Decisions Decisions

Finally got to try this stuff out yesterday. Right off the bat I did the 4 wraps set up but it just slid down the rope. Went up to 7 wraps to get it to grab and not slide. New ropes and prussics are very slippy, thanks for the tips/advice guys.
Ended up w/ 5 wraps and 2 braids, worked good. Went up and down 20' 20 times or so. Did some MRS to break the rope in a little more.
Got a throwline up about 60' on a red oak today, one of my best throws ever. Did some dead wood removal w/ a second line drt for positioning. Dropped the tail of redirect(60' blue moon) once I was back on just the HH2 and it didn't touch the ground.(that's how I knew I threw the throw bag about 60').
Now that the ropes are breaking in I took the braids out. Just 5 wraps is holding me steady(180lbs w/ gear/saw). I can maybe see a knee ascender coming in the future for easier ascent. I will rarely climb straight up 60'+normally. So the single foot ascender w/ a hand ascender should be fine for now. This set up is way better then hip thrusting so I'm happy for now.
Thanks for the help fella's
 
Yeah, a knee ascender will be a zillion times better than a hand ascender. You can turn your hand ascender into a knee ascender by adding a foot strap and a bungee or over the shoulder tether on top. It will be a bit bulky but will work.
 
Yea last weekend I was wishing I had a knee ascender. I made a great throwball shot about 60' and needed to get up that high to drop into the snapped off cherry tree snag. I tried the hand ascender w/ a foot loop but it was getting in the way of the HH2. Also the way I tried it I had to advance the hitch hiker myself. Still a work in progress type thing, maybe hand ascender needs to be below HH2 or something so I don't have to slide HH2 up.
A side note, My weaver box harness/chest harness for advancing the HH2 is making it difficult for the hitch to grab. Most times when I take a step w/ the foot ascender I have to squeeze the hitch or lean back hard to get HH2 to grab. The chest harness is pulling up on the HH2 and not letting my body weight pull down on the HH2 and let the hitch cord grab.
I shortened my saddle bridge but that didn't help. I'm thinking about loosening the chest harness or lengthen the weaver chest harness attatchment to the HH2. My chest harness is already a little loose, falling down my shoulders at times.
 
Sounds like your hitch is not optimized. Try less wraps with shorter tails. Go back to 4 wraps and get it as tight as you can. It basically should not move. Hook it to your bridge and bounce on it with your full weight. Force it back up the rope by pulling on the tail and do it again. A few more times should have the hitch 'set' and stable so it will grab without fail but still be easy to release and not need adjusting during your climb.

If the 4 wraps still doesn't work, add wraps one at a time. The biggest mistake people make with the HH is too many wraps tied too loose. Doing so makes it unreliable at grabbing and than when it does it grabs too hard making it a pain to tend for either ascent or descent.

My HH2 sits high on my chest when ascending, no problem.
 
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I'll try tightening the hitch cord some more. As soon as the chest harness slides the HH2 up the hitch cord loosens up. It seems like the the chest harness is holding the HH2 up which isn't letting my weight pull on the steel carabiner. Once weight is put on the steel carabiner the hitch gets tight and holds my weight.

But my first step will be to tighten the hitch cord as tight as possible.
 
Your chest harness should not be able to overpower your weight on the carabiner. Make sure you fully weight the HH by sitting in the harness, then lean forward to clip onto the chest harness. Every time you sit into your harness after that, the hitch should engage.
 
Thanks dsmc
I have a right foot ascender(right handed) and want to get a knee ascender for my left knee. I'm looking at some options now but wanted some feedback on the simplest way to make a "rope walking system"? I see the "HAAS", "stien", "Petzl". I do have a hand ascender w/ pulley that I spent a little time w/ trying it w/ a foot sling. Tree jobs are plentiful at the moment so I don't mind getting a knee ascender too if it's the easiest fool proof way.
 
Yes, a knee ascender is going to be far better than a hand ascender with a foot strap.

I use the HAAS Velox with the Arb Pro 2 clip-and-step, but that's quite a financial commitment. Any of the commercially available knee ascenders should work, I just don't have any personal experience with them. Maybe someone that does can speak up and help you make a more informed choice.
 
I have the Stein knee ascender with a 4SRT foot loop. It is about as simple, no frills as it gets. It gets the job done.

If I were buying again I'd probably get the Saka minimax v2.
 
I use the Haas Velox as well, as do two other climbers I work with frequently, and all seem to like them.
 
climbingmonkey24 said:
I started with a prusik hitch, then upgraded to the hitch climber, and now I've been climbing on the Petzl Zig Zag Ddrt. Not the new version the older one.

Add a foot ascender and a hand ascender and you can ascend fairly quickly without burning yourself out on the way up with the Zig Zag. I've also had good experiences with it for when you are out on limbs, etc. and you need to tighten the rope up or loosen the slack, very easy to do with one hand and very smooth as well.

Hitch climber isn't bad either.

But if we are talking about those long ascents with the smoothest, most energy-conserving method, I think the Zig Zag with the foot and hand ascender combo works well (if you rather stick with Ddrt).
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I agree with this. I love the zigzag. Additionally, you can add a chicane or a rope-wrench above it to add SRT capability
 
NeSurfcaster said:
I think I'm gonna get the "HAAS Velox Ascent System" . With the foot loop, Just clipping onto my boot laces might be nice as well tho. So gotta decide if I want a foot loop or a clip. Not sure why this just went bold?
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Get the foot loop, not the clip. The clip is a nuisance, it only works well with the boots that are designed for it, and even then it feels funny because it’s pulling on the top of your foot, you are not stepping into it like you do with the foot loop version.
 
I somewhat agree. If you are not going to get cllp-in boots, get tbe foot loop version. As I stated earlier, I use the clip version with Arbpro 2 boots and love that combination.
 
I'm going w/ the foot loop haas velox ascent system. For some reason I'm having a hard time checking out, me problem not treestuff. I had a real nice job last weekend and got a real nice tip. Unfortunately on day 1 (Saturday) we were running behind and my normal helper was so slow, slower then usual. I decided to bomb the last few spar chunks down w/ the 1/5th rule. 92 degrees humid as could be, thunderstorms all around us and 10 hours into the day. Perfect 45 degree face cut but the dreaded crooked backcut. You know the rest, I held onto saw with everything I had and ripped every AV mount out, intake ripped off carb, choke spring goofed up, chain bent and thats just after a 1 minute inspection. So I'm gonna get a new 2511t this week and keep my old one for spare parts. Finished the job w/ a 355t and wasn't impressed even w/ my bar and sharp chain on it. The little extra power didn't justify the extra weight, lots more weight/mass/size. But anyway between the 400 dollar saw and the 320.00 order in my cart at tree stuff I'm having a hard time spending half my earnings from last weekend. Gotta spend money to make money so sometime this week I'll checkout at treestuff. Saw will be bought whichever day I can get to the store before they close.
 
Well a little update on recent upgrades. Once I lengthened the ring to HH on the shoulder harness for slack tending that let the hitch grab sooner. Also really tight wraps on hitch cord helped. I'm now using 8mm RIT w/ the yale kermantle w/ 4 tight wraps. I have some 8mm ocean to try as well. I still miss spurs but on these pruning jobs Ya gotta do what ya gotta do. I got my first decent size pruning job this weekend (3 maples and a mullberry). So that will be the true test, w/ the knee ascender. But no matter what it's way better then a hand ascender. Thanks guys for the help w/ these purchases.
 
swingdude said:
Same. Did it a couple months ago. Lasted half hour til I wanted to redirect. Did the redirect. Then realized my utter madness. Won't be doing that again.
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Sometimes when on MRS I'll want to redirect. I'll lanyard in, undo my terminal end, anchor it at the branch collar or the main stem and continue SRS. Using a HH2 so nothing to add or switch at the hitch. Once I'm done doing my thing I can go back to my terminal end and hook it back for MRS again. There's a few ways to make this happen but it's a good solution in some cases.
 
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