- Location
- Chattanooga
I wanted to trim out some dead limbs from the pines in my front yard; actually I just wanted to climb them and that was my excuse. Anyway, I shot a pull line (yellow ZingIt) over two smaller limbs at the same height. I pulled up a second 16 oz bag with red ZingIt attached and quickly isolated the limbs without having to pull bags backwards through the canopy.
The limbs were the very top limbs and a little smaller than my chicken curve normally allows, so I decided to thoroughly test them so I could climb with confidence. I installed my Velocity climbing rope and anchored it low on the trunk. The climbing end of the rope was on the opposite side of the tree so I installed another anchor so I could set up a 2:1 loading on the climbing line. I installed two CMI small Ultrascenders on the climbing line, connected with a loop of 8mm prusik cord. I used two so I wouldn't be loading one with 400+ lbs. Then I attached one end of my 30' Velocity lanyard to the second anchor (climbing side) and ran it up and through a carbiner attached to the prusik cord attached to the two ascenders. I attached the free end of the lanyard to an ascender connected to my harness TIP.
I sat down and went to the ground. I held the climbing line to hold the 'gain' and slid the two ascenders up the climbing line to take out slack. I sat down again and went to the ground. I repeated the process. The third time I sank very slowly to the ground. So once again I slid the ascenders up and sat down in the harness again. Once again, I sank very, very slowly almost to the ground. One more time and I was suspended with little if any motion. I wondered what 800 lbs of force was doing to my 1/2" Dan House rope sleeve.
I disconnected the 2:1, climbed using a YoYo with a GriGri and just a biner for a 'pulley', got to work around the tree canopy, cut the dead limbs, and then I descended, eager to see how the rope sleeve faired. I forgot that rope sleeves will come flying down the rope when they come 'over the top' and just as I was thinking, "What's that humming sound?", it hit me. The rope sleeve that is. Mashed my thumb right on the tip of the nail. It's a little blue this morning but very minor. There was no indication that I could see that the rope sleeve had been under 800 lbs of force. Speaks well for the sleeve.
My anchor was a length of PMI 11mm Pit rope cinched around the trunk with the loop closed with a steel Kong auto-locking biner. I tied an F8 with/on a bight and girth hitched the bight to a second Kong steel biner. I decided to use a girth hitch because once I saw the anchor rope eye and the climbing rope eye get cross ways and load the gate. The girth hitch helps prevent that. But after the 400 lbs of force on the F8 plus climbing, it wasn't any trouble to untie at all. Undoubtedly the girth hitch played a significant role in relieving force on the F8. It would have been most interesting to see how the knot would have untied if the girth hitch hadn't been used.
The limbs were the very top limbs and a little smaller than my chicken curve normally allows, so I decided to thoroughly test them so I could climb with confidence. I installed my Velocity climbing rope and anchored it low on the trunk. The climbing end of the rope was on the opposite side of the tree so I installed another anchor so I could set up a 2:1 loading on the climbing line. I installed two CMI small Ultrascenders on the climbing line, connected with a loop of 8mm prusik cord. I used two so I wouldn't be loading one with 400+ lbs. Then I attached one end of my 30' Velocity lanyard to the second anchor (climbing side) and ran it up and through a carbiner attached to the prusik cord attached to the two ascenders. I attached the free end of the lanyard to an ascender connected to my harness TIP.
I sat down and went to the ground. I held the climbing line to hold the 'gain' and slid the two ascenders up the climbing line to take out slack. I sat down again and went to the ground. I repeated the process. The third time I sank very slowly to the ground. So once again I slid the ascenders up and sat down in the harness again. Once again, I sank very, very slowly almost to the ground. One more time and I was suspended with little if any motion. I wondered what 800 lbs of force was doing to my 1/2" Dan House rope sleeve.
I disconnected the 2:1, climbed using a YoYo with a GriGri and just a biner for a 'pulley', got to work around the tree canopy, cut the dead limbs, and then I descended, eager to see how the rope sleeve faired. I forgot that rope sleeves will come flying down the rope when they come 'over the top' and just as I was thinking, "What's that humming sound?", it hit me. The rope sleeve that is. Mashed my thumb right on the tip of the nail. It's a little blue this morning but very minor. There was no indication that I could see that the rope sleeve had been under 800 lbs of force. Speaks well for the sleeve.
My anchor was a length of PMI 11mm Pit rope cinched around the trunk with the loop closed with a steel Kong auto-locking biner. I tied an F8 with/on a bight and girth hitched the bight to a second Kong steel biner. I decided to use a girth hitch because once I saw the anchor rope eye and the climbing rope eye get cross ways and load the gate. The girth hitch helps prevent that. But after the 400 lbs of force on the F8 plus climbing, it wasn't any trouble to untie at all. Undoubtedly the girth hitch played a significant role in relieving force on the F8. It would have been most interesting to see how the knot would have untied if the girth hitch hadn't been used.
