Auto belay on SRT

highclimber30

highclimber30

Location
south carolina
Ok so I don't know if that is the right title for this post or not. Also I don't have any pictures...
I was fooling around today at the house, climbing a relatively small red maple in my front yard. I was using something along the lines of Kevin Bingam's rope wrench, climbing SRT (check out his post and video if you don't know what I'm talking about)-- Anyway, I started thinking it would be great if I could find a way to just climb up the limbs without having to worry about tending slack through my hitch. The solution that I came up with, and it works pretty well...was to girth a whoopie sling around the base of the tree with a carabiner and a micro-pulley attached to that carabiner. Through the micro-pulley I ran the tail that was comming from under my hitch, I then tied a slip knot behind the micro-pulley with the tail. This in effect tightened the rope I was about to ascend as if someone had pulled all the slack out and was holding it tight. I then draped my lanyard around my back and over my shoulder and clipped it to the top hole on my hitch climber--a ghetto version chest harness (I've seen Kevin as well as others do this before). Now, I could climb up the trees branches without having to stop and tend slack because the rope I was ascending was basically tight enough that the hitch was pulled up as I went up. I tied the slip knot that was keeping my ascent line tight in such a way that when I reached the top of the tree, all I had to due was pull on the rope under my hitch and the slip knot would slip free.
I don't know if that makes sense or not and I don't know if it has been done before. Not really sure if there are any safety issues that I have overlooked or not as well. Once again, sorry I don't have pictures. Maybe someone who is better with that stuff will be able to understand what I'm saying and post some. I was basically just excited to find a way to kind of free climb a tree and yet stay safe at the same time. I could see it as a way to practice belayed speed climbs or just kind of self-belay in a top rope type fashion for tree climbing. Possibly not work practical, but fun.
 
i do this but only with my ground sperson holding the line. I think it would be cool to do speed climbs in comps that way. I always want to ask if I can set it up that way but I know it would give me too much of an advantage.
 
Sometimes I will tie my chainsaw to my line so it hangs just free of the ground with all my weight on the ascent line. This serves to hold the rope while using a pantin and ascender to rope walk but I bet it would be heavy enough to provide the necessary weight to self belay like you described. Plus the benefit that you don't have to climb with the weight of your saw but all you have to do once you reach the top is to pull it up and clip it to your saddle.
 
I have a 12 oz throwbag that goes on my rope for weight to help the Pantin tail. i use the bag in the tree for lobbing rope ends or my lanyard too. Too much weight will pull the rope out of the Pantin.

A bungy neck cord is cheap and easy to make. It can be setup to tail the slack under a hitch, the top of the Unicender or a chest ascender. When you have it tuned it works very smooth!

You should have been at Expo to see the demo that Kevin and I did at the tree :)
 
Highclimber, Make plans to be at the North American/ Southern Chapter conference in Savannah Feb 19-22. There will be a tree inside the trade show with stuff going on there. I'm sure someone will be playing with SRT. Certainly will be closer for you to make it.

Tom, I too was playing yesterday with an SRT system I have been giving thought to. My pantin kept coming off, but I had a heavier weight on the line. I'll have to try the lighter weight after the rain moves through. Thanks for the tip.
 
I'm thinking of competeing in that comp. It has been a while since I've done a comp but this one really sounds awesome. You are right it is a lot closer for me. Savanah rocks anyway.
 
Old Oak,

another tip... move the Pantin so that the rope exits just behind and below your ankle bone. Strap it on snug.

Then, keep your toe down just a little to force the rope back into the pocket.
 
My Pantin feed okay with the weight on it, but the ankle strap comes loose. Anybody else have this problem? I have it threaded so it should have maximum bite on the ankle strap, but have had this problem. That part of the webbing is still pretty new and slick.
 
yeah, i've been having this happen a lot lately and it ticks me off, especially at 30, 40 ft. or so. i finally put a half hitch behind both tail end pieces. i think mine is pulling slack from the piece of webbing that runs under the sole of my boot. any help on this, tom?
 
Ok, so as this post has become a kind of free for all SRT question and answer...I sometimes put my handled ascender above the rope wrench and hitch and run my pantin underneath. Is this a big no-no. I know that there are concerns of the upper ascender failing and falling into the rope wrench and the hitch...but in my thinking and in my past...if an ascender fails it just pops open and comes off the rope. I'm guessing a leaf or some other debris could get in between the cam and rope and cause the ascender not to grab which would cause the climber to pull it directly down on top of the rope wrench and hitch. But as Kevin has stated in another post, with your climbing hitch in the normal position as opposed to being well above the climber as with the footlocking prusik there is not as much danger of the climber initiating (sp?) a dangerous death grip; what then are the dangers of running an ascender above the rope wrench and vt?
 
i encourage you to try to emulate a failure of an ascender or the rope wrench or a branch swinging into the hitch. In my experience it is next to impossible to make a hitch fail. jam the ascender down on the hitch. really work on making it fail. The more I have tried the more comfortable I have become with my hitch. I would definitly like other people to do this as well, and hear some feedback. Low and slow! of course.
 
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