SRT near miss

emr

emr

Cheesehead Treehouser
Joined
Nov 5, 2006
Messages
2,193
Location
Neenah, Wisconsin
Today I was climbing a maple with a hand ascender, rope wrench, and Pantin. I had a straight up ascent in mid air to about 40ft. I got to about 30ft when my glove got stuck in the cam of the ascender and slid down. In the process it jammed down onto the wrench which made my hitch slide down. The only thing that prevented me from going to the ground was my Pantin. I know it was my fault for placing my hand in the wrong spot on my ascender. I'm not sure I'm going to use this setup any more. It kind of scared the poop out of me. A HAAS probably would have been nice to have in my system so it would have jammed the hitch sooner.

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Whoa! That's why I ditched the wrench for the HH. I still use the RW often, but when using SRT and ascending in mid air, I have had some strange things make me double think my kit. In the end, it is all about checking your kit all the time you re using it. Glad all you had was a shitty run.
 
Glad you're OK!

I've been thinking about adding a hand ascender to my SRT setup but maybe I won't... I'm just using RW, Distel hitch, and a CMI Foot ascender, on some Samson Velocity.

This might be stupid, I haven't tried this, but would it be safer to put your hand ascender under your hitch with that setup?
 
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  • #4
I think the same thing would have happened without the wrench or with the HH. I think the ascender would have released the hitch regardless. I have always heard you need to be super careful with any ascender above a hitch.

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  • #7
Petzl ascension and yes I had a foot loop.

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  • #10
802climber said:
This might be stupid, I haven't tried this, but would it be safer to put your hand ascender under your hitch with that setup?
Click to expand...
This would take some tweaking but might be possible. It wouldn't be real efficient I think.


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I know it seems redundant, and would really only apply to this scenario (obstruction in the hand ascender cam), but couldn't you clip a backup ascender into the rope side hole of your handheld? Like a rope-grab, or one of those tiny Petzl ones that Wesspur sells? Maybe clip it in with those 9" dyneema loops. . . attached to the climb line that would jam the handheld if it were to fail to engage for some reason.
 
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  • #12
I think that would work fine, however it would take too long to set up to be worth the hassle.

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Thank you very much for sharing this and I'm glad to hear it was only an "educational" experience and you walked away ok.

I've always felt a little bit uneasy about hand ascenders and have got my climbing system set up now so that I don't use them at all any more (HAAS!). However, I don't think I'd ever considered this particular scenario where a hand ascender that wasn't even being used for life support suddenly causes a major climbing system failure. Something to learn from here.
 
SO did you end up standing on the panting or were you inverted with your foot above your head??

Yes if an ascender came down on top of a HH it would release also.

So many ways to get F ed up in our business, cudos to you for bringing it to attention, could save somebodies life.
 
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  • #15
I was never upside down. My leg was just bent way up when the Pantin caught. I just had to stand up on it to reset my hitch. The ascender was kind of tangled in the wrench. It took some fidgeting to undo it.... Plus the finger of my glove was caught in the cam still. It was just a messed up situation.

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So this thread has got me thinking. Who ties a slip knot every so often in their climb line as they get higher?
 
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  • #17
Paul, do you recommend against using ascenders with the HH? I don't remember seeing anything in the instructions that came with the one being passed around from Treestuff. I don't recall anything being said with the wrench either.

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emr said:
I think that would work fine, however it would take too long to set up to be worth the hassle.

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Click to expand...
I use this item; quick on and off with a quick-release pin that's attached with a cable so you can't lose it. I trust it with my life. I use a slim dyneema loop runner clipped into a biner attached to the ascender, and then to both side "D's". It pushes up the rope easily, and helps hold me in a vertical orientation. One more option available when I'm up in a tree.
http://www.treestuff.com/store/catalog.asp?item=144
 
emr said:
Paul, do you recommend against using ascenders with the HH? I don't remember seeing anything in the instructions that came with the one being passed around from Treestuff. I don't recall anything being said with the wrench either.
Click to expand...

To be honest with you, no. I have never considered this eventuality, however I have never used one as I always ride a Wraptor. This is one of those things that falls under the category of "shit happens" IMO. If a hanger became dislodged and fell and a crotch followed your rope down and hit your hitch the same would happen be it a HH, a taught line or a wrench probably a Uni too (not 100% on that as I don't use it). This is what makes being an equipment manufacturer so stressful, you cannot begin to imagine all the ways stuff can go awry but get sued when they do. You are so lucky your foot ascender didn't twist off of your rope!!

There are plenty of ways to add a redundancy to your system that would have precluded this but it would be one more piece of gear and one more step to take for every ascent, bottom line you wouldn't do it!! (or I wouldn't).

We can all take what we want from this but one might be don't let your glove get in the cam8) Not trying to be a dick but this is the cause of the fall so how can we prevent that??
 
By using a twohandled ascender, so one doesn't get tempted to wrap one hand around it, I think.
I use the CSI Expedition for that exact reason.
Always had a hard time figuring out where to put my free hand with the ascension.
 
I wonder if the sharp teeth on the petzl had anything to do with snagging the glove vs other ascenders that are a little less aggressive
 
stig said:
By using a twohandled ascender, so one doesn't get tempted to wrap one hand around it, I think.
I use the CSI Expedition for that exact reason.
Always had a hard time figuring out where to put my free hand with the ascension.
Click to expand...

Love mine.... Maybe a biner in the little hole above the cam would have gone a long way... Locking it so to speak.
 
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