Speed Ascent Setups

WaitakKauri

WaitakKauri

Branched out member
Location
NZ
Thread inspired by @SomethingWitty

What's working or not for the speed ascent? What are people setups?


I was competing last week and saw the speed ascent for the first time.

Here's my thoughts and learnings.

Lots of interesting configurations.
The fastest are all mechanical.

Most are using a hand ascender at the top of their system with tether as a backup. Backup gives another point.

Skipping the ascent bit, you need fast setup and fast descent ready times.

For setup the fastest by far, is hand ascender at the top, mechanical (chest ascender, Taz), then foot and knee ascenders and a chest (smaller & better) or hand ascender with weight. Seemed slower setup for foot loop off hand ascender.

The Taz is fastest on and equal to a RW for descent.

Lots of guys sharing Tazs. Sharing doesn't mean you'll be fastest, you still need practice getting the Taz on and dialing in your whole setup. I saw biners duct taped to keep position.

I nailed 5 sec for descent and I know another going about 4.8, no idea what the fastest was, but I was really happy with that and getting knee and foot ascenders off and hit the bell again.

Not sure what the fastest setup was, but it must've been around 12-15 seconds including the walk to the rope. I was happy with 33s.

I need more weight, only had 22oz from 2 throwbags. I'd try more weight (say 2Kg or 4lbs) next time. I should've practiced more start offs of the accent bit.
 
I saw BJ Brock at southern this year walk up to parallel stationary lines, clip in a double hand ascender with another line clipped to it equipped with a RW setup. He footlocked the lines and got to just slap the bell twice in rapid succession.
Casey (afraid I can't remember his last name. He got first in masters) had a fid threaded through a pretied hitch and wrench that had a Chinese finger trap style end on it that he shoved the end of a single line into and just slid it up real quick.
The taz seems fast, but I am pretty sure there were a few guys under 10 seconds on setup at southern.
My ascent is not that fast. I need everything I can get.
Thanks for the thread. I guess most of the discussion has been on that giant social media thing.
 
SomethingWitty said:
I saw BJ Brock at southern this year walk up to parallel stationary lines, clip in a double hand ascender with another line clipped to it equipped with a RW setup. He footlocked the lines and got to just slap the bell twice in rapid succession.
Casey (afraid I can't remember his last name. He got first in masters) had a fid threaded through a pretied hitch and wrench that had a Chinese finger trap style end on it that he shoved the end of a single line into and just slid it up real quick.
The taz seems fast, but I am pretty sure there were a few guys under 10 seconds on setup at southern.
My ascent is not that fast. I need everything I can get.
Thanks for the thread. I guess most of the discussion has been on that giant social media thing.
Click to expand...

The double rope with a second system sounds really interesting.

I did RW with finger trap, but I couldn't get it through the RW with rope installed. I'll post a pic later.
 
I went for the RW with pull through.

I couldn't find a splicing finger trap so I went with a cable pulling one. The big downside was it's construction with crimped ends. I will try soldering the ends and if that works that would allow me to pull through the RW.

[Photo credit to Treetools.co.nz]
45060138612_05ac77037a_o.webp
 
Last edited:
Levi.CO said:
how is a fid used in this event?
Click to expand...
The end of the line is fed into the fid, which is then pulled through the climb system which is pre tied like in the pic above.

You can see the bottom of my wire 'fid' below my pulley with rockO biner on it. I grab that to pull it through.
 
Last edited:
Brocky said:
You can make a soft finger trap fid out of dyneema chafe sleeve. It is lock brummelled to a short piece of 3 or 4mm dyneema 12 strand for easier threading. It also works great for splicing.
View attachment 54348
Click to expand...
I tried some stuff including braided cover, but not this cover. It worked, but was difficult to feed into and then slipped on me too much. I'll have to revisit this.
 
WaitakKauri said:
The end of the line is fed into the fid, which is then pulled through the climb system which is pre tied like in the pic above.

You can see the bottom of my wire 'fid' below my pulley with rockO biner on it. I grab that to pull it through.
Click to expand...
Thanks. Seems like all mechanical would be the way to go. or do people win with the wrench setup?
 
Levi.CO said:
Thanks. Seems like all mechanical would be the way to go. or do people win with the wrench setup?
Click to expand...

For me it was about cost.

Online I've seen the RW with fid timed as fast as the Taz - about 10 seconds. I think this is a reasonable representation of a comp.

Those who practice will be fastest.

Both would be the same for descen
 
I use the taz, saka and footascender. i Thin ill never will get it under 10 seconds. Last time i used 2x2,5kg dumbbell weights for my line. It helpd but i dont know how much. Ill try to figure out a way to get the two points for the back up as well. I think ill go with a microtraxion...
 
SomethingWitty said:
I saw BJ Brock at southern this year walk up to parallel stationary lines, clip in a double hand ascender with another line clipped to it equipped with a RW setup. ...[snip]
Click to expand...

I've been looking into this. I'm not sure this is a valid use of a double hand ascender. Most have 1m max tether. I get that the tether is to prevent shock loading. A non-shock load from descending is different.

I wonder if there been any more feedback at comps. I haven't watched the whole 2017 itcc tech video and I'm wondering what that said about this. Anyone?
 
Here's a video of the Taz in action, maybe 14 minutes long. I had no sound in the video, but that might just have been my own computer issues. Or deliberate on their part to make it useful to the whole world, just by watching it. Although the captions are in English. It seems like a really well thought out device. I'd love to hear something on this forum from someone who owns one.

 
@TimBr
It creates friction with a bend inside the device rather than a moving cam. The release action is using leverage to rotate the entire device on the pivot of the carabinier so that the channel that the rope is in has less friction. Kind of genius.


WaitakKauri said:
I've been looking into this. I'm not sure this is a valid use of a double hand ascender. Most have 1m max tether. I get that the tether is to prevent shock loading. A non-shock load from descending is different.

I wonder if there been any more feedback at comps. I haven't watched the whole 2017 itcc tech video and I'm wondering what that said about this. Anyone?
Click to expand...
I don't know, but I would like to be able to run it. I have a month to figure something out, and hopefully something as fast as the taz.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

New threads New posts

Kask Stihl NORTHEASTERN Arborists Wesspur TreeStuff.com Teufelberger Westminster X-Rigging Teufelberger
Back
Top Bottom