I didn't soak my Squir rope but just washed it as usual with Teufelberger rope wash in mesh bag and it's fine with my RRP - in fact that's all I use it with now. The RRP stripped it's adjustment hex nut/ bolt and I bought a new one, adjusted it once and am afraid to touch it again so there it...
I've just used a DMM ring and "Bunny ear alpine"? Basically a big loop with the ring on it. It gets rid of rope on rope friction at the loop when yankin' stuff down (esp. with any redirect(s) ).
Or sometimes I still carry up my good old Uni - no mods - just for coming down.
Gettin stuck on a hitch is one reason I often still carry up the ZZ and leather cambium saver to try and stay away from sap as much as possible for the down. Going back into older stuff, Richard Mumford had a video...
Back to descending on a hitch - never by itself, but you can use a round top biner and a ring on say your leg loop or a flatter topped biner and a munter to add more friction for descent. Either is quick. I've talked earlier about the biner/munter in winter to strip frost/ ice/ snow/ glop off...
I remember in University days I had summer jobs working on the ramp in CYWG putting commissary on tincans. Some mornings/ evenings you would see a black black wall approaching with fingers of lightning as far as the eye could see and the first distant peals of thunder. It was usually less than...
So lately I've been climbing still with my trusty double ended long lanyard which is stowable, and using a basal tie SRT line for access/ left for rescue, Lord forbid. If I'm doing anything much scootin' around a tree though, I still pull up a separate MRS line (fits back there beside the...
So here's some of my experiences with lightning over the last 25 - 30 or so years.
As a long time soccer ref, we lived in fear of thunderstorms out in the open on a big a$$ field.
Many years ago, while ref'ing an evening game we saw a whispy white little cloud float over. There was a sudden...
Southern Alberta has for the most part been clear - maybe one day or two of smelly air but thats about it. Been lucky. And we're heading into our first couple weeks of warmer weather - haven't hit +30C yet!
This has made the news all over Canada and Europe - gives new meaning to "At Work We Were Kinda Close To The Fire" . . . . Wonder how those wooden railroad ties are faring?
I still remember a job where we were working some spruces and one of them had a magpie nest (around here there are literally clouds of them to the exclusion of all other bird life). When the stem and branches/ large nest (condo?) hit the deck, a whole bunch of magpies congregated over the magpie...
I was working on buncha spruce this spring getting rid of deadwood and scragglers - on one of the tree trunks was a small birdhouse. When I started on that tree Mama Nuthatch made a great amount of noise and went up (headfirst) and down (headfirst upside down) the trunk. As soon as the noise...
I used an old HH a fair bit (then moved on to stuff like a D4) but for Spratt type climbing on structure (first words heard those summers - "Here Scrape and Paint This"), not trees after the first trials. I found the hitch susceptible to sap, just like HCP or wrench setups, but without the...