Footlocking with THIS static rope?

B

BostonBull

Location
North of Boston
I know alot of you guys prefer footlocking on the Fly from NEropes. I dont have any. I DO however have some of there KMII orange with Blue specks. How is this for footlocking? I know its plenty strong enough. I have a 65' entry to do this week and would like to use a static line rather than a dynamic line.
 
I dont FL (rather be pantin) but I do know the best way to know is to try it.

Your shoes, style, and rope all play a part in the ability for a user to FL the rope.

Hope this helps, try throwing it over a short limb before then and FL up a couple feet, hold yourself and see how it feels. If you can stand on your feet it will be great.
 
I've used 7/16" KMIII for years and am very happy with it's performance. You'll probably hear other votes come in the same.

When I've done remote climbing and needed to pack in my gear I use a piece of 3/8" KMIII. It feels VERY strange to climb a rope that is that small in diameter. The rope is plenty strong though.
 
I'v used it for footlocking and it worked very well for me. I'm now using an 11mm static line and I think I prefer the smaller diameter.
If you're using a friction hitch rather than ascenders, the larger diameter ropes probably offer less chance of hand strain/injuries.
 
Brand new,"waxy" ropes are no fun. Hope that line is broken in.
Peter, you bring up a good point. when I switched from 1/2 inch line to 7/16, my callousus(sp?) moved. Smaller diameter line = tighter grip= more chance of hand strain.
I still prefer the smaller line. I also prefer ascenders and will say that even though I know it can happen, I have never had a malfunction of any sort. I do back my ascenders up every time now,in a SRT scenario, but I didn't for many years when footlocking with two ascenders side by side. AN efficient back up, I've not found...It seems I can slide the prussik more effectively up the doubled line. Which brings me back to tighter grip...I trust side by side ascenders, but I dont use them because of the back up issue.
I have some ideas but won't ramble
 
Kevin, did you mean two hitches, seperate from each other on
each individual "leg" of the line. What do you recommend?
I thought of isolating the doubled line at the high point so if one of the ascenders failed the other would still hold as if it were in a srt type setting. Which brings me to the question of..If you did this, why then would you need a back up if you are basically climbing on two srt systems in tandem? I hope I'm making sense here.(?)
 
I can't really recommend anything with regard to footlocking because I seldom use it but with a doubled rope if that's what you're using Rog can't you place a hitch on the doubled rope above the ascenders?
I use a hitch above a Kong with srt to back up the Kong and use another hitch below for my primary.
 
kevin, I don't believe so. If one ascender were to fail, one end of the line would go down(the side of the functioning ascender) and the other would go up. The hitch in that situation, would not react as if being pulled in one direction thus loosing its gripping/cinching properties. That has been the result of my testing. /forum/images/graemlins/thinking.gif
 
Here's the way to do it:

Hitch cord held horizontally on your side of the two climbing line legs.

Pass the ends around the legs of the climbing line and back toward yourself between them and above the horizontal mid-section of the hitch cord.

Do it again and again for a total of three wraps each leg of the climbing line.

Flop the ends of the hitch cord toward yourself and down over its horizontal mid-section.

Fasten the ends to your ascending device below the hitch.

The length of cord should be just enough to accomplish the task. The ascender will tend the hitch, and the hitch will grab either leg of the climbing line as/if it tries to differentially rise due to partial ascender failure. The hitch will also grab in the event of total ascender failure.

Nick spliced one up last year for Jim "Tree Machine" Clark which was configured in a "Y" with a third eye at its midsection. I don't know what ever became of it. Jim be-bopped (if you've ever worked with him you'd know what I mean by that; it's not derogatory, he's an excitable boy in love with his work) himself into a spinning stump wheel while cleaning up on a job last summer and did some hellacious damage to one of his calves.
 
I beleive TreeCO came up with a great idea for a backup hitch above the ascenders. I did a search, but can't find the thread.

Mark, didn't he show you the hitch in Nashville?
 
Thanks for kind words.

Here are two photos of my hitch, one from each side.

The ropes 1/2 NE KMIII and stayset.

This is not a proven knot. Proceed with caution.
 

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