O-rig

J

jwp

Yesterday, I got a hitch pulley, an e2e, and an o ring. So I had to go and try out the O-rig system.

I decided to use a distel hitch. I ended up with 6 turns above and 1 turn below. This makes the hitch very compact and the hitch holds good and releases very controlled with only 2 fingers. I had a little indecision about how I wanted to attach the accessory cord prusik to the hitch pulley but finally decided on a very small carabiner.

I am no where near good enough of a climber to use all the advantages of this system. I think that this system really shines when the climber does a lot of limb walking. I do more hanging than climbing or limb walking. I am enjoying having the hitch pulley advance the distel hitch.

The main reason that I got interested in this system was that I wanted to use a hitch pulley and the O-rig system allows me to use a hitch pulley without having to splice an eye into the end of my climbing line.

When it comes to using the distel is there any tips on how to set or dress the hitch?
 
The carabiner is a secure line mini camouflage gear clip. It is about 2" long. Its gate does not lock. It is in no way rated for life support. My thinking is that the small prusik loop and tiny carabiner are only to operate the hitch pulley. If the carabiner fails the worst thing would be that I have to lower back to the ground and fix the problem.

My screen is acting strange so I don't know how this post is going to look.
 
There's no picture on our end, you should try to get one up to be sure, but if you have the o rig set up right that min biner shouldn't be a problem. That said I always used a tri act when I set up the o rig. I was working though. As long as the thing seems like it will hold up go for it.
 
It will probably be about a week before I can post a picture.

I watched the video and my setup is very similar. I don't think that I would be strong enough to climb like the guy in the video. I use a foot loop or pantin so I keep my friction hitch down low so that I can reach above the hitch and pull down when climbing. I know that hands above the hitch could cause a problem but I have not found a better way yet.

Thanks for the replies. I am hoping for tips on how to use this system and how to dress the distel hitch.

One more question that I have is how is a rescue performed for a climber using this system? Is the friction hitch cut to lower the climber?
 
My little carabiner did not survive this morning. I must have gotten it cross loaded because the gate was pulled open past its stop. I think that this happened while I was moving the prusik up and down the line. I decided to move the prusik so that the friction hitch would be up above me and I could try pulling on the down line to see if I could advance up the line. To my surprise I was able to move up the line. I don't think that I would want to climb this way very much. It took a lot of pulling.

I also got my rope grabber rigged up as a knee ascender. It along with the foot ascender made climbing much faster. I think that climbing with two ascenders is much more efficient. The friction hitch is not being loaded and unloaded with each step which seems to help. My rigging of the rope grabber needs to be improved. I had a foot loop off the grabber, a loop off the grabber going around my leg at the knee and a line off the grabber going to my harness. The loop around the knee was pulling pretty hard into my leg at times.

I also played around some more with the distel hitch. If I use one turn below and 6 turns above the hitch grabs the line tightly and has a little friction when it is being pushed up the line. I payed close attention to the dressing of the hitch. I took my hand and twisted the turns trying to get them equal in diameter and I also tried to make sure that the eyes were hanging down with the same lengths. This seemed to make things work better.

I decided to try the distel with 5 turns on top. This really loosens up the hitch. Yesterday I couldn't get the hitch to grab in this configuration. But today I found that I could carefully dress the hitch and get it to grab. I climbed a few feet with this configuration. When I dressed the hitch, I got the eyes hanging down together and then I twisted the turns tight onto the line and then pushed the bottom turn and top turns together.

So I guess that it is going to take some more experimentation to determine which variation of the distel is going to work best for me.

I am having too much fun. I just have to make sure that this doesn't end up like one of those "Hold my beer and watch this" deals.
 
I found a youtube video about various e2e hitches and how to adjust them. So I am heading back out today and see if I can get the 5 over 1 distel to work like I want.
 
Well for my rope and hitch it is going to be a 6 over and 1 under. This works best all around for grap and release.

My new hitch e2e looks all dirty where it grabs and slides along my rope. I wanted it to stay nice an pretty for a while but that is not going to happen. :)
 
I will look and see if I can find a diagram of the michoacan. I need to give it a try. It just might be the hitch for me.
 
Here's an image:

michoacan-blakes.png
 
I will be giving that hitch a try. I saw one video where the guy went through 2 turns on the bottom just like the blakes hitch does. I am going to try it just like the diagram and see how it works for me.

Thanks for the suggestion.
 
I really like the michoacan. I used 5 turns and it works great. when I pull on top of the hitch with no weight on the line the hitch just slides with hardly any friction. If I want to take up slack the hitch slides again with hardly any friction. With the hitch loaded it grips well and is very controllable in the release. Once I slowly pulled down on the hitch and slowly released the hitch and it continued to slowly come down maybe 1" per second. A tiny bounce in the saddle and the hitch locked.

I think that I will go and practice tying this hitch a few time to make sure that I have it down.

I didn't think that I would ever use the feature of being able to move the hitch up the line and away from the harness. But since I have found that I can pull down on the line and advance the hitch, I have been sliding the hitch up the line and using my arms to pull up. One of the main reasons that I am climbing is for exercise and this pulling with the arms is a good quick workout.
 
I got in another climb today with this system. Climbing is easy and fast now. I am either going to have to find a taller tree or climb my practice tree a few times to get the workout that I want.

I am still refining the system and making minor changes. Maybe by next week I will have everything like I want.

I just love that Michoacan hitch. It just works great with my hitch line and main line.
 
Just be careful not to rely totally on your arms. The more you can incorporate your legs in ascent the better. A full body work out so to speak. The easiest way is with ascenders. Maybe you use ascenders already and we're just commenting on the arm workout. Just thought I'd make sure.
 
True, Mac. Not to make this a DdRT/SRWP thread, but solid fundamental skills should be part of every climber's repertoire. If you want to load up with gear, go ahead... just know what to do otherwise.

jwp, should you stick with this long enough, I feel you'll reach some "ah-ha" moments at which you'll discover ways to accomplish things that once required gear.
 
Thanks for the comments. I had been climbing with a blakes hitch and prusik foot loop. I recently started using an e2e, hitch pulley, foot ascender and knee ascender. So I am learning with this new system.

I agree that it is good to be able to climb without all the great equipment. If I can ever develop enough strength, then I will try to climb with my arms and legs to see if I can develop those skills.

I like getting a little workout as I climb. The key word is little. I am going to take it slow and easy and hope for the best.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

New threads New posts

Back
Top Bottom