Climbing set up/back up.

Hey Leon. I've seen that video before. Good job.

I believe the ribs on the back, rather than being fins for sinking heat, are primarily for stiffening the side plate and buttressing the pivot, allowing for sufficient strength while saving material and weight.

I can see where the device would be great for use on a lanyard. I'm currently using a Grillon for that purpose and couldn't be happier with my purchase. I guess I'm glad I didn't know about the Cinch at the time. It might have made for a bit of option paralysis :)
 
Svein and No Bivy, I think that you both misunderstand the pic a little. The idea that is displayed in Tod's pic is of a system used to descend from a single line off of a trunk of wood. The idea is that you use whatever friction hitch you climb on and leave it on the rope. When you switch to a single line you place the Meunter in above the hitch to take the heat and add fricition for the single line. The hitch (VT) isn't unsafe on a Ddrt, just not safe to rappel on a knot (alone). And the Meunter alone would not "auto-lock" to prevent an accident. But, the two combined do just that and it is easy to switch from Ddrt to Srt.
 
The only problem I have with the muenter is the slow repel. I have tried a bigger beaner and I still come down as slow as I go up. Frustrating. I climb on 1/2" so all the mechanical stuff is too small! PITA.......
 
And a discussion about rapell backups that has some interesting points:

http://storrick.cnchost.com/VerticalDevicesPage/Misc/RappelSafetyPost.html



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Excellent article Tom, thanks.

I know its a little off topic (sorry for that), but this article brings up a point about a climber returning from a long limb walk. If the climber were to fall while heading back to the trunk their first instinct would be to grab their rope. Often the area of rope that you grab is exactly where your climbing hitch is which could result in the climber not only falling off the limb, but descending down his line at the same time creating a pretty dangerous situation. This is one of the reasons why I like the various extended bridge systems (hitch climber mod, Phillips sliding bridge, anchor bridge etc.) that allow you to move your hitch away from you. If you were to fall with an extended bridge your grab won't be in a spot that can create more trouble.
 
You made a point about returning from a limb walk and having the friction hitch away from you with an anchor bridge system or an extended bridge or other and I can see the benefit of not being able to pull down on the hitch out of habit. But, and I'm sort of thinking out loud here, what about if you run into a problem, for example, a deep handsaw cut to a hand, or a number of bee stings, while your bridge is extended. You would be left with one good hand to pull up to your hitch and re-attach it to your harness before you could descend to the ground for first-aid treatment. Unless I'm not understanding the anchor bridge system fully, this is not possible, to re-attach the friction hitch directly to the harness with one hand, or at the least, not an easy task.
Now the likelihood of this happening is no greater than while you are foot-locking up a static doubled rope, but in either case you would be left in a compromising position with a difficult descent ahead or a rescue required.
Is there something I'm missing about he anchor bridge system that prevents this scenario?
Thanks, Russell
 
The hitch isn't beyond reach in the extended position and if in the work position you could still descend with the hitch close to the saddle. I believe that's correct. Maybe Rich H will make it clearer.
Phil
 
you can adjust the bridge to any length, mine is set just far enough that i can still reach it. I often leave it extended if I am only decending a few feet
 
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