my SRT rig

[Widow Shooter]

To help make it easier for my lower ab to heal, i decided to invest in a few SRT toys.

footlocking is faster, cheaper, but until it heals up completely, I'm not risking hurting it again...a lower ab injury SUCKS while trying to climb.

'specially if you are on hooks and it kicks out?? everything tightens up and hurts like a bitch!

so I got a new Petzl ascension, a Petzl croll, already had a CMI foot ascender, have tons of web slings and biners; so i was off to the races!

Thanks go to moss from canopy chatter, the pro-est rec-climber out there he gave the quick and dirty on the rig.

today did 5 long ascents, switched over to a f-8 while hanging and lowered myself.



99% of the time, i will be using it to ascend to my working TIP, then switching over to DdRT and my hitchclimber rig.

It is pretty cool once you get going, and little exertion , compared to thrusting up.

I rigged my porty, hard-locked off, with a steel biner and schwabish as a back-up on my line.

This way if for some reason the wraps came loose, the hitch would still hold.

Time to order either some KMI III or cool looking SNAKEBITE! any preferences?

 

[Blinky]

Snakebite looks super cool but it's not good for working, it disappears in the tree and it's hard toi tell where it is and what crotch it's over. Binos help but it's still a pain in the ass. Get Sterling HTP in red or THIS STUFF in yellow... I think it's made by New England ropes.

"invest in a few SRT toys"... INVEST? Get real. You're a gear weenie.

 

[Widow Shooter]

thanks Chip, your always a peach...

 

[Blinky]

You're welcome. You know me... give, give, give... that's all I ever do!

 

[stig]

Footlocking is FASTER than SRT?????

Maybe if you are an athlete, but not if you are an old geezer like me.

If that damned ocean wasn't in the way. I'd love to race you in a tall tree.
SRT is very fast if you have tuned your system and trained in using it.

 

[Widow Shooter]

I am not a fan of the croll! It is dedicated to "up" only! You better make sure you have your "binos" and check for stinging insects before you ascend! There my work is done here.

I'm only going up...

got you message, will call later, got to go get some suds, fridge is dry man

 

[stig]

The Croll is easy to pop open if you need to go down fast.
All it takes is a little practise, like changing from SRT over to a figure8.
If you want to be able to bail out, put a small pulley under the ascender,and run your normal climbline over that.
Then all you need do is to stand up in the pantin, pop out of the croll, kick out of the pantin and zip down your line.

 

[Blinky]

I give you that well tuned SRT is faster over 50' but under? You've got yourself a race.

FL is considerably faster because it takes 30 seconds or less to setup and 20 to disengage and stow. It's faster because it's simpler. I've never seen anybody setup amSRT ascent in less than a couple of minutes and then you have all that gear once you're in the tree.

Truth is, it doesn't matter which one is faster because both are fast enough. The time arborists spend on access is usually trivial in comparison to total time on the tree. If you have trashed knees or something, SRT is the way to go, if you can't stand to walk uphill or climb anything slowly, footlocking will get better results. The way I see it, people with long endurance and predominantly slow twitch muscle fiber will move toward SRT ascent and jackrabbits with mostly explosive muscle tissue will do better footlocking.

..but Cary is using this injury thing to justify his gear weenie-ness. I footlocked in the Geezers comp exactly 30 days after the maple took me down and ripped my left MCL in the bargain.

 

[wiley_p]

The way he has anchored his line allows a worker on the ground to lower the climber safely at any point during the ascent. All canopy access lines should be rigged in similar fashion. One can use a variety of belay tools at the anchor, 8, Gri-Gri, Id', Cinch, Porty, etc.

 

[Blinky]

All canopy access lines should be rigged in similar fashion.

Needs to be a long line too or you need a rope grab (that releases under pressure) above the porty so the groundie can patch in more rope when the access line is almost played out.

 

[Widow Shooter]

how is beer bad for a belly injury??

And Chip, I feel for ya with the MCL, but until you tear a lower rectus abdominus?? man you don't know pain and burning, like some poked a firestick in there everytime you lift you legs up

I agree though, i can go 50 feet a lot faster footlocking than srt.

And i don't justify my GWness... I don't have to, it is what is is brotha'

 

[Widow Shooter]

The way he has anchored his line allows a worker on the ground to lower the climber safely at any point during the ascent. All canopy access lines should be rigged in similar fashion. One can use a variety of belay tools at the anchor, 8, Gri-Gri, Id', Cinch, Porty, etc.

Thanks man I thought it was pretty cool too, I'm gonna get a mini- porty for that usage, and a dedicated loopie, plus i can use it in-tree for top-rigging

 

[Widow Shooter]

Yup, that would work Stig. When Cary and I spoke the other day, he was havin' issue doing just that though. I use the Unicender (the full priced one), it is a great sudstitute for the croll.

A guy by the name of Ron over at TB, came up with a poors man's decender for SRT. By using 2 friction cords, he figured he could repell. After some though, even old Tom D, felt a bit sheepish for not thinking of the idea!!! LMAO

Got it worked out now though man, I can switch over to a f-8 real fast and be off the srt and coming down

 

[SouthSoundTree]

Found a ground nest of bees this morning after dropping a spar. Only got hit once, on the scalp. Luckily, only once. Pulled several bees off.

Makes me re-look at ordering the Unicender after getting a few jobs paid. I usually use a GriGri, as I already had it from rock climbing. The plastic lever mechanism is now broken, so much harder to close the metal cam by hand without the plastic lever, with the rope weight working against releasing the cam, plus a little pitch. I think that people too often overlook the what ifs that we Will encounter throughout a career.

Another scenario is if a tie-in point starts to crack under the strain of climbing and working (yes I know, it shouldn't...but what if), an in-place descender is really important.

 

[rangerdanger]

Nice Set-up dude. Nice and simple. That will really help on any LONG ascents.

I'll also agree that foot locking is quicker and easier for ascents under 50' or so. Even with my rest stops every now and then on the way up, I can still make it to the top faster I think than with SRT, because of all the gear involved with SRT, and setting everything up.

 

[Peter]

Taking into account set up time, footlocking is faster than srt on short (less than 40 feet) ascents.

Anything higher and srt starts to come into its own.

 

[treesandsurf]

But footlocking is soooo cool.

jp

 

[winch]

Too gear-intensive for me, and I am a huge SRT fan. Kudos for keeping the climbing/rigging gear in separate containers, though.

Instead of the portawrap, sling, and friction hitch, all I do is two wraps around the tree with the end of my 200' HTP red (i recommend this highly for single-line action) and tie a knot. The two wraps hold enough friction that the knot never tightens up, and your groundy can lower you just by untying and belaying you. Like Blinky said, if your line isn't long enough, as mine wasn't yesterday, add another climbing line. The knot won't have any problem going around the tree, like it could on a portawrap.

Even better is having two climbing lines with eye-splices and a carabiner in between - I ordered my HTP red with one splice, and that comes in really handy for sending gear, and the lengthening of the line on those 100'+ trees.

Another bonus you'll find with SRT is after you ascend the tree, switch to double rope (or not) and have your groundies haul up all the heavy stuff up on your line - you can take a rest.

 

[Peter]

Dont forget you can also isolate the TIP by choking the SRT line to the TIP with an alpine butterfly. Useful in situations where you dont want to double the load on the TIP, as you do with a conventional SRT setup.

 

[Blinky]

Sterling HTP can be eye spliced? Cool! I assumed since it was kernmantle it couldn't be spliced.

 

[winch]

htp splice

The splice is one of those grizzly's. It hasn't slipped yet, since I use it sparingly. Had the option for two-ended splices, but that was getting $ and I couldn't see how I could use both of them.

 

[bstewert]

HTP yellow shows up well in a tree, and stands up pretty good on the table, too.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

That there is some stiff stuff ...
Once you get that set up dialed in Cary... You will just bee bop on up the rope. I usually just set my line and switch right over to Ddrt at TIP just as you mentioned. Either preset my R2R FS or take one with me. Just as easy to take one with me.

 

[stig]

The method I mentioned in post#9 works really good if you are only going up into the tree to do something simple: prune off a single branch, set pullrope or grab a seedsample.
That way you SRT up and don't have to change over to anything, just use your ascender as the tie-in point.
When done, rappel out the usual way and lower the whole set-up via the SRT line.

I use a prussic cord above the acsender as a backup, I don't like to trust my life to a single ascender.

 

[Widow Shooter]

I was thinking about that Stig....there is a point while switching that you are hanging off 1 ascender, but when you climb DdRT, you are always on 1 hitch while moving anyways.

6 one, half dozen the other but I think a hitch above the ascender is a good idea for peace of mind.