Getting back on top of a limb

colb said:
If it's that hard to get back on top, chances are that you will save energy (and look smoother) by limb walking out on the bottom, and off to the side a bit.

Between gripping the limb with one hand and the rope with the other, you should be able to compress, swing, twist, and get your other leg up and over the limb with a heel hook motion. Then you can take in slack, then pivot so you're facing the right direction again. It is important to use core muscles instead of outer muscles. The forces on your bodies extremities should be on the ligaments, so straight arms are usually good. It's not just about strength, it's about levers and MA.
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Went up and tried this yesterday afternoon and got back on top of the limb! Having done this without resorting to using my lanyard being placed around a higher support point directly above me, I don't think when I was in the situation a week or two ago, I tried heel-hooking. Worked.

Here's what I did, this time:
1) I ascended from my roof up to the redirect sling/biner.

2) Once I got to where the redirect biner was hitting the top of my multiscender, I lanyarded onto the branch out slightly past the redirect (towards the end of the limb) and pulled myself as tight into this point as I could go.

3) Doing this afforded me the ability to unclip the redirect biner from above my multiscender and remove the redirect, which then left me suspended by the lanyard (coming from out towards the tip of the limb), and the climb line (pulling me back towards trunk at about ~30deg or so)

4) Here's the 'gotcha': I struggled for a few seconds grabbing the climb line and pulling myself up so I could get my feet on top of the limb. Didn't work, and it immediately became obvious why: I was fighting against the short lanyard. Slacking the lanyard about 2'-3' and riding the climb line back towards the trunk so that there was enough lanyard length/room to allow my body to get up on top of the limb was the key to getting back on top. Once I did this and then heel-hooked the limb, it was pretty easy to pull myself into a sitting position on top of it, then stand up on it.

A lot of words, but it actually went pretty quickly.

Thanks for the help, guys! There are other approaches in this thread, which I'd like to try next time as well (forgot to try the loop runner thing, again!).
 
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LordFarkwad said:
: I was fighting against the short lanyard.
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I had situation like this yesterday trying to get on top. I went to slack my lanyard like you did and saw one leg of the 8mm OP hitch cord was hanging free. I immediately dropped back down under and put the weight on my climb line and slacked the lanyard. The double fisherman had worked free, I guess rubbing on the bark performing that maneuver with the lanyard too snug. Needless to say I descended back down. I have never had this happen under normal use. Just FYI.
 
Birdyman88 said:
I had situation like this yesterday trying to get on top. I went to slack my lanyard like you did and saw one leg of the 8mm OP hitch cord was hanging free. I immediately dropped back down under and put the weight on my climb line and slacked the lanyard. The double fisherman had worked free, I guess rubbing on the bark performing that maneuver with the lanyard too snug. Needless to say I descended back down. I have never had this happen under normal use. Just FYI.
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Do you mean one leg of your lanyard adjuster?
 
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