First night climb - mixed results!

Burrapeg

Burrapeg

Been here a while
Location
Puget Sound
Made my first after-dark rec climb about 60 feet up one of my own trees tonight and just got back inside. I set the rope earlier today while still light and the climb tonight went pretty well at first. I had some brief limb walking which was kinda weird in the dark. It was quite interesting to get used to mostly feel instead of sight in handling the gear. I was using my DIY power ascender and it was performing fine. But I made a mistake in judgement that caught up with me. I almost never use gloves, either in the shop or for any other work except just heavy stuff outdoors like moving firewood, unloading scrap metal, etc. So I am not used to climbing with them at all. But it is just barely above freezing here and there is some cold wind, so I wore some gloves. I also had a small helmet headlamp for emergencies which I did not intend to use unless I had to. Well, Murphy came to see me when I started to bomb down and finish up. I had thumb and finger on top of the ZZ controlling descent and my little finger in the glove got against the rope beneath the ZZ and was suddenly sucked into the pulley. My whole weight came down on it and the glove jammed solid in the bottom of the ZZ. My finger was OK but I was completely trapped momentarily. And in fumbling trying to turn on the helmet light, I bumped it against a limb near me and broke the sodding thing. So I was hanging in pitch darkness with my glove jammed in the ZZ pulley, could not keep descending at that point, and had to get the power ascender back onto the rope using my left hand only. Then I could lift back off the ZZ and hopefully free the glove and my hand. I did have a foot ascender hanging on the saddle but not sure I could have gotten it down onto my foot in the darkness with one hand trapped above me. It was a rather interesting few moments (I had a knife but did not want to try to use it on my glove and hand without being able to see what I was doing, and no mobile service here where I live, nobody within shouting distance either). One thing for sure, I love that power ascender. It was (thankfully) a no-brainer using it in the dark and even getting it back onto the rope with just one hand by feel only. Another lesson is to honour my aversion to wearing the damn gloves. Anyway, am back indoors by the fireside and happy to report my misadventures to my fellow Buzzerds.
 
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Just a tip for next time, you probably only needed your climbing system to advance about an inch to get your glove out, so even without a foot ascender you could foot lock up one time to clear it. If your foot lock is as bad as mine, in that situation you could even just take a few wraps of rope around your foot to stand up on.

Glad you didn't get hurt, and that you didn't have to spend the night up in the tree waiting for help.
 
Yeah, I would have felt an absolute idiot stuck up there the next morning, shivering and shouting at every car that passed in the distance! But I suck so bad at foot locking that I did not even consider that. Probably would have worked however. As it was, it was good practice using the power ascender in the dark. It also occurred to me this morning that I could have simply abandoned the ZZ/RW and main rope by lanyarding in and taking the weight off it enough to unhook at the bridge. Then come down using my long double ended lanyard. At the height where I got stuck descending, the lanyard was long enough (25 feet) to almost reach the ground , (although in the dark I could not tell exactly how high I was - I only knew I had descended over halfway down at the time) . Then retrieve the whole mess next day in the daylight. Well, it was a great lesson in Murphy's Law grabbing you by the arse when you are not expecting it. I may not make a regular habit of this night climbing but I must say the whole experience was quite an adrenaline rush. I think it would be work better on a night with some starlight or a full moon, rather than total pitch black dark.
 
Bob Bob said:
. . . but can only imagine getting it stuck in a power ascender!
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Yes, that does not bear thinking about! I probably would not have the finger anymore. Fortunately, I was just coming down on the ZZ/RW combo, the power ascender off line and just hanging from my saddle. As to telling anyone I am climbing, I fear I don't have anyone now. My daughter lives out of state and no close neighbors or friends within help range. I am too much of a loner no doubt. I need a local climbing buddie or a girlfriend who is into this!
 
Damn. Sounds like a fun time! haha. Glad you made it out
Even just a neighbour or something .... good to have someone know what youre doing. Alternatively, at least a spare Fig 8 or something so you can rap down on your tail if something were to get stuck on the ground or within the canopy

What's this homemade power ascender thing ?
 
Climbing solo, I take two pair of ear plugs and glasses, unless I have a face shield, possibly. Its no time to be without what you need if something is dropped. At night, I'd have two head lamps. One regular, and one mini.

Black Diamond made one that rode around in my rock climbing pack for years, unnoticed, as it was so small. Little special battery.
 
Burrapeg said:
Yes, that does not bear thinking about! I probably would not have the finger anymore. Fortunately, I was just coming down on the ZZ/RW combo, the power ascender off line and just hanging from my saddle. As to telling anyone I am climbing, I fear I don't have anyone now. My daughter lives out of state and no close neighbors or friends within help range. I am too much of a loner no doubt. I need a local climbing buddie or a girlfriend who is into this!
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Just laughing at this post. Way to go, man! I highly recommend the girlfriend route, except now I'm supposed to get us up into a redwood or sequoia this year. I'm ready for that, right? :nocausagracia:(y)
 
CanadianStan said:
. . . What's this homemade power ascender thing ?
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There are a couple of threads about it here on the Buzz. An idea Santiago Casanova came up with and I built a couple. Basically runs off a large DeWalt cordless drill. Works great. Search here on Reliable DIY power ascender. All the details are there to build one. You are not too far North of me; if you get down to the San Juans again you can check it out in person. I can send you up the tree in my yard that I got stuck in!
 
Burrapeg said:
There are a couple of threads about it here on the Buzz. An idea Santiago Casanova came up with and I built a couple. Basically runs off a large DeWalt cordless drill. Works great. Search here on Reliable DIY power ascender. All the details are there to build one. You are not too far North of me; if you get down to the San Juans again you can check it out in person. I can send you up the tree in my yard that I got stuck in!
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I’ll take you up on that offer ... have you got a patch of grass I can tent on? I’d rather not bike back to Vancouver on the same day ! Or i can crash at mt consitution ... that’s a nice quiet place

Im keen to check that out, i wasn’t super impressed with the ronin
 
CanadianStan said:
I’ll take you up on that offer ... have you got a patch of grass I can tent on? I’d rather not bike back to Vancouver on the same day ! Or i can crash at mt consitution ... that’s a nice quiet place

Im keen to check that out, i wasn’t super impressed with the ronin
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Sure, I am just 600 yards from the Lopez ferry landing and have a nice yard full of trees, lots of places for a tent. You could even crash in my spherical tree tent hanging in my biggest cedar. I am on Orcas sometimes (girlfriend lives over there past Mt. Constitution) so give a few days notice to be sure I am home. Should have some nice weather before long. I can show you some incredible trees on the South End of the island.
 
Don't forget the single foot, footlock technique! it's super easy and effective, you might wonder why you use a foot ascender in the first place!

Toe down to lock it then stand on it. When you lif your foot for the next push toe up to keep the rope on your foot.

Keep up the night climbing!

447314848_0a5c6891d1_o.jpg
 
moss said:
Don't forget the single foot, footlock technique! it's super easy and effective, you might wonder why you use a foot ascender in the first place!

Toe down to lock it then stand on it. When you lif your foot for the next push toe up to keep the rope on your foot.

Keep up the night climbing!

447314848_0a5c6891d1_o.jpg
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I FINALLY practised this the other day. Super fun!! OG foot ascender for the win

I then proceeded to SRT up about 25' (on a footie / knee ascender setup)... with another climber hanging below. Pure leg power
 
Burrapeg said:
Thanks, AJ. First photo I have seen of that. I will give it a try next climb (in the daylight first!).
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You can combine it with a foot ascender as well. With the loop on your left foot, tip your left foot down to lock it, lift the foot ascender up for the next push, tip your left foot up, move the left foot up until it's side-by-side with the ascender foot, tip feet down to lock and stand up. Repeat until you get where you're going. Photo from 2007, still climbing on the same Pantin! And look at those brand new Asolos! ;-)


Feet side-by-side ready to stand up on the rope
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Left side locked, moving the right foot up for the next push
2077846257_14a72d43dc_b.jpg
 
Cross post to my recent experience with the ZZ and a pair of gloves in the cold - same thing happened coming down an elm a month or so ago - so guess there's a real ZZ pinch point there! On the ground, almost took pliars to get the glove's finger out of the ZZ.
https:// www.treebuzz.com/forum/threads/zig-zag-ate-my-glove.43737/
About night climbs - Moss's pics jogged old brain cells - I remember a couple of long rappels down from an ice climb years ago. Pitch black (we always have headlamps and batteries for our epics) until an almost full moon came over the ridge above us, lighting the cliffs above. Still, when we looked down, the rock cleft we were in looked black, except now for the blue of the ice pillar we were on - it was now a weird blueish white translucent thing that just blew us both away. Down we went for two 50-60 foot raps and we really didn't want it to end. Nice plastic ice. And the moon made the whole thing on the ground surreal too. Sometimes the third rock from the sun is an amazing place . . . .
 
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Glad you made a successful recovery and learned a new technique or two. During a practice climb, I got jammed up with my foot ascender up around my nuts while shifting from an ascending to a descending system, making it extremely difficult to climb out. Luckily my wife was in the vicinity and was somehow able to get me a kitchen knife, in place of a handsaw, to cut the strap off the foot ascender. Being semi inverted and stuck in an awkward position is really stressful and dangerous. As much as I was practicing low and slow, I ended up getting stuck higher than I should have been in this instance.
 
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