Climbing SRS on Tree Austria 3.2

Brando CalPankian

Brando CalPankian

Carpal tunnel level member
Location
Pine City, MN
I've been climbing SRS for a while, but I learned on a TM. I upgraded to a TA 3.2 while doing line clearance as I was in spikes way more than I was stationary rope climbing. As such, I set up my saddle to be more comfortable in that scenario.

Now that I'm running my own company again, I'm doing about a 50-50 mix of removals and prunes, and my removals often involve accessing the canopy SRS. So far, I've had issues dialing it back in to where I'm not balanced odd and using my arms to hold myself upright.

I'm utilizing the camp chest straps, and switch between the hh2 and a zag wrench combo. When I climbed Friday my setup was so far off that if I let go I'd essentially lay flat (which is trouble when trying to advance through the canopy).

What should I be thinking about when trying to set up my saddle to get better balance? It could just be the bridge is a bit short (tether style instead of a rope bridge), or leg loops still too tight, or any number of things. I need some time to rec climb so I can try and dial things in a bit more.

Thanks for any thoughts!
 
Start by loosening up the legs. I find them to be a necessary evil in case something should go wrong, but not something I use. Hang from your waist, not sitting on your ass in leg loops. If you cut them off my harness, I wouldn't even know they were gone.
Length of your bridge should not affect your balance as you are pivoting on the connection points of the bridge to your harness (rope snap & adjuster/carabiner), be it D-rings or lower paws.
 
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There is a crucial adjustment in any good saddle which adjusts the distance of the leg loops from the lower rings. I’m too busy literally getting dressed up as a clown to find it, but there’s a video on setting up a TM which shows this, and it’s applicable to other harnesses.

This adjustment in my experience is what will pivot you from your back falling down to being suspended more upright. So important to get it right!
 
Stumpsprouts said:
There is a crucial adjustment in any good saddle which adjusts the distance of the leg loops from the lower rings. I’m too busy literally getting dressed up as a clown to find it, but there’s a video on setting up a TM which shows this, and it’s applicable to other harnesses.

This adjustment in my experience is what will pivot you from your back falling down to being suspended more upright. So important to get it right!
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Money advice right there. I'll check it out when I'm done today. Thank you!
 
Stumpsprouts said:
There is a crucial adjustment in any good saddle which adjusts the distance of the leg loops from the lower rings. I’m too busy literally getting dressed up as a clown to find it, but there’s a video on setting up a TM which shows this, and it’s applicable to other harnesses.

This adjustment in my experience is what will pivot you from your back falling down to being suspended more upright. So important to get it right!
Click to expand...
This here is the money talk. Truth.
 
islandarb said:
The only way to truly dial in equipment is rec climbing. You get to do shit over and over to see if it is right. No pressure of the work environs. I love rec climbing..
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Finding time to rec climb is a challenge. Wife's pregnant, we bought a house this year, I'm working full time and building a new company, and we've got a daughter. I'm hoping I'll get to get some snow climbs in when things slow down.

That said, I did make some alterations on today's climb. I lengthened the leg loops and bridge attachments to the max. It helped a lot but I'm still not quite where I want it to be. Did not have time to check out any videos on it yet (just got home). Thank y'all for the advice on it though! Was 50% better today than Friday.
 
Shadowscape said:
Start by loosening up the legs. I find them to be a necessary evil in case something should go wrong, but not something I use. Hang from your waist, not sitting on your ass in leg loops. If you cut them off my harness, I wouldn't even know they were gone.
Length of your bridge should not affect your balance as you are pivoting on the connection points of the bridge to your harness (rope snap & adjuster/carabiner), be it D-rings or lower paws.
Click to expand...
All respect here brother, but hanging from my waist couldn’t be more painful for me. It is truly why I can’t get on with any saddle other than the TM…the Leg Ds are magic.

For me, it’s more like the waist could be cut off and I wouldn’t notice. The Hip D to Leg D strap is always a bit slack unless I am spiked into a spar. Even with my lanyard on a spar, I run it from Leg Ds. This allows my entire upper body full mobility.

One thing I would add to the OP is that spikes weigh enough to alter your balance. With my tiny crane, I still come across trees I can pick whole and don’t need spikes on. When I go up without spikes, it’s more effort to stay upright than with them on.

As my friend @Steve Connally says at crane trainings, it’s strongly suggested to be tied into suspension by 2 points (lanyard & main system). If not, and something went wrong with the main suspension, hanging by Hip Ds could be a real problem.

I will say that if all one did was spike up spars, leg loops would probably feel like a redundancy before the Hip Ds would.

Now, it’s true that I’m 6’5” and 215. Have been for most of my career. I have a lot of room to work with above and below my saddle. My brain is probably pretty small though which would keep me from capsizing!
 
As Eric said. There are multiple reason for the suspension D reasoning that I wont bog down the thread with unless asked. What I will said is I was an upper D guy for many years until somebody told me to try lower d's for a week and if I didn't like it, go back to hip. I gotta tell you, I havent turned back. Its a rare occasion I'm on hip d's. I like to take advantage of the design of the harness to cradle me and not squeeze me. Suspension uses the totality of the design for maximum comfort and protection from effect of poor pressure placement.
 
The 3.2 has leg D's too. I totally agree, I hate hanging from side D's. I use my lower rings most of the time, especially on removals. Like Steve said, it ends up more of a cradling effect which is really nice.
Mowerr said:
Riser
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Are you meaning a longer bridge by this? Sorry for my ignorance.

I'm also 6'1 200lbs. The weight change this year has been significant, and I think that's thrown the balance off. I gain weight in my legs, which perched me more upright. Having said that, listening my loops and leg to hip connections has helped. My leg attachments are close to my knees now instead of mid thigh. I adjusted my chest harness too (camp tree access) which helped a bit. Still a bit off but better in recent climbs.

May think about another saddle this next year if things go right. Just not in the budget right now. This saddle has rocked for removals and Mrs, just srs has been difficult to adapt to
 
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