Accending Techniques

A

Arbor23

I am currently using a pantine to accend with a blakes hitch. Does ne one know of a way to use a hand accender with this combo?
 
I've seen people use a hand ascender to foot loops and a blakes. I think it might be a little easier on the knees than footlocking. Just not very quick.
 
Just get a hand ascender and a short piece of cordage to back it up. You will go so fast the world will spin backwards. Use it with your foot thingy.
 
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Just get a hand ascender and a short piece of cordage to back it up. You will go so fast the world will spin backwards. Use it with your foot thingy.

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That's how I do it. I put the ascender below the friction hitch.
 
I'm not sure what "...a short piece of cordage to back it up..." means, so I won't speak to that, but almost any ascender will do. But, I really like CMI small Ultrascenders because they are so compact. They won't be as good as a full handle IF you need to pull hard on them with your hand, but in this application, there won't be a lot of pulling to it.

The small Ultrascender works well on the harness TIP as a compact ascender for SRT applications.
 
I wrote up the instructions front start to finish on ascendind one end of the rop and having the other tied.I accidently deleted those instructions.
I also said not to follow those instructions because they might be lacking. It did it to give you an idea how to do it. It is simple ,fast and fun but you need to be sure you do it right and I am not going to be responsible if anyone gets hurt. NEVER do anything I tell you and make sure you get proper instruction before you try to do it, really. Also never do anything anyone else tells you until you have considered the source and have BACKED-UP that information. Nevr believe anything until you see it, don't get killed because of vaugeness.

Since the ascender is a mechanical device it is wise(nessasary) to back it up with a solid friction hitch like the Blakes. This hitch bypasses the ascender and goes from saddle to a point on the climb line above the ascender. Iuse a thin piece of rock rope and I don't know what its called. Its about the dia of a 9mm bullet and it really doesn't have to be a tight friction hitch because you will want it to slide up easy. You can hang on the ascender to rest and the hitch won't tighten up. If the ascender breaks or there is a problem the thin bypass backup hitch will tighten and hold you up.
The Petzl hand ascender will work great with the foot ascender just watch you don't rip your rope with the sharp cam spikes.
I guess there is a lot more to this so be sure to get educated on how it works. This set-up is reliable and under 200.00 for all you might need and with a slig shot you can be in the top of the sticks in no time with lots a fire left.
It is my opinion that alot of the more expensive ascension devices are not as quick, versatile, easy to set-up, small, or complicated as this one. Use this set-up and put the money it saves and makes you in an IRA. Just be sure to back it up with rope(cordage) because the thing is die cast and looks like what they make those Transformers toys with. Look at the cam on your Pantin, I don't know what it is made of but I could chew through it. I used to wonder if it would break on a very cold day. Anyone?
 
Where are you located? And remember- don't be jerking around with equipment you are unfamiliar with, only jerk on things that you feel comfortable with. This technique, although simple and versatile, can get you into a place you don't want to be.
 
Am I missing something here? This is for a DDRT, right? In a DDRT, the ascender would be below the friction hitch, i.e. Blake's or whatever. The ascender is just for the foot loop(s), and hence not in life support role. If it did slip or fail, which appears to be very rare, the feet would simply drop until the friction hitch catches the fall, which would be a very short drop.
 
No I am talking about going up a single leg of rope. I never have tried both ends at once. Never needed or wanted to. I get where I want real fast like this.Well as fast as I can untangle 200 feet of throwball line that is.
 
Why the fear of rope tools? If the proper sized ascender is used for the chosen rope I'll bet dollars to donuts there will be no damage. In all the years of using every different ascender on just about all rope confgurations the ONLY rope damage was from using a Tibloc on 3/8" and 7/16" KMIII.

The cams on ascenders would win in a chewing battle with your teeth Bsaville... :)
 
Why the fear of rope tools? If the proper sized ascender is used for the chosen rope I'll bet dollars to donuts there will be no damage. In all the years of using every different ascender on just about all rope confgurations the ONLY rope damage was from using a Tibloc on 3/8" and 7/16" KMIII.

The cams on ascenders would win in a chewing battle with your teeth Bsaville... :)

Backing up ascending systems is a good practice but is not required anywhere but in competition. This is a bit odd to me though. If a climber uses a friction hitch to ascend a rope they don't need a backup but it they use a mechanical they do. Why?
 
((((Backing up ascending systems is a good practice but is not required anywhere but in competition. This is a bit odd to me though. If a climber uses a friction hitch to ascend a rope they don't need a backup but it they use a mechanical they do. Why? )))


I here that, Why is that? good point!! Thanks Tom

Later in SO-CAL
 
Hmmm, I thought we were talking about DDRT - my bad.

For SRT, either a Frog sit-stand or a Yoyo, I do attach a tether from the foot ascender (upper ascender) to my harness. Why? Why not? It only takes about 10 seconds; I keep it attached to my upper ascender in the gear bag, so all I have to do is clip the free end into my harness.

I use a 6 foot length of Velocity rope as the tether, with a microscender to adjust the length. When I stop climbing, I pull the tail of the rope through the microscender to take up slack so if the main ascender slipped, the upper would catch me. Is that likely to happen? I doubt it; then again has an ascender ever failed? If it has, then it could, and it could perhaps happen to me. If it does I'll have a backup that took me all of 10 seconds to hook up.

But, if it isn't important to have a backup to the main harness ascender, then why is it important to backup a single ascender attachment point on a rope during a changeover? Why not just rely on the security of the single ascender in a change over just the same as we do during climbing?
 
When u say Ddrt what do you mean? I'm talking about a blakes hitch with pantine on my foot. No SRT. Will a two handed accender work under the blakes hitch, and how fast will you accend?
 
One more question...if I do use a SRT system, what is the safest way to tie off the other end of the rope? I have always been concerened about his aspect of SRT hence why i havent ever tried it.
 
I posted a relatively lengthy description of my ascent system in Awakenings:Bees!, in the second page.

The discussion in that thread should be enough to give reason why I started ( about a year ago ) backing up my Petzl ascenders. The thread deals with some of the details of my experience with the Petzl ascender.

If someone hasn't said it already, your backup should be ABOVE the Petzls. If the ascenders should fail to latch and slide down, the prussik will not become disengaged. Gravity sucks.

Arbor23: How fast to ascend? Selection of a DdRT means a 2:1 system so you have to push all that rope through something. The ascenders might be enough inspiration for you to go to the 1:1 of SRT or DRT.

I got a little practice review pushing a blake's up a rope. Its a lot more drag to slide your climbing rope through than other available knots. But take these changes in a logical order, preferrably under coaching. Baby steps.


Get 'em out
Back 'em up
Run 'em up [Whoo hoo!]
Rawhide!
 
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