SRT techniques for beginners

[CurSedVoyce]

End of day if I'm tired. If I have target limbs way up and nothing inbetween. More of late due to my knee injury.
If I over do the rope climbing, my knee does not work real well the next day or even the rest of the week.
SRT is still the most efficient way to prune a tree IMO.

 

[cory]

Thx for the info.

re the knee, dollars to donuts, Kneesovertoesguy on YT would square you away. Simple exercises you can do most anywhere including in the woods or your bedroom. As I've mentioned too many times before, I"ve had a bad knee since my mid to late twenties (cartilage issues, which btw can be harder to rectify than ligament issues, afaik). If I hadda put a number on it, I'd say my knee is 70% better than pre KOT. Works as well for the elderly (me) as young people. Down to earth guy.

This is his most recent vid, from today

 

[CurSedVoyce]

For the record. I do not like to depend a lot on the Wraptor.
I feel SRT rope walking and tree climbing is somewhat therapudic to my injury as I would just need to do PT anyway.
I need to keep in shape at my age as well.
Grateful I have the Wraptor to help extend my tree days and keep me from going bankrupt due to health or injury.

 

[SeanKroll]

@Ryan

My floating ascender is a cut down handled Petzl ascender.

 

[SeanKroll]

 

[Ryan]

It's like you knew I was WTF is a floating ascender. Thanks for the explanation and closeups.

 

[Eric H-L]

Nice job cutting it! I thought it was a chest ascender for a minute.

 

[SeanKroll]

Nice job cutting it! I thought it was a chest ascender for a minute.

It's aluminum. A hacksaw or angle grinder and hand file. Ezpz.

 

[Ryan]

I added an adjustable foot loop to the ascender and a biner for a handle, prussicked a quickie to the bottom of the tether and went over the shoulder with my lanyard. Cleared some branches and developed some rhythm before I recorded the last run. Tons of fun! Thanks, once more for everyone's help.

 

[cory]

The House, at work

 

[lxskllr]

Nice!

 

[CurSedVoyce]

I forgot to mention. I think it was either Old Monkey, Darin, or Deva that used a dowel through the hole above the cam of a single handled ascender to be able to use both hands at the GTG
Well done BTW.
It really becomes like riding a bicycle at a certain point.

 

[SeanKroll]

What does the dowel do?

 

[Kaveman]

Makes a handlebar.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

^ this

 

[stig]

Burnham , helpfully, turned me on to his modified Tree Frog and that was what we trained on and used on out trip to the Sequoias/Redwoods in 2009.
Also on our trips in 2011 and 2014.
If ever there comes a next time, it will be on the Akimbo/Haas combination.
So much smoother and ergononically better on those long ascents.
The SRT world has just changed so much since 2009.

Also, last time there we found out that SRT, with the ascent line choked off on a branch, is soooo much better than DRT on the, sometimes, very drooping branches of those trees.
When one is doing DRT through the canopy, one constantly has to change rope, because the one used is sliding towards the end of the branch, which is not a fine thing, 250 feet above the ground.

SRT took care of that.

 

[Knotorious]

As for double fisting a hand ascender designed for one hand, the dowel idea is very clever. Another option would be to splice or sew an eye (it's not life support, so you can hand stich the eyes yourself) onto either end of a very small length of 10mm (thicker is more comfortable in one's hand) hitch cord. Then connect a small DMM Perfect O into the hole at the top of the hand ascender and then clip both eyes to it. The loop should probably be just big enough to easily fit one's hand/wrist (depending on how you grab the loop) through it. But yeah, voila! You now have the option to use two hands to ascend using your hand ascender and, unlike the dowel method, it is a) oriented the same way a double hand ascender from a store and b) unlike the dowel, this small loop has less of a chance of getting caught on anything or impeding motion than a solid wooden dowel.

You could also just make a loop using a double fisherman's bend and then girth hitch one end of the loop to the Perfect O carabiner, which will prevent that knot from getting in the way if you place it so it's off to the side. That way it won't move. And of course, it's completely and easily removable via removing the 'biner, which can then quickly get stored on your harness, adding little to no additional weight. Storing a wooden dowel sounds tricky unless you maybe tape or staple a little paracord loop to one end of it to clip on your gear hooks or wherever else. You could also use webbing instead of a hitch cord and if you have a sewing machine, you could make a proper double thickness hand loop with a tiny little second loop to allow quick connection to a carabiner.

Just some thoughts.

 

[lxskllr]

I've never used a hand ascender, and I was thinking of ways to rig something cheap. A Bachman hitch and a piece of wood would do it I think. I might try it some time if I'm bored, but probably not. I don't see where a hand ascender would really fit into my system.

 

[SeanKroll]

I prefer two hands free on the rope, holding myself upright and close to the rope, without pulling down. All leg-powered propulsion.

Hands reach up independently, synced with one footlifting, while the other foot is pressing down.

 

[lxskllr]

Yea, my hands are mainly for balance and spacial reference. I do pull with my hands/arms, but I need to get out of that habit. It fatigues my hands and only provides a trivial assist to propulsion.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

Once you move to a knee ascender and have conditioned your body to the necessary strength to hold your self upright, just hand over hand on the rope in front of you, the hand ascender is just not necessary.
Unless you have issues with your hands of course. A double handed ascender can be an aid for your grip if needed and well worth the money spent.
As far as the dowel not being in proper orientation, the ascender is turned to be in the proper orientaion, like they are now handle bars Knotty. The handle of the ascender is not being used by the hands.
I passed my CMI double to my son for him to learn and progress on. He does not climb enough to build the strength and grip to just hold himself upright with his hands and arms on the rope. He has the knee ascender now. But still relys on the handles.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

A lot of little tips like these are really just temp solutions till you just dial in what works for you.
Wasn't it Jaime (Akimbo inventor) the one that made wrist straps for his ascenders using old pantins or petzl chest ascenders. I can't remember.

 

[Kaveman]

I don't own a knee or hand ascender anymore, someone liked it more than me I guess. I've got a notch jet step and I love it.

Most of my climbing is on spurs and flipline, when I'm playing with SRT, it's deadwooding smaller pines. My method is throwline-swear-word-game, choke climbline off as high and solid as possible, pick a foot and add the jetstep, one leg squats my weight up, the other spaces me from the trunk. It's not elegant, but it's for my applications, it's actually very efficient. Obviously I switch the leg doing the work to spread fatigue. Sometimes, when I'm on the umpteenth trip up for the day, I'll set my dan house rope saver, clip the Unicender for DRT and use the slight mechanical advantage to ease up some. But to be fair I don't climb much, except rec stuff right now, life circumstances and all...

Always take my input with a bit of salt, my kit and my methodologies are tailored to where and what I climb, as is true for most. However, the variety of species in my local area is fairly slim, it being the largest contiguous stand of Ponderosa in the world. This affects the gear I have, and what I most commonly use, as well as how I use it.

 

[Knotorious]

As far as the dowel not being in proper orientation, the ascender is turned to be in the proper orientaion, like they are now handle bars Knotty. The handle of the ascender is not being used by the hands.

Gotcha. I was mostly referring to the orientation of the hand ascender, but considering how the dowel places your hands in the same position as a double hand ascender, it's pretty much the same thing. The only difference between what I suggested and the dowel concept would be how you hold onto the ascender, I suppose. Even so, that's hardly a seriously important difference worth making note of...which is why we're going to pretend that I didn't just make note of it haha

 

[Ryan]

A floating ascender is the next component on my list. Rope walking with hands on the rope looks pretty slick and more natural. My hip is kinda spongey today.