Minimalist climbing

Rock climbing harness and a rope - double rope system (MRS) with a Blake's hitch.

Components: harness and rope. Doesn't get any less equipment intensive, unless you want to make a harness from rope (Swiss seat, etc.).

Edit: I've done all of the above, before entering the equipment accumulation period. Rock harness is already something I had laying around, and I found the 12-strand True Blue I used at a local saw shop. Rock harnesses aren't meant for comfortably supporting the climber's bodyweight for much of a period of time, but it works if that's all you have; you just won't be able to hang in it for 3hrs without some potential for seriously tingly legs xD
 
You're only going 20ft up though, according to your first post - are you having to hike in 20mi to the place?

That's really no height at all, as these things go. It's tough to conceive of a situation where 40' vs 20' of rope would make or break someone in terms of compactness.
 
I use 11.7 almost exclusively these days, but maybe you should try an 11mm 24- or 32-strand. Diameter does make a profound difference in how bulky the thing packs down to.

You could single-up and single-down, which would net you the least amount of rope to pack in/out. And if you're super-duper space constrained and don't mind clinking and clanking around in the woods, as well as expending a lot of extra time on the ascent (although, I suspect that's not the case since this is hunting-centric), you could honestly use <10' of rope total (depending on tree diameter), a foot ascender, and just alternate stem-cinching until you're at the desired altitude.

However - sitting is going to be uncomfortable since if your support point stays on the stem and you use a short rope, you'll be being pulled into the stem the entire time, and, as mentioned before, this is a pretty painful operation to do in terms of time consumed and noise generated. I've done this as well too, just messing around in the yard with a lanyard and the end of a climb line. It all works, but there are various costs associated with each approach.
 
Never used either - smallest stuff that I have any lengths of that I've used for similar purposes is some 10mm Oceans and 10mm Tendon Timber.

9mm would definitely be small though, as far as compactness goes! Just gotta make sure if you're using a closed system, that it will grab itself adequately.

Let us know what you come up with.
 
The usual ultralight climbing setup is some kind of RADS with the 2 components as light as possible. GriGri/ropeman seems like the ideal combination here. For a rope I'd go with 40ft of 9mm. Throwline and throwweight are probably optional at these heights.

An Akimbo coupled with a single foot ascender would not be much heavier, but you'd need to use 11mm rope for the Akimbo to work. That will probably end up being heavier than the RADS, but it's definitely cool :D
 
BrandonAllgood said:
Im trying to decide between ddrt and srt for hunting this season and id like to save as much weight and space as possible. Also what diameter rope would you use for ddrt?
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For short, infrequent ascents (like ascending to a tree stand and hanging out for a couple of hours), I would stick with DdRT for its simplicity. I can't footlock SRT very well, but doing it DdRT is a breeze, so you wouldn't need a foot ascender either.

Going below 11 mm will be hard on the hands, and again, for a short rope for a short climb, the weight difference between 11 mm and 9 mm will hardly be noticeable. I would want something more supple than a static line for DdRT.

Check out Samson Predator at WesSpur. Camo and 11.4 mm, and you can get matching lanyards, split tails, or hitch cord.
 
BrandonAllgood said:
So do you think the extra rope needed for the ddrt would be lighter than the combined weight of something like a mega Jul or jul2 with a tiblock and aider for srt
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Either method requires rope length double the height of the climb. With SRT, you either base anchor or canopy anchor, and a canopy anchor will require a long tail to reach the ground, or a second rope to retrieve the canopy anchor. You will need 40+ feet of rope to climb 20 feet.

And screw that rock climbing gear unless you intend to rappel for descent.
 
Tuebor said:
Either method requires rope length double the height of the climb. With SRT, you either base anchor or canopy anchor, and a canopy anchor will require a long tail to reach the ground, or a second rope to retrieve the canopy anchor. You will need 40+ feet of rope to climb 20 feet.

And screw that rock climbing gear unless you intend to rappel for descent.
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Agree - if you're doing this for hunting (i.e., sitting for hours at a time), rock climbing gear isn't going to cut it.
 
Oh I don't plan on using the rc harness for hunting, its just what I have here, I'm ordering a hunting saddle soon. But thank you for the advice, how long of a rope would y'all recommend? I won't always have a branch right at 20 ft. Just wondering what a good length would be.
 
BrandonAllgood said:
Oh I don't plan on using the rc harness for hunting, its just what I have here, I'm ordering a hunting saddle soon. But thank you for the advice, how long of a rope would y'all recommend? I won't always have a branch right at 20 ft. Just wondering what a good length would be.
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Forest trees tend to have higher limbs, around here they are usually very high, so I would not want to try to climb in the woods without 120’ of rope, unless I only wanted to climb wobbly little trees.
 
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