Knee ascender stiff tether

NE Tree · Jan 24, 2016

So I got this idea from the rope wrench stiff tether. I thought about hooking it to my knee with a strap but I've heard that you want the ascender to have a little room to move around. I thought if I had a stiff tether, I could skip the bungee and just do a tether to the ascender. As long as the tether can push it up and hold my weight, it'll follow the rope up (where else is it going to go). Made it out of scraps but it seems to work pretty good (at least it does going up 9 feet in my house). Clip-n-step style here but plenty of other options. I was thinking about trying out the Marlow heat fuse sleeve for this as well. I would've maybe spliced directly to an ascender if I had an extra (probably would use a CT though). Let me know your thoughts on this. I don't believe I've seen any style like this so far.

NE Tree · Jan 24, 2016

I've also thought about adding a short piece of bungee to go around my knee just to hold it in place when I remove it from the climb line

NE Tree · Jan 30, 2016

Nobody? Really? Man this thread was a dud. I thought this might be a good idea giving you free range of motion with your leg while eliminating the bungee. This would also allow you to take as big or little of a step up as you'd like. Weather sucks currently and we're expecting 12"of snow the next couple days,so might be a while before I can try it on a climb. I'd love to hear any feedback good or bad

lonniels · Jan 31, 2016

I like it! I have messed with similar designs, your's looks better put together than mine. I found that a stiff tether without a bungee would cause binding at the ascender at times, hopefully the one you are making does not.

Boomslang · Jan 31, 2016

I tried something similar to this with pex pipe and couldn't get it to work as well as with a bungee. It's a great idea in theory, but in practice not quite as efficient. I think the biggest deficiency is that you have to keep your foot perfectly in line with the rope in order to push the ascender up cleanly. Otherwise, if your foot is at any angle to the rope at all, the ascender won't release properly and you just end up pushing the rope.

If you think it works better for you though go for it!

NE Tree · Jan 31, 2016

Thanks for the info guys, I hope to figure out a good way to rig this up. I'll post any progress

JontreeHI · Jan 31, 2016

My question would be how will you stow it during the climb? Just send it to the ground? It's a cool idea for sure.
I've been working on a homie knee ascender as well fir a few years, haven't come up with something I'm stoked about, so pretty soon I think Richard will get my money

NE Tree · Jan 31, 2016

JontreeHI said:
My question would be how will you stow it during the climb? Just send it to the ground? It's a cool idea for sure.
I've been working on a homie knee ascender as well fir a few years, haven't come up with something I'm stoked about, so pretty soon I think Richard will get my money

I think you can just unclip it from your boot or footstrap and hang it on your saddle. I usually just leave mine on as of now. I'll keep at it and see if I can whip up something that seems to work.

bushmi · Jan 31, 2016

Very interesting looking at n.e.trees picture and boomslings comment. Maybe adding a dog snap to keep it in line with the rope would help the advancement. You could even take a piece of the pex and cut it lengthwise to keep it attached to the rope or even just a small biner to keep it in line.

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