New HitchHikerXF

received the hhxf in the mail today. First impression was that its very refined and light weight compared to the hh2. Feels very nice in the hands. The slic pin has an interesting way of being disengaged from the main body slot nearest the slic pin head (right side of device). The twist motion will disengage/depress the spring pins allowing you to pull the pin out. Its very smooth. Pin is bigger than I was expecting but that's a good thing. Richard had the friction cord already tied to a short bit of rope and knot blocked with the stevedore on the dog bone. I thought that was a nice touch to show the user the intended ideal setup right out of the box. Looking forward to using it. Feels and looks legit. Proof will be in the pudding so to speak though. More on that later.
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Perfect time for an update. I don't production climb very often anymore but I finally got to spend some real time on it. Climbed for about 4-5 hours this weekend working a mulberry removal in MRS. It actually was very nice. I put the swing arm through a small ring on my bridge and it was perfectly compact. I did reduce the number of wraps on the catalan hitch to 5 rather than the recommended 6.
 
Rico,
Thanks for the pics of your setup - they are food for thought.

I have been climbing with my hhxf almost exclusively and just ordered a second one. I have defaulted to the hhxf even when doing short MRS climbs.

My question for the thread:
Is anyone running two hhxf's simultaneously? If so - how do you manage the two systems?

I currently run the hhxf on the stock treemotion aluminum ring. However I just ordered a rock exotica rotator round swivel (large) with the intention of finding a better way to climb on two systems.

If anyone has insight about what works for them I'm all ears. One on my concerns is preventing accidental cross-loading with both hhxf's (or a single hhxf and a hitchclimber setup) sharing the swivel/bridge.

Cheers
 
lookingup said:
... I currently run the hhxf on the stock treemotion aluminum ring. However I just ordered a rock exotica rotator round swivel (large) with the intention of finding a better way to climb on two systems...
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The RE swivel will do better than a ring at keeping things aligned but I find that the 3 ring Camp Gyro swivel works far better.

Old picture, sorry.
 

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I have also started using a Camp Gyro 3 based on @DSMc 's posts on the subject. It maintains alignment of multiple systems better than anything else I have tried. Also, when you're using just one system the 3rd hole is great for attaching a knee ascender. One caveat for the HHXF is that the swingarm is too big to attach directly to the Gyro, so you need a carabiner. DMM Perfect-O is great.
 
Mowerr said:
I been using a hank of drenaline for a bit and really like it so I'm thinking of getting that exstatic...how do you like it? And if you ever have used drenaline before, how do you feel about it in comparison?
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It took me awhile to come around, but I have come to really like the Xstatic. Is it worth the current asking price of $150-$160 a foot? I don’t think so..

I recently had the opportunity to spend a few days climbing on some Samson Hyperclimb and I loved it. A fantastic rope, and at 90-95 cents a foot it’s a no brainer. I like it so much I just ordered a 300 ft hank of it yesterday.

I can’t speak to the drenaline as I have no experience with it.
 
Xstatic is the rope I climb on the most, and I've also got a drenaLINE setup as well. To me Xstatic feels like a fairly stiff wire, which I like, and in comparison the drenaLINE feels quite bouncy and stretchy, more so than I expected from the 2.3% elongation stat (xstatic is 1.4). Just depends on what you are looking for, but on longer ascents and when I'm base-tied on a 90' shot, it is way more stretch and bounce than I like.

All my srt lines are in good shape at the moment, but I'm always interested in trying new things, maybe Hyperclimb next. It sure is cheaper.
 
Been playing on Hyperclimb for about a month now. Not given it a descent work out yet because the weather is still winter here, but what I have done, it has impressed me. Thought it was going to just be a clone of Yale's Bluemoon, but it is definitely a step up for me. Having been a hard-core Bluemoon fan for many years it was tough for me to admit I liked this rope that much. We shall see how it goes throughout the summer when the going gets a bit tougher.
I'm a rope junkie. Can't have enough ropes. But when I climb I am not too fussy about what I'm on as long as I am not bouncing around like a pogo stick, but with our short trees here in the midwest it really isn't a problem. Rarely aloft over 70 feet.
 
rico said:
I recently got a few days of work in with the HH XF and found it to be an extremely smooth device in both SRT and DdRT, and the best device I have personally used for seamlessly flowing between these 2 modes. Love it. Well played Mr. Mumford!
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What hitch variation are you liking the most?
 
My 2 favorite hitches for the HHFX are the arbsession hitch and a good old 4 wrap HH hitch. I love the HH hitch because it is so reliable, easy to get dial in, and I know I can always count on it. The arbsession hitch is a true high performance hitch that can be amazing if you take the time to get it really singing. We all know that hitches can be a fickle beast sometimes, so on those days that I can’t get the arbsession hitch to cooperate I will go to the trusty HH hitch.
 
rico said:
My 2 favorite hitches for the HHFX are the arbsession hitch and a good old 4 wrap HH hitch. I love the HH hitch because it is so reliable, easy to get dial in, and I know I can always count on it. The arbsession hitch is a true high performance hitch that can be amazing if you take the time to get it really singing. We all know that hitches can be a fickle beast sometimes, so on those days that I can’t get the arbsession hitch to cooperate I will go to the trusty HH hitch.
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Nice, I couldn't get the arbsession hitch to work too well for me. Michoacán variations and Knut are usually my go to. Haven't heard of the HH hitch, I'll see if I can find it. Is it the one Richard uses? Just ordered my hhfx
 
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