I have a 25' static kernmantle rope with a steel snap on one end and a stopper knot on the other end. I use a Grigri as my adjuster and finally I have a mini prusik made with TechCord for use in SRT configurations. Works great for me
 
The shunt is not intended for that. I think its supposed to be below a rappell device as a brake hand back up....I would not trust it myself
 
On my 18' cable core.... Petzl macro adjuster as I use it more for pitchy pine work.
I also have a micro that I sometimes use on throw away 1/2 lanyards I make up from remnant of climbline.
I use a friction hitch (VT) on a 1/2 positioning lanyard with a micro pulley tender on my side D for pruning and some removals that are not going to get my rope all pitchy and I need some versatility for getting out to rigging points. 16 foot.
I use my climb line as my second lanyard ALT.
If I need a DEDA I can always change my friction hitch to a french prussic as I have a clip on each end. One end usually act as a stopper and easily clips (the tail) to one of my tool loops. I think I have used this once in 7 years.
There ya go :)
 
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The shunt is not intended for that. I think its supposed to be below a rappell device as a brake hand back up....I would not trust it myself

Its a pretty burly piece of hardware and the camming action is no different than most other devices.

Besides petzls own instructions show it as suitable life support as a self belay device for climbing with a fixed line. Which I realize is not the application I'm using it for bit IMO qualifies it as suitable.

And since there are snaps on both sides, aside from the entire device exploding I don't see Any obvious risks

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Currently I use a petzl shunt with about 12' of 11mm rope doubled through it and a snaphook on each end....In any event, i have been using it for the last 3 months or so without any complications or worries and i like it alot and thought i would share it with you guys.

Let me know what you guys use or any thoughts you have!

Well, thanks for sharing. I have always liked the idea behind the Shunt, mid-line attachable with non-toothed cams, but I have not been able to make it work with how I climb. You are certainly operating it out of spec but I can't see how it could catastrophically fail when used as you described.
Man, two 6 foot lanyards seem too short. I have used two 15 foot steel-cores for removals. My lanyard is 15 to 20 ft of 11 mm Velocity with a Trango cinch. The Trango allows it to be also used in an SRT configuration which makes it pretty versatile.
Good luck, and use what works for you but with caution knowing that how you are using it is beyond what it was designed for.

Dave
 
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Dave, the beauty is it can be a 4 and a 5 footer , or two 6 footers. Or a 12 foot... or any combination you like.

I kinda feel like the shunt could be built up into a cool device. If you smooth out the bottom add a lever to disengage under load like a grigri And a friction spur like a petzl pirahna or the way you wrap a unicender to descend, you could use it to replace a hitch in drt or srt setups... which you can do as is for ascending which would self tail and all but no possibility of controlling descent. Make sense?

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I dont see the need for a DEDA lanyard if your using a split tail system of some sort, which 95% of climbers do I think. (cept for butch). I use a single ended lanyard, with a captive eye biner on the termination end, currently running a vt variation tied out of ultra tech. For pitchy conifers I have a steel core with a microcender adjuster. Also single ended.

So for those of you who do use a double ended lanyard, whats your justification ? Do you REALLY use the 2nd end all that much? If you consider your climbing line and a single ended lanyard, that gives you 2 possible points of attachment, how often do you need a 3rd point of attachment?
 
I don't climb much any more but I'm in agreement with John (tophopper) here. I never used a double ended lanyard and managed to get by with just a standard 7' lanyard for 20+ years of climbing. For the rare occasion that my lanyard was too short, I could always clip a loop runner on the end to give me an extra bit of reach. I always managed to get where I was going.
 
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I use both sides of my lanyard all the time, I prefer a dee to dee connection I guess when I'm on my spikes and never really use my climbing line in that capacity. Ive only ever attached my climb line to my bridge... most of the time on spikes my climb line just hangs on an equipment loop for emergency or descending.



When I am on my climb line and a high TIP I sometimes use both sides to counter that "barn door" effect on leaning,twisting,bulging or otherwise strange positions, albeit rarely.

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most of the time on spikes my climb line just hangs on an equipment loop for emergency or descending.


Assuming your talking about working a spar?..........why not just clip it to a side D and use it as a lanyard? Then you dont need a double ender. Still gives you the D to D connection. What good does your rope do you hanging from an equipment loop?
 
Conifers are typically climbed straight up and down, just a pole with limbs. No limbwalking required so I can see how a climber in that environment can go years without using an overhead lifeline. But here in hurricane land the trees have lots of spread so limbwalking is a must. I've gone weeks at a time without ever using a lanyard because my weight is always on my lifeline.
 
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  • #18
I don't know... when i started my boss gave me an old DEDA and had me climbing ALT for small prunes and such. I guess I got used to two lanyards and never changed. Like I said I just never use my climb line dee to Dee. Maybe I should try it..the only downside I see thinking about it is extra clutter on my right side, rope adjuster aka hitchclimber and a vt and a lanyard adjuster.

I am inclined to like the one device on my hip that gives me two attachments and the rope as a separate entity that I only use on my bridge..

I'm not adverse to change though and I def do not know it all...

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...I kinda feel like the shunt could be built up into a cool device....

The Shunt already is a cool device when used as designed but what you are suggesting sounds like it would be better to take the concept to the drawing board. That is how new tools come about.

Dave
 
I don't know... when i started my boss gave me an old DEDA and had me climbing ALT for small prunes and such. I guess I got used to two lanyards and never changed. Like I said I just never use my climb line dee to Dee. Maybe I should try it..the only downside I see thinking about it is extra clutter on my right side, rope adjuster aka hitchclimber and a vt and a lanyard adjuster.

I am inclined to like the one device on my hip that gives me two attachments and the rope as a separate entity that I only use on my bridge..

I'm not adverse to change though and I def do not know it all...

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To me the extra clutter would be the 2nd end of the lanyard, I already have a climbing line all rigged up, might as well utilize it.

There isnt a RIGHT answer, you use what your comfortable with.

Personally I like and use short lanyards ( 8, 10 ft max.), anything longer and I find myself getting tangled up in it too often. Tried a DEDA once and found it to be cumbersome for my style. I also SRT quite often on my lanyard so it is often used from the front bridge vs. the side Ds
 
And I don't see the sense in short ones.

DEDA never worked for me...I'd always end up with 12 feet in play on one side of the adjuster and nothing to work with on the other...stupid idea imo.
 
Oh, they must work for some people, Stephen...otherwise the idea wouldn't have legs. But I sure don't get it...not with my style anyway.
 
Mine either. The one tree I ever used it on I just did not really need a climb line in that small of tree doing it ALT free climbing most the time. I could have jumped out the tree. It was mostly for safety only while cutting. Like I said.. once in 7 years I found a place for it.
 
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