How to tell if you'll be climbing directly below your TIP?

W

Winchman

Carpal tunnel level member
Location
Southwest Georgia
Whenever I set a line in the tree I always put a two-pound weight on it to see where it hangs. I want to be sure my moving ropes won't be dragging on something, and I want to be sure I won't be climbing below the loose dead limbs I'm often going after. Most of the time this works very well, but there have been way too many times when actual climbing location is several feet away from where the weight was hanging. Just this morning I found myself directly below a dead hanging limb with my ropes lightly touching it, and I abandoned the climb. The weighted line had been well clear.
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You can see the climbing ropes are clear of the limb. They're actually almost 90 degrees around the tree. It seemed fine when I put all my weight on them to remove the slack, too, but I swung around in front of the tree as soon as I started climbing.

Is there a better way to tell where your climbing ropes will be when you put your full weight on them and start climbing?


About that limb this morning... I had wagged it around a little with the throwline earlier, and decided I needed to climb to get it down. So, I put up an expendable rope, got just a little more aggressive, and it came right down. Abandoning the climb was a good decision.
 
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I do pretty much all of my ascending srt so my ropes not moving but I can't imagine only climbing if my rope isn't touching anything all the way down.
 
You could use a grapple or rope hook to snag the limb you're concerned with and add a lift or pull down to try and break it out Redirect the pull ropes at the base and stand back.
 
I'm torn about jostling a hanging dead limb really aggressively because I might weaken whatever is holding it, and then end up climbing close to it anyway. On the other hand, I want to make sure it's not just a slight jostle from falling. In this case letting the limb freefall was OK, but most of the time it's not.

Of course I wear a helmet.

Putting all my weight on a rope with my bare hands hurts, so I do it very briefly when taking the slack out. I can't really tell where the rope is going to hang until I put my harness on, and get my feet off the ground.

As for the ropes touching something, it depends on how far I need to climb to get past the touch point, and how much extra effort it takes to climb before I get there. Most of the time I can push myself sideways each time I pull. It doesn't have to be perfect, just manageable.

I think some trees bend a little from my weight, and it takes the top several seconds to settle in a new position. It's just something I'll have to deal with when it happens, and try to learn a little each time to keep from being surprised.
 
Winchman said:
I'm torn about jostling a hanging dead limb really aggressively because I might weaken whatever is holding it, and then end up climbing close to it anyway. On the other hand, I want to make sure it's not just a slight jostle from falling. In this case letting the limb freefall was OK, but most of the time it's not.

Of course I wear a helmet.

Putting all my weight on a rope with my bare hands hurts, so I do it very briefly when taking the slack out. I can't really tell where the rope is going to hang until I put my harness on, and get my feet off the ground.

As for the ropes touching something, it depends on how far I need to climb to get past the touch point, and how much extra effort it takes to climb before I get there. Most of the time I can push myself sideways each time I pull. It doesn't have to be perfect, just manageable.

I think some trees bend a little from my weight, and it takes the top several seconds to settle in a new position. It's just something I'll have to deal with when it happens, and try to learn a little each time to keep from being surprised.
Click to expand...
A) Wear gloves

B) Learn SRT
 
I always do a full body weight bouncy test on a TIP. Tie in, back up from the tree, look up, and bounce like I am trying to pull the tree over. SOP for me.
 
I can't put my full weight on the throwline, but I could put up my anchor rope, and use my hand ascender and foot loop to put my full weight on it for the test. That will tell me what I need to know before setting up my MRS and putting on my harness, and there's little wasted effort if I find out I need to change the TIP.

Thanks for helping me work out a solution.
 
Are you familiar with the super- munter hitch?
A munter on top of a munter on a carabiner?

The same is useful for adding a branch as a midline handle for pulling on the throwline.
It's really easily accomplished by tying a munter around the short (12" fits both hands ) branch handle and adding the super part of the super munter by wrapping over the ends of the handle. Wrap as needed. This will give a 2 hand handle.

If you need a foot loop, droop a bight, and supermunter your way to a foot loop on the throwline attached to the handle.

All you need is throw line and a stick.
 
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