I finally learned a method of SRT

[Phil]

After about a year of pondering and randomly working on different setups for SRT, I finally got one that is efficient ond not gear intensive. The first time I tried an SRT setup I wasted way too much energy so I changed it and came up with this. You can't see the setup from the video but i will post images once i resize them...SRT has now officially replaced footlocking for me.

This is 55 feet in about 30-35 seconds. and i'm tied into the top and ready to work on a ddrt system in under a minute.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cGBUBVPJxY

 

[treesandsurf]

lookin good! Pics would be great to see all the details. Thanks for posting.

jp

 

[Phil]

Here are the hand ascenders with their attachments. The green cord is Tenex ans is my footloop for the left foot. The White cord is Sta-Set and is attached to my bridge as one form of attachment to the line.

 

[Phil]

a close up of the foot loop (bowline with yosemite tie off and double fishermans for the sta set

 

[Phil]

The awesome pantin for my right foot ascender

 

[Phil]

here is my main attachment to the srt line. It is a VT made from beeline...also awesome stuff. it will support 100% of my wieght and i can still descend on it if i need to. But just remember for future reference that this vt is also my regular friction know and is already tied into my line when i reach the top.

 

[Phil]

Thats all the gear thats required. This is how the line is set in the tree. I isolate a crotch (jump test it) and then tie a running bowline with yosemitie tie off leaving a 1-2 foot long tail on the srt line and send it up.

the line is now SRT.

 

[Phil]

then all i do is walk up the rope. the VT advances itself and i can stop and rest on it at any point without loosing progress or relying on the ascenders to support me. When i reach the top i set my vt within 2 feet of the crotch the srt line is around (so i can reach that crotch with my hands), tie in with my safety lanyard and untie the SRT running bowline. Since my VT is already on my line i just tie an anchor hitch with the part of rope that used to be the running bowline. Now i am in a ddrt system. All I do is unclip the safety lanyard and work that tree like its my job

in this pic the green rope is my safety lanyard and my VT is just below the view area

 

[Phil]

the pic just below the last picture

 

[Phil]

and here i am ready to work...except i am recreationaly tree climbing today hence the no chainsaw.

 

[Leon]

Looking nice Phil. Add a Croll/chest ascender to that setup and you'll be amazed at how much easier it got all over again. The chest ascender holds you more upright and really reduces the amount of work that the arms have to do.

I like how you have the friction knot all ready to go for your regular tie in. I'll be trying that out for sure.

 

[Phil]

I looked at the Croll but i wanted to make this as non gear intensive as possible (sorry Tom) and i didn't have a real easy way to attach the croll to my harness. I use the BII. My buddy who is in the video holding the line taught for me use the Tree Austria Duo (I think thats what its called) and he has the chest suspenders that go with that saddel so the croll for him would work well. Me, not so much...but if i can think of way to get that all worked out you can be sure i will try it.

 

[Alves]

It is a very simple and straight forward setup, a way a good system should work...and by the way, you live in South carolina now so get with it

 

[allmark]

Nice set up and a very good picture set up to show it. Thanks.

 

[Tom Dunlap]

Glad to hear of another SRT convert. One climber at a time...

There's no need to use Tenex for the left footloop. You know that I'm sure. A nice addition to the foot stirrup is a piece of plastic tubing over the cord so that you have a formed stirrup for your foot.

Why the aversion to having a chest ascender? You already have a complicated, in a good way, system using the hitch for a backup. A chest ascender makes the system sooo smooth.

As I'm typing I thought of an idea to keep the hitch tended so that it doesn't sag down the rope. Use some small diameter bungee cord. Attach a slack tender arrangement from under the hitch to the handled ascender.

Take a look in On Rope or on the On Rope 1 website and see how a bungee is used for the knee ascender in a ropewalker system.

 

[Phil]

I've seen the bungee system and i thought about using one, then i realized that the Sta Set cord i could just tie to the crab with the VT on it and make it a little shorter so as the Hand ascenders go up, so does the VT (this works in theory but i have yet to realize its actual application). As it is now though, i don't have a real problem with the VT slacking down the rope too bad. And I used the rope material i did because thats what i had on hand. I also thought about a piece of semi rigid material for the foot loop and decided thats just another piece of something i need to carry up the tree. The bowline for the foot loop is snug enough on my boot that it won't slip off when its slacked and i don't even feel the narrow diameter of the tenex on my foot so it feels comfortably way it is.

 

[Lazarus2]

Hi Phil

Congratulations on making the step from footlocking to SRT - A wise move and your body will thank you for it in a short space of time. In terms of honing a system for bio-mechanical efficiency, we have a few pointers that may help.

I have shown your video to Davina - my wife and very experienced remedial personal trainer, who helped nail my efficient SRT setup, and rid my body of the 'footlocker's twist' (no mean feat!), that I developed over a 10 year intense period of competition, comp training and daily use.

Rope walking systems can be optimally efficient in a bio-mechanical sense when used with a chest roller. This is because they keep the body upright without pulling through the shoulders, enabling quick short steps without wasting energy on stabilising lateral sway, keeping the spine and hips in alignment. In this respect, your video shows you still using a substantial amount of upper body work to help keep you upright, and you demonstrate a lot of pelvic sway.

We believe the Frog to be the most bio-mechanically efficient AND practicable system for most ascents. This is because the body is in line and powered by both legs at the same time from their mid range.

The Chest ascender and harness are key here to efficiency. The chest strap being tensioned when sitting to hold the body upright without relying on the arms/shoulder power (though the arms are still required for stability). The harness needs a low centralised anchor point to avoid ascender clash. Smaller climbers will benefit from replacing the Petzl 'Ascension' with the 'Basic' for example.

The harness leg straps should be set snug, so there is little movement when sitting in the Chest ascender. The footloop length is very critical to efficiency.

I use one footloop and a Pantin, known as a 'Frog Walker' system. This enables me to align hip and knee by positioning my feet shoulder width apart. This makes ascending against the trunk simple by allowing a 'straddle' technique. It also means when I get into the branches, I can stand on branch with one foot and rope with another, or pull on the ascension with both feet on branches, or shunt up the ascension and climb with hands and feet on branches, all the while being supported by the Croll, so no fear of slack or a fall at all.

If you get the opportunity to try a Frog walker system, please do. You'll get the jist of what I'm on about.

I hope you see the ergonomic angle we're coming from. Keep up the innovation!

 

[Phil]

Thanks for the input Laz. I starting to fear that if I find too efficient a system of ascent, tree climbing will loose its challenging aspect. I like to sweat when I work. That way I don't have to go to the gym when I’m done.

But in all seriousness

I know what you mean about efficiency and body posture. I watched the DVD from Sherrill on SRT systems which focused on the mar bars, frog, Mitchell, and three rope techniques. I did notice that most of the systems used "chest rollers" as you put it, to keep the rope close and centralized to the climber's body; an advantage I would more than like to have. They did seem bulky though to me and I have never seen those items for sale on the market...perhaps because I have not looked hard enough. I would like to incorporate a Croll chest ascender but I am not sure how to attach it to my body. I have a BII as I said in an earlier post and don't see a way to attach it unless I use a second webbing harness under my climbing saddle. Some advice on how to go about fastening a croll would be a great help in my SRT. Tom, if you got some pointers for me, I know you climb on the same saddle, I’d be willing to try em out.

 

[Kevin]

You might experience similar results from using a short loop runner and a carabiner.
Each arm through the loop ends of the runner around your back and captured at the chest with a carabiner around the climbing rope and both ends of the loop runner.
This is something you can remove and use in the tree for redirects etc.

 

[Tom Dunlap]

Putting a piece of tubing on the stirrup makes it easier to slip your foot in and out. If the tubing moves on the bowline you can add an overhand stopper on either side. If you want to reduce the gear load all you need is some small cord, I made one from chainsaw recoil cord.

I've thought about another way to attach the chest ascender to the BFII. Later today I'm going to see if I can make that work. I'll post pics of the results later.